Streetlife

Maybe the best approach will be to find a solution for the puppy's barking, rather than what's causing it.  That. at least, might be under your control.

I know that's not much of a help.

actually he doesn't bark during the day so you're right - that's not much help. 

The problem here is the foxes... and their nocturnal activities screeching rutting etc and generally yelling for their cubs, or maybe it's this year's cubs as the weather has been so warm early - thinking caps back on please !

There's not much you can do about foxes.  They roam and make noise.  So you might have to consider short-term measures with the dog, like being strict, or muzzling him for a week until he gets used to the noise, or putting him in a room where he can't hear the noise.  All I was saying is the easiest way might be to deal with the dog rather than the foxes.

On the bright side, Winter is when they mate and when they make most noise.  Now (coming on Spring), they're probably ready to find a den to have their cubs and so it will be quieter.

how about shooting a few?

Janie

I had a fox that took a liking to my garden and as they are very territorial I wanted him to move on.  I bought two machines (I think they were called Foxwatch) from the garden centre opposite Wandsworth prison.  They emit a noise that foxes dislike but which we can't hear - after a week or so he left. I occasionally saw him walking along the wall at the bottom of all our gardens but he didn't come back into the garden.  I can't remember whether dogs are also affected by the sound so you might have to keep your dog indoors until you get rid of them.

I read male human urine does the trick of keeping foxes away

Janie

I know what you mean.. My dog is 6 and doesn't bark at ANYTHING but she does hate the foxes when they are screeching at 4am!! and does get in a right state. 

I put Washing Powder on the roof of my shed and it seems to have worked!! Dont laugh - But when my dog was little I read that you should clean the wee up with washing powder as dogs don't like the smell and it discourages them to do it again - It worked for her - and seems to have worked with the foxes - Obviously have to top it up after rain and put it somewhere the dog can't get to - It also help disguise the smell of the fox pee which can be pretty awful - Worth a go!

Cheers

Denise

Hi Ron R - I should mention I tried the human urine bit - sneaking downstairs with my jar!!! It didn't work!! I did it for a couple of weeks.. Neighbours must have wondered what I was up to !!!

The foxes are currently driving us mad. Waking us and all the neigbours up at 4am and scaring our cats. They sit on our front wall in the day.  I too have read about the make urine. You throw it on their den and then wrap newspaper up and coat that aswell and that is meant to work. The problem is that the den is not in our garden so we can't do that!  One attacked one of our cats a few years back, really nasty attack on our cats next.  he survived but had fifiteen stitches! I wish they would go so any other suggestions much appreciated. I have just read the reviews on foxwatch on amazon and it was not rated.

yup I'm trying a sonic fox scarer now (perhaps this will work over time) - have put the dog in the room furthest from the garden at night (though this won't work if the foxes are round the front and they often are) - and am inclined to try the washing powder trick (see above as this is cheap and cheerful)  though we had experts in to spray around our garden shed with an ammonia based product (new) which doesn't see to have worked - I imagine that is meant to work similar to the urine basis (see above) - just don't want cubs in the garden again - had that one year and our old cat had a nervous breakdown and wouldn't go off the deck all summer.... let alone the mess, and destructive digging

Hi Janie

I seem to remember that you use Washing powder because it DOESNT have ammonia as that encourages urinating.. If you have them sitting on your wall I would just put the washing powder there to start and see if notice a difference - they have certainly stopped pooping on our shed roof and we haven't heard anything for the last week - so probably time for a top up after the rains

These 2 Streetlife conversations from last year may prove helpful, Janie:

• http://www.streetlife.com/4e9abc76f97ab51dc3000a10/?r
• http://www.streetlife.com/4e9ab8b7f97ab51dc30001ce/?r

Good luck!

The various councils in London should be forced to cull foxes, they are vermin spreading disease, and killing domestic animal such as rabbit, guinea pigs etc

you can call and pay some fox exterminator who will come and get rid of them

( i am well aware that I am not making friends among the "animal support at all cost society")

Tracey those previous threads Very Useful... Now I know why my Urine trick didn't work..... It has to be Male - I was probably sending out all the wrong smells ... How funny!

Just in case Cure By Nature's comment seems to pass without comment...... Foxes are not vermin, they are a wild animal which has as much right to live in this world as any animal.  We, as humans, sometimes tend to think we are superior, that the world belongs to us and that we have dominion over all creatures on it and that we can choose which animals we call 'vermin' (or whatever) and destroy them as we wish.  And it is that sort of thinking that has brought us into ecological crisis.

It seems an odd choice of pseudonym if you dont mind my saying so Cure By Nature given your views on  Extermination.  It is also perplexing to me how we are willing to exterminate rats and mice  but not  foxes and badgers.  How we are kind to Horses dogs and cats whilst behaving barbarically to pigs sheep and cows.  We love whales and scoff tuna and all the while think of ourselves as compassionate logical even spiritual beings.

Foxes are beautiful animals in the wild, and I am against fox hunting, and hunting in general; but there is also a harsh reality: wild animals in an urban environment are a double negative: it is bad for the animal, and it is bad for the people living in the city.

The foxes that you see here are disease ridden, and look sick, they have nothing to do  with foxes in the wild; so choices have to be made; eventually, the fox population in London will reach a critical point, and they will have to be culled, so by doing it early, less foxes will be destroyed.

Nicholas is right, we seem to have different relationship with different animals, that is because we use them for different purpose: company and leisure, work or food

Re Cure By Nature's comments; I understand foxes adapt their reproductive cycle to the amount of food available to the group. The more food left out by householders in insecure bins and by restaurants the more foxes we get.

Shooting foxes just allows the food to be shared by a smaller group and they breed faster.

A big effort reducing the amount of waste food accessible to foxes is the only way to go.

Foxes in towns do not look sick or disease ridden.  They look like foxes, unless you see them with prejudiced eyes.  I had a family of foxes over the back last year and my garden has been a regular haunt ever since I remember.  Sometimes they are incovnenient and noisy.  But sometimes humans are inconvenient and noisy.  Believe me, if we did not have urban foxes, we would have far more rats around and then the moaning would really start...

Hello again, Caroline; have you ever seem foxes in the wild? I can assure you they look different, and healthier.

Foxes do not have any effect on the rats population, this is a complete fallacy.

Old dog your reasoning is all wrong even if you do not eradicate them completely, it is a good idea  to reduce the population as much as possible, even in favorable conditions, it takes time for them to reproduce.

In the seventies and eighties, Rabies was moving forward from Russia and Eastern Europe  to Belgium, France, and Spain

Only when  Foxes were culled systematically did Rabies receded

Foxes do spread diseases through flees, ticks and other parasites, fecal matter, urine etc; they attack or contaminate domestic animals.

But there is no rabies in this country, so why mention it?  My cat has fleas and a friend's dog got ticks and my cat s##ts and pees and so do dogs.  Come to that, so do humans.  Cat faeces spread toxoplasmosis and dog faeces spread toxocariasis.  Foxes may attack domestic animals but I have seen my cat attack a fox.  I have seen cats being chased by dogs and dogs chasing and attacking other dogs.  I have seen humans attack humans.  None of this makes a fox a vermin.

I used rabies as an example of how fox spread disease in Europe, for more info about foxes disease in the uk, try

http://www.pestgo4u.com/The-Urban-Fox-and-Disease%281503334%29.htm

or go to: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1373857/Deadly-urban-fox-disease-spreading-dogs.html

Oh yes, if it's in the Daily Mail, it MUST be true!  They are well known for never spreading health scares, aren't they?  Thank God you pointed it out to us, Cure By Nature.  Must go now as all the local cats, dogs (and humans) have just started foaming at the mouth .....

that is prejudice: Robin, the Daily Mail can and do report factual information as well as the sensational stories, I have seen some crap articles in the Guardian as well.

Anyway, the hard fact is that we, human have disturbed the environment so much that foxes are now multiplying in urban area because their natural habitat has been taken away from them; I like foxes in the wild, but in a city, our children must be protected from disease and (so far unfrequent) attacks form foxes. If we allow foxes to continue to reproduce at the current rate, there will be an awful lot of trouble.

I paid a £1200 vet bill 4 years ago after my 12 year old cat was attacked by one of the foxes that regularly pass through my garden. The cat died. I contacted Wandsworth Council to see what they could do about the foxes, and they said, I quote: "We don't do foxes".  Classic!  

Every Friday morning I clear up the rubbish and fox crap left after the weekly refuse collection because they've ripped through the bin bags.  I double bag and keep waste food to a minimum but it makes no difference. I'm not sure about the human pee idea - round here foxes even eat nappies.