Fence fighting?

[Fishslayer]

Natalie mentioned this in another thread. I'm assuming there are no swords involved... just dogs & fences...:D

Dingo & Fauna have a friend next property over, Dolly the Weimeraner (SP?) and one of their favorite games is to sprint back & forth along the fence, barking & raising canis.

Is this fence fighting? Or fence playing?

It has occurred to me that this behavior might be part of Dingo's problem on lead. Almost all fenced dogs we encounter go into full "protect the turf" mode when we walk by, and Dingo responds in kind. He actually took me down once when I was caught off guard & off balance. (You'd be surprised at the strength of a 35# Cattle Dog).

He has been doing "better" encountering other dogs on leash, but fenced dogs still make him see red.

Am I encouraging this by allowing the "fence play" with Dolly?

Fauna, our GSD has zero problems on or off lead with humans or other animals.

Rick

[k9diabetes]

I'm no expert... Jack proved that today, which is another story... but I know that with Jack there is anxiety involved. It's not fun for him, especially with the terriers on the west, who bark pretty aggressively.

In Jack's case, he gets very defensive and lunges at the fence, snarling and biting at it and has to be pulled away and he's a nervous wreck during and after. This is a typical fear response with him.

On walks, Jack is anxious when dogs are behind fences. Less so with leashed dogs generally, though some set him off and I'm assuming it's because he senses tension in them.

At the dog park, on the other hand, Jack does great. Main problem there is if he gets overly tired his herding tendencies get obnoxious.

Question to me is whether Dingo is playing or is anxious on his home turf.

Either way, letting him fence run probably encourages him to react the same way when he sees a similar situation out on a walk.

Jack definitely has some reactive tendencies. I'm told he was harassed pretty badly by another dog in his original home so I'm sure that's part of it, plus he's just a lot more high strung than Chris was, not nearly as confident in new situations.

We are thinking about contacting a behaviorist as his anxiety in the backyard is pretty acute. We have three dogs on the west - JRTs - and three on the east - two old English bulldogs and a mutt. The JRTs are completely untrained but the dogs on the other side are very well trained and Jack reacts to them even though they don't bark or do anything to stir him up. All they have to do is approach the fence.

What makes it worse is that Jack doesn't need to see them. He reacts to hearing them from inside the house.

Natalie

[rhodesian46]

My lab pit ( Harley) runs the fenceline as the neighbors have 3 german shepherds. When the neighbors moved in 2 years ago Harley was being very aggressive He would literally bite the wood fence He ended up losing a bottom that way. The sad part of this is my butt hole neighbors refused to socialize Harley and theirs as I offered this suggestion. They never correct these dogs as well. I felt that if they could see each other it would be different. So I had to do something. I got a soda can Filled it with pennies Every time Harley tried to attack the fence I would shake the can and tell him no and to quit. Had to correct my boxer this way They both had to know that this was unacceptable behaviour. After a few months of this they stopped. Now Harley likes to prance up and down the fence line like a deer

[k9diabetes]

I am constantly torn between using something like the penny can or trying to make a positive association... I'm not convinced he's going to make a positive association with it.