Some background: I'm a dog person, son of a veterinarian, avid duck hunter/dog trainer. I really only hunt for my dogs who I have trained myself for 20 years to do amazing things -- multiple marks, long blind retrieves by whistle and hand signals, their obedience is impeccable and automatic. And they (I have only one right now, an 11 yo nearing retirement) are great house dogs as well, earning free rein of the house even while we aren't home, always with the family, love to ride around in the cab of my truck, etc. My labs have been some of the things I've been most proud of and received the most joy from in my entire life.

A little over a year ago my wife and daughter rescued 2 puppies off the side of the road. They were starving and running in traffic, barely weaned. No one claimed them and we decided to keep them, bringing the tally to 3 dogs, 2 cats, and a horse. They are some kind of hound dog/grey hound cross and look like 45 pound whippets. They are quite social and love people and they are smart.

And they are absolutely driving me crazy. I feel no bond to them like I do with the lab(s) because we have no job we do together. And I can't keep them from digging out of my yard to save their lives. My solutions, that I'm putting into play right now, are an underground wire dog fence and finding a "job" the 3 of us can do together. They can't hunt/retrieve, obedience is boring after a while (although I haven't done a great job with that on them -- they can sit/lay down and heal and stay for a short time but that's it and it's not reliable right now) so I'm thinking FRISBEE. Also considering OBSTACLE but I think I can do more with Frisbee and it's more portable. How's that sound?

I need a pep talk and some suggestions because we have taken on a responsibility to these dogs by keeping them and right now I feel like I'm failing them -- in the kennel so they're not a problem isn't a life to me. Wife and kiddo love them and I lost it last night after having to go find them in the neighborhood a-fucking-gain and yelled at the wife that she wasn't doing enough with them and that went over about as well as it sounds like it did (and I virtually never lose my temper with her because she's wonderful to me and doesn't deserve that, that's how frustrated I am with this). Bottom line, it's on me to make this work. The rest of the family loves all of our dogs but the I'm the dog trainer and the things that make/made the labs such good pets was the work I do/did with them to make them good retrievers.