[zorro13]

Well here at my place, I only use the "crate", what I call the kennel actually, as the place to do business mainly. We throw balls and now frisbees, and he likes to run around the yard basically too, this is all done off leash. I train from the get go a strong recall and stay, none of my dogs leave the property, regardless of any distraction. Now, my current dog Zorro, he does have it in his mind to want to visit a cat passing by, to which he gets the 'grunt' of the day, that is any noise that happens to come out of my mouth to get his attention, then he gets a come here, then he gets a 'get in your crate' to which he goes. But, the dog(s) is/are always supervised of course during off leash playtimes. Now that it's getting warmer, I have skunks to tend with at night, as one was in the dog kennel/the crate, and Zorro got sprayed yet again (not recently, this was the last incident last year). So, at night, when I take him out before I hit the hay, I will leash him. Now, if I can get my husband to just do that, all would be well, as both times Zorro got sprayed, my husband was on duty. sigh. But, I started out with long lines on them.

I should've just fenced in the whole yard from the beginning, now that is the plan. Through the years, there are just too many dogs in my little neighborhood that are either breaking their chains or getting out of their fences and wandering around. Because of that, crate/kennel only. There's been too many times when I come home from work late at night, to put my dog in his crate/kennel to do his business, and then some strange dog appears. One night I spent about 20 minutes trying to chase off a dog that is a 'regular' around here, and even a neighbor came out to help as well. Very frustrating when I am trying to get my dog safely in the house. I ended up having to wake up my husband for more help. It's fence the yard time.

Oh, we also go to a park, not a dog park, and to fields to play/walk etc.