Noisy Nighttime Hounds

Sitter Questions, Advice & Chat
1

I’m caring for 3 scent-hound dogs. During the day they are adorable, cuddly, and very good natured. They bark at UPS and that’s about it. :heart_eyes:

They have 24/7 access to a doggie door (opening in a doorway that lets them go in & out as they like.)

This has become an issue because of all kinds of animals outside. So far they have cornered 1 cat, 1 kitten, and an opossum.

A) I’m a little worried about what might happen if a critter fought back.

B) Unfortunately, these incidents happen between 1am & 3am.

C) The houses here are quite close together and they are incredibly loud.

It sounds like a manic foxhunt with an over-caffeinated rat-terrier, a coked-up saluki, and a beagle on methamphetamines.

(Breeds have been changed to protect the guilty parties :laughing:)

They are not recall-trained, but to be fair, hardly any pet whipped into a frenzy by instinct is not going to come when called.

This is the 3rd night of constant rain and of chasing wet dogs through shrubbery to get them inside.

We make sure they had a final potty by 11pm and one of us is typically up by 7:00 a.m. for feeding.

If it was your sit, would you close off access to the doggie door overnight?

Also, what would you tell the HO?

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2

@MissChef it’s great getting up in the middle of the night chasing wet noisy dogs…said no one ever! I bet the HO doesn’t do it. Poor you. Was there nothing in the hand over or the WG about this?

I would lock off the doggy door so they can’t get out at night and tell the HO at the end of the sit you did this because you were worried about their wellbeing if they were attacked by a frenzied animal and you were concerned about upsetting the neighbours with their noise. Surely, they would be ok with that.

3

Most certainly I’d be closing the dog door after their 11pm pee. I can’t believe the owner doesn’t do that either because the neighbours would be really p’d off if not

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4

I would definitely lock the door. If you don’t you will probably be having complaining neighbours added to your problems.

5

+1 to all the above.

Our rescue is a terrier mix of about 35 to 40 pounds and at night he barks a lot when he hears, smells or sees the many deer that feed outside. They eat our landscaping and other stuff, because our house backs to conservation woods and is unfenced. We never let him off leash out there.

At our other house, he’s cornered a cat; chased a fox back outside of the fence (the fox was eating ripe berries within our fencing); and chased a mole onto our swimming pool cover. He also cornered a snake that we don’t think was poisonous. Luckily, my husband got there in time to pull him away.

6

I would lock the doggie door, don’t think the doggies will tell on you :face_with_hand_over_mouth:

7

Yep, we’d lock the doggie door too. It might not stop the barking, though. They might still hear noises and bark… :grimacing:

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8

Are you touch with the HO daily? If Yes, I’d just ask straight up. (Put diplomatically of course)
This is clearly something they do often, possibly every night and what does the HO do? sometimes the HO forgets to mention or is embarrassed and does not know how to bring it up.
We thankfully have not had this problem when we have been on sits with Dogs that can come and go and as they please through a Doggie Door and they are very rural sits with lots of “glorious smells and sounds to spark the attention of the Doggos’s” on these sits they are usually gun/working dogs so recall is a bit hit and miss especially when there’s a few of them. (lol)
However If we did, I would ask the HO if you are not in touch with them everyday, sometimes they are not contactable, then making sure they have been outside and done their business by 11pm sounds fair and then locking the doggie door and setting and alarm and opening it at around 5am-6am sounds fair.
Hope you get it sorted soon, happy sittiing.