Yes I said Lawn mower!!

After 5 days of dry weather and a day of sunshine I decided the lawn could have its first trim of the year ........Poor Monty being only 18 weeks old he has not seen nor heard a lawn mower and he did his "nut" , chased the mower round the garden as I tried in vain to mow and it ended up with me watching him so much I ran over the lead and cut it in two ! so no more mowing today !

anyway my question is how do I best approach the next cut with Monty he chased and barked and jumped and apart from obviously causing him distress it was extremely distracting for me !

My husband said to shut him indoors whilst I do it but as it can take me 1-2 hours to do and I am here alone most days that would be unfair as when ever I go outside he comes too and if I dont take him he throws himself at the french doors until I let him out!

Any Ideas?????

Thanx

Jude

Ask your husband to help you out! :P

I have to admit I had a chuckle when reading this ... hubbies... te he he

Jude I agree with Sammy, ask your husband to mow the lawn next time instead of putting his feet up.. ( I assume that was what he was doing).
best of luck

"whenever i go outside he comes too".......I think the major problem here is not the lawnmower , but the fact that he cant cope without you. dont take him with you everywhere - a well balanced pup should be able to be happy alone for short periods, and it certainly is not cruel to expect and hour or two on his own without crying and jumping at the doors. he needs to learn to be alone for short periods even if you are doing something that he wants to be involved in. As you have seen it is dangerous to have him out there. i suggest a few things......1. work on the seperation anxiety, and teach him to be happy alone. 2. if you really wont be parted from him, tie him up outside so he can watch you, NEVER let him chase the mower, its not safe for either of you. 3. a training class may well help with both problems, if he learns obedience then eventually he will learn not to chase the mower.

Sorry - think that the only answer is to leave him indoors ! Our older dog goes berserk at the lawn mower - he actually bites the wheels as it is going along - not a good idea :( So we shut him inside - he hates it as he is Daddy's little garden helper :) We try him every so often to see if he has calmed down, but he is still the same - he is 4 1/2.

Daisy

Daisy

Monty is my garden helper too!! he digs the holes for my plants , repositions my bulbs and prunes the young shrubs needless to say not always of my choosing! hence him being so miffed if I dont let him out with me !

I am going to try the tying up to watch and see how that goes !

nice to know I am not alone with my garden helper!

jude

Thanks for the advice!

He is not bothered by seperation or with anxiety if I am going out, that doesnt seem to be a problem he happily stays indoors it is when I am out in the garden and he is not allowed out as well , I think the tying him up to watch but not play may be the answer! I shall give that a go.

jude

This may not be the correct way of doing things but it worked for me.

My akita did exactly the same thing with my lawnmower. As mine has a grass collector on the front I just run into her and ignore her - she cannot hurt her self as the blades are out of the way but she soon gets the hint and I get to cut my lawn. Mine was only wanting to play here was this loud thing that I was 'playing' with (pushing!) and she wanted to be involved when I ignored her she eventually started ignoring it. She used to do the same thing with the broom and if I reacted she loved it, now I jsut ignore her and push her out of the way and she leaves it alone.

She needed to come to terms with the fact that not everything I do needs to involve her

mm broom problem ! I have that too and the hoover !

Well I had a second attempt and after a few minutes of the machine sitting switched off on the patio it seemed to lose the interest for Monty..then I started it up , he had a few jumps and dashes towards it, we had a few words about being put indoors & he then settled down to watch me from the patio - a bit like hubby really !

thanx for advice crossing my fingers we have mad eprogress here!

Jude