A little over a month ago we adopted a second dog, Roxie. The woman we got her from had 3 dogs & decided to re-home her. She originally had been adopted by her from the local shelter a year ago (do not know what her background was before the shelter).

She is a pitbull mix (vet thinks she may be mixed with boxer), about 2 to 3 years old, spayed. She gets along fine with our 10 month old dog, Nickie, although we keep them both crated and only allow very short interactions in the house or outside. She knows the basic obedience commands and is a very sweet and affectionate dog. I understand that the first month or so in a new home is a "honeymoon period" so we will see.

My main concern is that when I take her outside to potty, she is immediately on high alert, nose sniffing the air, tail up high, sometimes her hackles are up. Then when she hears one of the dogs next door, she goes ballistic! She tries to run over to the block wall, snarling and barking. I always have her on a dominant dog collar and tell her "no" and when she doesn't stop, I pull her back towards me. This makes her re-direct towards me, jumping up and barking. She is small enough to hold her back away from me (she weighs about 50 lbs). I try to make her re-focus by walking her back and forth in our back yard (yesterday we walked back and forth for 5 minutes and she would not go potty after holding it all night! - just was too concerned about the dogs over the fence that she couldn't even see!)

Last night I again watched the chapter in Ed's Dominant Dog DVD about dogs "fence fighting" but that is where the dogs can see each other. Roxie cannot even SEE the other dog. She seems to be fine when she CAN see other dogs - we had no problem with her at the vets where she saw other dogs and also when we took her to PetsMart the day we got her to buy her wire crate.

I don't want to use the prong collar because I've read here that it may cause worse aggression and put her in a higher drive. At this point, I have not tried to walk her out in the neighborhood because of all the dogs I encounter that are behind fences and block walls.

My thought is that at some point in her life she was in her owner's fenced in yard and another dog jumped into her yard and attacked her (she has a thin scar across her nose, several scars on her belly, and a little notch missing on the side of her tongue).

Any thoughts from anyone?
P.S. My husband simply ADORES her!

Diane, I'm not the best person to respond here, but from my limited knowledge base - have you tried distracting her when you walk her around the property - with treats or toys? Don't know if she has any food drive, but it sounds like you're trying to just correct her for her behaviors and haven't tried any re-directing. Essentially, have you done anything yet that would try to turn her focus away from what she perceives as a threat and get her to just ignore it?

Maybe her actions are too strong/aggressive/defensive for that type of strategy - hope someone else can offer more!

~Natalya

Diane, I would teach her "Leave it". I use it for Andy to stop whatever he is doing. Sniffing, looking,eating grass, anything. I'm not sure how anyone else would do it but I use the prong and a good pop as I give the command. When I say leave it I want him to redirect himself right now. You could start her somewhere she's not already "too alert" to make it easier on her. Not to try and contradict what Natalya said, but in my fenced in yard I dont want to have to spend a lot of time redirecting him and keeping him busy. It's not like when we are out in public, sometimes I want to relax and have him be able to ignore the neighbors. I want to be able to just say leave it and maybe point out a shady spot and make him settle there and thats the end of it.

Natalya,
Thanks for the suggestion - yesterday when I got home from work and took her out in the back yard, I had a few of my homemade liver treats in my hand. She was totally focused on the treats and followed me all around the yard (of course the neighbor's dogs were not out so it wasn't a true test!). Will try the treats every time that I go out back with her.

Steve,
I also will try your suggestion about "leave it". That is one command that I do not know if she has been taught or not. She is such a "soft" dog in the house - obeys instantly to sit, down, crate, etc. but have not had a reason to try "leave it" with her. Will practice that one outside as well.

Thanks to both of you for your help!

Steve, "leave it" is such a great command - I'm sure glad I taught it to our boy! And it could easily be taught with positive reinforcement - the only reason I suggested food instead of collar corrections (especially with a prong) was because Diane mentioned collar corrections were already re-directing Roxie's frenzy at HER. I don't know if a prong would be different, but I was just looking for a way to help her learn without provoking her frenzy. Otherwise, I think we were both suggesting sort of the same thing!

~Natalya