I have a 14 month old Labrador bitch.She has this annoying habit of grabbing the washing off the clothes line in the garden.I had to resort in putting a mesh muzzle on her so she can go outside to wee. S he goes in a sulk and forbides to move when I do this.I will cherish the day when I haven"t got that anguish of watching that she doesn"T sneak out, it"s especially difficult when my son keeps coming in/out of the back door.How do I train her to stop this and is she likely to grow out of it???.

Can you rig up a fence affair to surround the washing line (if it is a rotary one)? Or use a clothes prop to raise the clothes out of reach if it is a 'long line'?
:)

Can you buy a fence affair as I haven"T heard of them.It is a rotary line and there is not much space around it.Thanks for the suggestion.

You could probably make something with bamboo canes and a roll of chicken wire.
:)

I have generations of washing line thieves here at the moment, plus the hound pups I am walking all do it too! Answer is simple, i have taken the rotary line to the tip & put up a long line between 2 trees with a 12 feet prop pole. Still cant hang sheets out as they can just about reach them, but all clothing is safe!

A friends Choc Lab is still doing it at 7! We are convinced she thinks she is helping as she also grabs it out of the washing machine and takes it outside, or are we being too kind. They now use the tumble dryer a lot more!

Good luck!

Hayley

My garden is to small to do that and it will be a eyesore!.Thanks anyway.

Hi, I had this problem years ago with a labx we had for 10 years. I found the only thing to help was lay in wait with the hose and squirt him when he tried to touch it. One of the kids water pistols (with a long range worked wonders as well till he treated it as a game.) If you can stop the dog from seeing you when you do it all the better. NOthing like a cold dousing of water to make them forget about the washing.

Does anybody know a way of training my lab to not do this as using a subsitute clothes line would not be practicle in our garden.please!!!.

My chocky lab also pinches washing off the line, he is very keen on childrens white polo shirts. He also has a thing about dirty underwear that the children leave on the floor, smelly socks, trainers anything with a strong smell!!!