# My Dog Attacks Fence When Neighbor's Dog is Out



## jrdorkin (Mar 4, 2008)

Help! My 4 year old Shih-Tzu/Maltese is having a tough time playing with the neighbors. He is generally good around other dogs, but is a bit skiddish.

We've lived in our house for a year now and I thought our problem would go away, but it hasn't.

Basically, anytime our pooch is out in the yard and the neighbors let their dog out back, things go haywire. Their dog starts jumping on the fence in an effort to play with ours, and then ours goes bizerk, barking and attacking the fence. It takes an extremely firm yell or grabbing him to stop things.

He has gotten splinters in his mouth and is destroying the fence.

I have no idea how to stop this behavior and am all out of ideas. Can anyone help with suggestions to help us out.


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## Durbkat (Jun 26, 2007)

I would only let the dog out when you are there with him and when he is on his leash. If he tries to go for the fence say "ah ah" and redirect his attention towards you and give him a treat and have him do a command. If he knows "come" then you won't have to use the leash as you can just call him back. I would also try to find out when your neighbor lets their dogs out so that your dog won't be out when there's is as the longer this goes on the harder its going to be to break the behavior. 

Has your dog ever been over to their yard to play with them? If not that can sometimes get both dogs to calm down as they would have met each other and played with each other.

Another thing you can do is put up a privacy fence so your dog can't see them.


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## Curbside Prophet (Apr 28, 2006)

The best idea I can think of is setting up a schedule with your neighbor. So that each dog can have access to the yard without concern for the other dog. 

You do not want your dog practicing this behavior, period. 

You may also want to arrange walks with your your neighbor and neighbor's dog, with enough distance between the dogs to prevent aggression. On the walks there should be lots of positive reinforcement for good behavior around the other dog. 

Perhaps it would also be advisable to build a secondary fence a few feet from the original with an opaque cover. 

Playing with the dog in the yard may also change his association to being outdoors. He's not likely to rehearse the behavior if he thinks a game of fetch or tug is not far away. 

And of course, working on attention games, NILIF, and impulse control is a must.


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## jrdorkin (Mar 4, 2008)

Thanks guys . . . I have tried all of these things. The dogs have gone on walks together and are pretty good together. That is the funny thing. When they walk, they are good, but once there is a fence between them, things go nuts!

Any other ideas or thoughts?


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## Durbkat (Jun 26, 2007)

Durbkat said:


> I would only let the dog out when you are there with him and when he is on his leash. If he tries to go for the fence say "ah ah" and redirect his attention towards you and give him a treat and have him do a command. If he knows "come" then you won't have to use the leash as you can just call him back. I would also try to find out when your neighbor lets their dogs out so that your dog won't be out when there's is as the longer this goes on the harder its going to be to break the behavior.
> 
> Has your dog ever been over to their yard to play with them? If not that can sometimes get both dogs to calm down as they would have met each other and played with each other.
> 
> Another thing you can do is put up a privacy fence so your dog can't see them.


Have you tried this?


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## TooneyDogs (Aug 6, 2007)

Barrier frustration is very hard to overcome. You need to be there everytime. You need to be far enough away from the fence for him to listen and respond to you....well before the emotions kick-in. At this stage, you're going to redirect his attention to you..playing fetch (in the direction away from the fence) is one way. You're basically teaching him an alternate/better behavior than attacking the fence and creating a new association...something good.
Next stage is to move closer but again, not so close that the emotional triggers have been pulled and he no longer responds to you. You keep doing the good associations until you can reach the fence without him trying to chew his way through it. This is not easy but, it can be done.


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## poodleholic (Mar 15, 2007)

Tooney said it! Barrier frustration/aggression IS very difficult to overcome. And, as Curb stated, you can't allow it to keep happening. Every time your dog displays this behavior, the behavior is being reinforced, and will be harder and harder to stop/change. It could also very easily carry over to his behaving this way whenever he comes upon another dog, fence barrier or not. Have the neighbor alert you when he's letting out his dog, so you can bring your dog in if he's out, or, wait until the neighbor dog is back in his house. 

Otherwise, you must be out there with your dog, to prevent the barking and lunging from even starting. Once they get in that state, NOTHING else gets through, and, it takes as long as 72 hours to rid the body of the effects of all that adrenalin.


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