WE have two dogs in our road that we have to pass everytime i take the dogs for a walk. One is a GSD who is left in the garden all the time and patrols the length of the fence, which isn't very high and just see through mesh. He barks, growls and lunges at everything that passes. On the pther side there is a yorkie who does the same thing, same type of fence. I have always had a proble with my collie who is scared of big dogs anyway when we walk past the GSD, and she barks and lunges back like a mad thing. We've been here since last july and she still does it and can't be distracted. Murphy the new dog is absolutely terrified of both of these dogs, and despite not seeing meg behave in this way, he has started to d othe same. However he is much bigger and stronger and is difficult to hold. THank god for headcollars. It does however make walks a nightmare, and i actually have to drag murphy out the gate because he is so terrified. WHen we first got him he was fine with other dogs, but this is now scaring him so much that he is barking at other dogs when out. I have to drive to walks because of this, but somethimes this isn't possible. My question is, do you think it is acceptable that these dogs are allowed to do this? THere is never an owner in sight to tell these dogs not to do it. Do you think they are entitiled to do this to protect their property or do you think it is up to the owners to ensure that their dogs don't become a nuisance? My own personal view is that i would not allow my dogs to behave in this manner and if they did i would bring them inside. What does everyone else think? IS there anything i can do to help my dogs get over their fear?

Hi lucyandmeg

i agree with you... i myself had a gsd (passed away january) he wasnt aggressive more scared of his own shadow. he'd been abused before i rescued him. But when we moved to scotland a few years ago he too started barking at anyone or anything going past my house. obviously i am resposible for my dogs and i certainly did not tolerate this behaviour. i bought him an aboistop collar and after a cpl of weeks he was a changed dog. he didnt bother after that :-)

i am sorry to hear of your problems, and dont have any advice on what to do..... other than maybe distract your dogs with tasty treats or toys as you are going past so that hopefully they dont notice :-)

maybe someone else will have some more helpful ideas.. good luck :-)

Hi lucy and Meg.
I have an 18 mth shar-pei, i hate takeing her out because we have the same problem here, except the 2 dogs in our road walk freely and are not contained in there garden. My dog just has to greet everyone and not always are the other dogs friendly. I find it makes mine worse with them and worried she mite turn.
Jane

Well with loose dogs it is entirely a different matter and you should contact the dog warden who should have a word with the owners.

Hi Brainless, thanks for that, i have had a word to one owner, well a loud word lol. I think it is time to call in the wardens. I always carry treats with me and talk to her to get her attention a way from them.
It does drive you mad when you are a good dog owner and thinkof your neighbours ect.
Jane

I have always insisted that my dogs igtnore dogs barking at their gates or fences when I walk them. 

You need to have a very jolly upbeat attitude.  Very jolly hockey sticks and give them praise and a treat when looking at you.

I always talk to them really cheerfully saying nonsense like Your a good girls then nice polite doggy, it is rude to answer back etc, works well with mine but they are pretty confident.  The youngest would still dearly love to bark back, and this is a breeed that loves to answer back, so it can be done.

Used to do it wiht my freinds Dobes to, and they will ahppily bark at the dogs when their male owner walks them, but I insisted they did not.

I can believe it too....brainless is VERY SCARY :) :)

Shame madam Jozi sees through me :D

Funny situation.  When my daughter started at secondary (a rather rough inner city comp).  We overheard a group of older hard cases talking.  One sadi to his freind, hey remeber to leave that girl alone her mother has a pack of wolves!!!!

Mind you one day without the dogs I intervened when a boy with the back up of much older freinds/relatives was bullying to first year lads.  I told them whatever their problem to take it back into School, or stop intimidating the two boys.  One of them asked who would stop them, and I said I would, and brushed the leg of one asside who was trying to kick the lad.

His response I had no right to touch him!!!  Well I told him I had as much right as he did, and would do what he would.  Strangley but his mates no longer wanted to back him up against a woman, even without her dogs :D

Hi Lucyandmeg we have the same problem with our border the house on the end of the cul de sac owns a large mountain dog which carries on alarming when we pass on one occassion it broke out of the garden and raced up to us.Since then my border goes balistic every time we pass even when they are on holiday he still sees their house as a threat I have tried to distract him with treats and toys but he does not want to know.
Later this year we are getting a rottie pup and i am concerned he will pick up the behaviour from the Border and due to his size compound the problems we already have.
We do attend obedience classes once a week which as helped regarding meeting other dogs when we are out good luck in overcoming this infuriating problem

good evening i have two dogs living next door to me and they are crazy when let out they bark at everything and they pace the fence all the time,i have two blue merle pups and if i let them out the two next door go dippy the barking from these two dogs is so frightning and what happens mine start to bark back but i dont tolerate this from mine anymore i used the hose pipe just a quick squirt and it stopped so now everytime my neighbour lets hers out and mine are out already i only have to stand by the hose and they know not to start challenging the two dogs next door in a barking competition,i agree with you totally some dogs have no guidance on how to behave all they know is to bark because they have not been corrected

I think it's fairly acceptable for such dogs to behave like this on some remote farmstead -after all, dogs used to be a good deterrent - but not in a normal street environment.

It is possible to get dogs to walk past such dogs - but it's not easy to do and hard if a dog lacks confidence in itself. My dog can and will walk past others but she knows our "system" if you like ... dogs grumble at her, she looks to me for guidance and gets rewarded. jAlso I have to know what's about to happen, if we are taken by surprise any dog includig mine will lunge back or get frightened just out of sheer surprise/defence.  Agree with Brainless, you need a jolly attitude and to be very upbeat. It won't be easy to train your dogs to ignore these dogs, if you have to expose them every day, and your guys are getting worse quite understandably. The adrenalin will be kicking in as sooon as you pick up the lead and will possibly continue on into the walk. It won't help them with meeting and greeting other dogs after this ordeal.

I wouldn't pull a dog out of the gateway because dogs have to trust the owner and knowingly putting a dog through such an ordela isn't good leadership and can lead to general trust issues imo. I think you are wise to drive to walking areas...do you intend to speak to the owners of these dogs? :)

Horrible situation for you.

Best wishes
Lindsay
X

I agree with Brainless -Lots of upbeat chatter and titbits - I have a gobby dobe and an even gobbier JRT -I can get the dobe past without any backchat -still struggling with the JRT tho' lol :D

Carry a water spray with you,and if apropiate, a quick spray of water might do you and everyone else that walks by some good. The shock of a quick spray of water through the fence might just stop them running and barking at the fence. When i walk along the cannal, i come across the same situation, 2 scotties left all day in a back yard, with a very rickety fence,they only have to see me coming now, and they just sit there and watch me and my dogs go by.I have never once seen the owner of these dogs.

jackie

Lindsay, i can't really talk to the GSD owner. I'm afraid they are not the sort of people you can reson with. We have only been here since july last week. (and last week was the first time i actually saw the dog go out for a walk with its "owner", well a 10 year old girl. God knows how she can control him, i struggle with murhpy and hes much smaller.) THe other dogs owner is not someone we particularly like owing to the fact that she took in our cat and kept her there without informing us and actually only told us when the cat was dying from cancer.
So i'm a bit stuck. I have bought murphy a headcollar today so that i can control him better, but at the moment theres no distracting him. He starts to whine as soon as we get near these houses, hes terrified. FOr that reason i am reluctant to use aversives. If these were my dogs barking in the garden i would put up a proper wooden fence so that the dogs can not see through, or jump over.

Going from what you have said and knowing what I know about Meg, I would seriously consider avoiding this situation completely. If it is possible to drive to walks then do. On the occassions it is not I would exercise their minds indoors. Do you go to an agility club or something similar? If so they can get plenty of exercise there safely. Bcs are not easy to retrain. Once they have got an idea in their head it takes a very experienced handler to get it out and even then it is not always possible. The saying goes, bcs are quick to learn but they learn the wrong thing just as quickly as the right and are twice as hard to correct. If my dogs were that stressed over facing something I personally would not make them face it. It will only make them, especially Meg, worse.

Good luck

P.S. I would actually report these people to the police because even though they are in their own territory they do not have the right to terrorise people and dogs walking past and it sound as though they are not very securely fenced in. Try it, you never know...

Hopefully, reporting the owners to the police might work but from past experience it is doubtful.  We are in a similar position although at one point it was much worse.  Our next door neighbours allowed their dogs out loose.  We had to walk past their property to get off our drive and their dogs had us and our dogs (who were on leads) pinned up against our gates every day when we went out and they would run out at us on our way back. 

We tried dog wardens and police but none wanted to get involved because our right of access crossed the land of the neighbour. They don't want to get involved when private property is an issue.  We spoke to the neighbours countless times and all they said was that their dogs wouldn't bite!!  It sure scared the heck out of us though as one went in to nip our dogs back legs if we tried to force our way past. At first ours used to ignore them but after a while they started barking and lunging back in defence.  It was a nightmare.

Eventually, after seeing the awful affect on our dogs, aswell as on us, we took legal advice.  We had a legal right of way and had to be allowed to use it without menace.  What the neighbour was doing amounted to 'menace' and he had to control his dogs by law.  Our solicitor told us that if this neighbour continued to allow his dogs to menace us it could be classed as harrassment which now is a criminal offence.

After that he chained the dogs up right next to a low wall which we pass and the dogs continue to bark, growl, snarl and try to jump the wall every time we pass.  At least they can't get us anymore.  Unfortunately, no-one was able to make him move the dogs further away as they are now confined to his land so I think getting authorities to infer will be pointless for this person.

It took a long time for us to get our dogs to walk past when the other dogs are out.  As soon as we open our side gates to come out the neighbours dogs kick off and ours don't realise that they are no longer loose.  We had to be very positive in our handling of our dogs to undo the damage but it can be done.   

we have a similar situation, at the end of our road there are 3 pitbulls looses in a garden, they seem to come from nowhere when you walk past !  At least I wont have to go that way with our new puppy, but people are terrified to walk pat them, they are also the sort of people you wouldn`t want to talk to !