Fence Aggression

[erin_ohagan]

A little background on my girl Dublin since it's been a while since I posted a question: She is a BC mix (Not sure what she is mixed with. Mom was BC and dad was roving neighborhood lothario). She was rescued at 5 months from a dog hoarder who had two mama dogs and their 17 puppies in an outdoor kennel. She was in foster for a month and I got her at 6 months old. She will be 18 months old on the 26th of this month.

She is SUPER dog friendly....loves other dogs most of the time. The gals at her doggie daycare talk about how she plays all day long with everyone. At dog parks she is awesome. I have fostered other dogs for short periods and she has done great. I have dog-sat for friends at my place and she has done great. There are even dogs in the neighborhood who come over for play dates.

 

However. When a dog she doesn't know walks past our yard she goes bat-$#!+ crazy at the fence line. On both sides of our house there are dogs who live in yards that abut our yard with fences separating them. She HATES them. Sight unseen. She has gotten into "fence fights" with both of them.

 

Additionally, on walks with her, she often gets her hackles up and growly/barky at other dogs through the fence. If we see a dog who's being walked (not behind a fence) she's eager to meet and get to know that dog and is really friendly. So, I don't think this is leash aggression. I am 99.9 percent sure that on walks, she mostly just scared of fence-aggressive dogs because if I pull her up right next to me and don't give her the length of the leash and then put myself between her and the other dog behind the fence, and reward her for calming herself down, she does better. She is also fine with friendly dogs behind the fence (for example there is a big white fluffy dog who does the play bow/tail wagging thing through the fence and we can walk past that house just fine). Some of the fence-aggressive dogs we used to walk past with issues are less of an issue now. But it's like she doesn't realize that the dogs behind the fence can't actually get her.

So, my questions are:

1. Am I right about it being fear when we are on walks? Am I doing the right things with her on walks?

2. What is going on with her own particular fence issues at home? Is this a territory thing?

It's just so weird because she just loves other dogs so much of the time and has even had other dogs into the yard and she has done great.

 

Thanks for any advice in advance!

[highway61]

Grisha Stewart covers fence aggression pretty well in her BAT Book: Baehavior Adjusment Training (although she suggests treating the dogs behind the fence as you walk by, I wouldn't go that far but still some other great ways to deal with this).

[Sekah]

Are you familiar with Premack? Here's a video to get you started. Youtube has an assortment that you can use for reference if you search "premack" and "fence fighting".

 

 

BAT is also another good way to approach this. I don't necessarily think that it's fear-based, but I would wager that it's excitement/anxiety based which shares much in common with fear and they can look very similar. Outside of the home I would put as much distance as possible between my dog and the dogs behind the fence and reward with food every step of the way. You can incorporate some low-cost high-reward type behaviours like hand targets and eye contact, 'look at that', etc as you pass too.

[Scoutthebc]

Excellent video, Sekah!