fence fighting

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Postby carryallsmom » February 24th, 2009, 9:40 am

This is a new problem that has popped up. Next door to me are two Yorkies and a Beagle. As soon as they hear my back door shut they start their horrible yapping. I have a privacy fence, but they are right there on the other side. Snickers ignored it for 3 months. Now, she is getting all riled up and barking back. I am afraid she might be getting too riled up. I bring her in, or the neighbors bring their dogs in. But they are outside far more than my dog. I hate having to constantly watch when I can let her out (to do her business). Has anyone successfully dealt with fence fighting? Snickers is not a barker. Their dogs ALWAYS start the barking. If they were just out and didn't bark, Snickers would ignore them. :?
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Postby LMM » February 24th, 2009, 10:45 am

Any possible way you can do a meet and greet with the dogs? Maybe let them sniff each other and get to know one another.
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Postby carryallsmom » February 24th, 2009, 12:54 pm

She can't see the dogs through the fence, so if she met them she might not know it's them on the other side. Anyway, she could probably meet the Beagle, but the Yorkies would be crazy. They would pull and bark towards her and I think that would make her aggressive.
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Postby katiek0417 » February 24th, 2009, 7:47 pm

carryallsmom wrote:She can't see the dogs through the fence, so if she met them she might not know it's them on the other side. Anyway, she could probably meet the Beagle, but the Yorkies would be crazy. They would pull and bark towards her and I think that would make her aggressive.


I think she may rely on her sense of smell...dogs don't need to "see" something to know who/what it is...

Is she dog aggressive? Even if they pull and bark towards her if they provide other body language cues, and she doesnt' see it as aggressive, then she maybe fine...
"Rumor has it, compulsion is evil."

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Postby carryallsmom » February 24th, 2009, 8:50 pm

My dog looks like she is dog aggressive (no tail wagging, except to people), but so far every dog she has met she has been fine with. She is just not very relaxed. But she seems to love meeting and greeting. Most people with small dogs go far around us, because of her breed. At the Vets she did seem to want to get one dog. But it was a stressful situation. She had had her e-collar on for 2 weeks and her and I had both had it, with it. I will mention it to my neighbor. I thought the Beagle might be best because she is a slow moving dog. But if my neighbor is willing, we can give it a try. Unfortunately, his dogs bark at me too.
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Postby katiek0417 » February 24th, 2009, 9:30 pm

carryallsmom wrote:My dog looks like she is dog aggressive (no tail wagging, except to people), but so far every dog she has met she has been fine with. She is just not very relaxed. But she seems to love meeting and greeting. Most people with small dogs go far around us, because of her breed. At the Vets she did seem to want to get one dog. But it was a stressful situation. She had had her e-collar on for 2 weeks and her and I had both had it, with it. I will mention it to my neighbor. I thought the Beagle might be best because she is a slow moving dog. But if my neighbor is willing, we can give it a try. Unfortunately, his dogs bark at me too.


I would try it with the beagle first....but I would also take the dogs to a neutral location (not on your property, and not on your neighbor's)...

However, even if those dogs get barky at the fence, you may still have to de-sensitize Snickers to it so she doesn't react to their actions...A solid leave it is what i use with my dogs...
"Rumor has it, compulsion is evil."

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Postby airwalk » February 24th, 2009, 9:49 pm

Boy do I understand this one. Magic loves to fence fight with the evil pugs that live behind us and the evil pugs sit at the fence and call him out. They talk smack bad.

We are working on it - everytime he goes out and begins, I get out there as quickly as possible and recall him (most of the time he comes) - if he comes we go through a couple of quick obedience commands ( a simple sit and down) then he's commanding in and we try it again.

If he doesn't come immediately he is given a leave it - which sometimes works and sometimes doesn't - I've been known to hit the fence near him with a tennis ball to distract him (although I've been tempted to hit him, I haven't yet).

I am considering a citronella collar to see if that will cause sufficient distraction from the pugs to get him to stop.

I feel your pain.
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Postby katiek0417 » February 24th, 2009, 10:17 pm

airwalk wrote:Boy do I understand this one. Magic loves to fence fight with the evil pugs that live behind us and the evil pugs sit at the fence and call him out. They talk smack bad.

We are working on it - everytime he goes out and begins, I get out there as quickly as possible and recall him (most of the time he comes) - if he comes we go through a couple of quick obedience commands ( a simple sit and down) then he's commanding in and we try it again.

If he doesn't come immediately he is given a leave it - which sometimes works and sometimes doesn't - I've been known to hit the fence near him with a tennis ball to distract him (although I've been tempted to hit him, I haven't yet).

I am considering a citronella collar to see if that will cause sufficient distraction from the pugs to get him to stop.

I feel your pain.


Diana, if you do try the citronella collar, I'm very interested to know how it works...I had tried it with Nisha, and it didn't work...and I'm not sure why...so, I know that Magic has been your "challenge" and has a ton of drive (like Nisha) so I'm interested in knowing if it works for him...
"Rumor has it, compulsion is evil."

Katrina
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Nisha CGC, PDC, PSA TC, PSA 1 - Crazy Malinois
Drusilla SLUT- Pet
Nemo - Dual-Purpose Narcotics
Cy TC, PSA 1, PSA 2, 2009 PSA Level 3 National Champion
Axo - Psycho Puppy
Rocky - RIP My Baby Boy
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Postby mnp13 » February 25th, 2009, 10:26 am

I used an "air puffer" with Riggs, but one that had a remote instead of being automatically triggered. It worked VERY well with him... then the little fucker ate it. :x
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Postby katiek0417 » February 25th, 2009, 11:02 am

mnp13 wrote:I used an "air puffer" with Riggs, but one that had a remote instead of being automatically triggered. It worked VERY well with him... then the little fucker ate it. :x


Air puffer? Where did you find that?
"Rumor has it, compulsion is evil."

Katrina
Sacha CGC - Dumb Lab
Nisha CGC, PDC, PSA TC, PSA 1 - Crazy Malinois
Drusilla SLUT- Pet
Nemo - Dual-Purpose Narcotics
Cy TC, PSA 1, PSA 2, 2009 PSA Level 3 National Champion
Axo - Psycho Puppy
Rocky - RIP My Baby Boy
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Postby TheRedQueen » February 25th, 2009, 2:36 pm

This is going to be a part management/part training approach.

I have a lot of luck with body blocking when Inara fence fights with the neighbor dogs...plus HUGE rewards for calling off the fence line.

Simply put...I have to manage the situation. At first: If the dogs are out, I either don't let mine out and wait until they are back inside, or I go out with them. If they show any signs of going to the fence, I distract immediately...and offer up a HIGH VALUE reinforcer. For Score, that's his basketball; for Inara, a frisbee; Xander, a tennis ball; Ripley, a treat...and so on. I call their name and get their attention before they've even moved towards the fence. Then I use that reinforcer to keep them with me...away from that side of the yard.

If they blow me off and run to the fence...I run to the fence also, and body block...stopping them in their tracks (Inara and the Aussies RUN the fence while fence fighting). I might add a "NO!" Once I've got their attention again, I reward with that reinforcer and get them away from the fence. If they really can't continue to pay attention to me, they go back in for a time out..."Oops! You got a time out! Yea!"

Along with this management...we do a lot of call-offs from the fence in the yard when the other dogs are not there. Lots of name calls with HVR (high value reinforcers) given when they come to me). Building on that reinforcement history...coming to you should always be a good thing...and often a GREAT thing. ;)

And...I agree with talking to your neighbors about the situation. Perhaps a meet-n-greet would be good...perhaps not. If everyone is really reactive, this may not be the best situation. But...what you can do is to talk to the neighbors about how you'd like to set it up where they bring their dogs in for a while during the "busy times" for all of you to be home and letting your dogs out. Don't get annoyed, just talk civilly about both of you checking the yards before just letting the dogs out. That's what I did...and it worked well. I also got to know both sets of neighbors and dogs, and started working on training their dogs as well. So I got the okay to reward both sets of neighbor dogs. I treat or praise or pet them when I'm out and they're quiet.

It's not an overnight thing, but it can work with a multi-pronged effort! :wave2:
"I don't have any idea if my dogs respect me or not, but they're greedy and I have their stuff." -- Patty Ruzzo

"Dogs don't want to control people. They want to control their own lives." --John Bradshaw
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Postby mnp13 » February 26th, 2009, 11:38 am

katiek0417 wrote:
mnp13 wrote:I used an "air puffer" with Riggs, but one that had a remote instead of being automatically triggered. It worked VERY well with him... then the little fucker ate it. :x


Air puffer? Where did you find that?


The Spray commander

http://www.dog.com/item/spray-commander ... ng-collar/

I got the non-smelly spray, so it was basically an air puff. I rigged it so that it would spray though the front of his crate. It helped a LOT with his barking because we could control the correction.
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