Dogs & Wildlife: What To Do When Your Dog Chases Wild Animals

We have a fenced-in backyard. We're talking a 6-foot privacy fence.

Yet somehow, wildlife manages to venture into our enclosed yard and taunt our dogs -- year after year.

Let's see... to date, we have dealt with:

• a half-a-dozen or so frogs & toads ...which I'm terrified will poison the dogs if they get just one lick, not to mention a mouthful of toad.




• a skunk ...that was seeking refuge under our big air conditioning block -- had to deal with this one during a late-night potty break, and it took a water hose on full blast to scare it out from under there. (Fortunately no one got skunked!)




• a mama bird ...that chooses our toasty warm dryer vent as the place to make her nest and hatch her eggs each Spring. Only problem: the dryer vent is up high, and comes out the side of our house. It must be at a downward slope too, because each year one or two of the eggs always fall out and land on the ground -- cracked. (A tasty breakfast treat for dogs... they're very small blue eggs.)


• a million and one other birds ...that enjoy the neighbor's bird feeders, and choose our tall fence as the place to digest their food (and leave their droppings!). Our dogs both have a lot of Black Lab in them, and they seem to be excellent bird dogs. They eye the birds from a distance, then slowly creep up on the ones sitting on our fence. At the precise moment, they then charge ahead full-speed & scare the birds away.





• the occasional mack-daddy-sized grasshopper ...which fascinates the dogs for hours. They'll just lay in wait, watching a grasshopper's every move -- without causing it any harm.




• a gazillion or more Japanese beetles ...which, until this year, have been completely ignored by our dogs. But for some reason, little Tenor has chosen to test his bug-snatching abilities on as many Japanese Beetles as he can catch. (He's dead-on accurate, too!) Now he serves as a canine flyswatter in the house.




• squirrels & chipmunks galore ... enough to send our 3-year-old Black Lab-Golden Retriever mix into a salivating, body-trembling, mad barking frenzy just about each and every day.




• a family of rabbits ...a mama and her babies have made our backyard garden their home this summer. We're still dealing with this one! (Here's the story.)

Oh, and did I mention the crawfish? I have no idea where that one came from, because we don't live anywhere near water. I would have to assume that one of the above mentioned birds whisked it away and dropped it off in our yard. Probably in the bird's haste to exit the premises before being swarmed by some Japanese beetles, licked by a nasty toad, pounced on by a backyard bunny, carried up a tree by a squirrel, or worst of all -- skunked!

...All likely occurrences in and around our quiet suburban backyard!

I can't wait until we move to our new house in the beautiful countryside... There are bound to be many episodes featuring deer vs dog and dog vs turkey!

For the record, here's what you should do if your dog has a run-in with some form of wildlife.

No need to panic... many dogs actually "make friends" with creatures from other species. Here's a tribute to some interspecies relationships that have lasted. (Here too.)

Then again, some don't...