I searched frantically to find someone to help my husband and I and I found this site and read almost all of it...

Dear Dr. Frawley:

I searched frantically to find someone to help my husband and I and I found this site and read almost all of it. This will probably be long but in order to get some help I must explain my situation to you in detail.

We have three dogs. One dog is fine and we got her first. She is a small-medium mixed breed, bull dog mix with very light brown eyes.. Someone dumped her off and she is very loving and loves everyone vice versa. But she likes to kill any creature that comes in the yard and has been known to kill cats with other dogs in the neighborhood. I would like that to stop but that is not my main concern. She loves people of any kind and they love her, so I am not that afraid for her or anyone else except for a skunk or possum that comes in the yard. If it does it dies. We have two cats and she hasn't shown any interest in killing them. She just chases them.

I have two other dogs and they are too mixed breeds and they were dumped out at the end of our road and I found them. They were about two months old. Now they are two years old and they are over 60 pounds. One looks just like a yellow lab and is very unconcerned about people coming in the yard. She will bark but that is it. She stops and lays down once the newness wears off. She has arthritis and she doesn't get up much. Now the problem dog, Belle. This dog is so humble and sweet around my husband and I and she even scares easy. My other dog makes her cower down to her. We had to get a training collar because she would bark in children's faces when we let her out and when we went walking. Now she knows the come command and that has helped tremendously and now she knows not to go up to people when we go walking. She is now uninterested in them when we walk and very obedient. We had to purchase an underground fence as well and that has worked for almost one year to the day and it has been a God send until today. She has been getting out without me knowing it and coming back in when she sees me come outside. My neighbors knew this but thought I knew so didn't tell me. She is very smart because she doesn't get out when I am outside and it is mostly at night or the morning. The batteries were dead in her collar so I replaced them and thought for sure she would stay in but she got out again. I did a quick reminder for her from the boundaries and the collar. well, she got out again and I made her come back in with the collar on. She didn't want to but I pulled her across and she yelped. But the times she goes out I don't hear her do that. I am confused about that. That is one of my questions. Her sibling doesn't even get close to the fence. But she does. I have the collar on tight. Too tight I think but when I pulled her across with her collar she yelped and it makes me think the connection is not good between the prongs and her neck therefore she is getting out. But the collar is on really tight. Any suggestions?

Now the main problem is with her behavior. It seems that when my mother and grandmother comes to visit she is fine now, but she use to jump at them and bark at them. But now she doesn't even get up most of the time, and if she does she just sniffs and wags her tail, not one threat. She doesn't even bark at them anymore. They only come about once every three months. Now the neighbors. When I go on a walk with her she is fine with people talking to me. I tell her no if I think she is getting too close but she never acts aggressive anymore, she just sniffs and goes on. No barking no nothing. But when she is in the yard that is another story, the same neighbor will come up and she goes crazy even without them coming in the yard. They maybe almost in the yard but she can't reach them because of the fence. I found her out of the fence this morning and she had cornered my neighbor at the mail box. I told her to come and she did. The neighbor said when the other dogs barked she got worse and started barking and biting at her. She also nipped at her grand daughter on the bike the other night. I was not told of this until today. She hates bikes too and she chases trucks inside the fence too. But when we go walking she doesn't chase trucks nor bikes. The UPS man told me that she is bad only when I am here in the house. He said that when I am gone she doesn't even get up to bark. But she is really mean when I am here. The meter reader said that as long as I don't come out she is fine but she does bark but doesn't jump towards him. Also when we have company or strangers comes up she barks and jumps at them. Not as bad as the UPS man though. What can I do to stop this behavior? We don't want to put her to sleep. Can we use the training collar to help this, if so, how? We are very afraid. I have her in the back yard in the fence now because I am afraid to let her out now. She has only gotten out a couple of times before but it was only because her collar was too loose. She had losened it somehow. She is not happy in the fence and I can't stand to see her shut up the rest of her life. Do you have any suggestions for us?

I have had Collies and even other mixed breeds in the past and I have never had this much trouble. We are trying to have children and I am a little concerned about what might happen with that situation. Although it seems she is only aggressive with people who don't live here.

Any comments will be deeply appreciated.