hello everyone,

I was hoping to describe a scenerio I've been dealing with, give you my assessment of the situation and get some feedback.

My dog aggressive 2 year old female bully mix gets very amped up and excited when our neighbor's dog is let outside, because, everytime that dog is out it barks incessantly. Gypsy (my dog) runs from window to window growling with hackles raised from neck to tail. I've come a long way with her since we rescued her last year, she came to us with TREMENDOUS prey drive, ball drive and quite aggressive with non-submissive female dogs. I'm not sure how to handle this situation though. My understanding is that high level obedience can be obtained through "frustration" techniques, ie. ball drive can be enhanced by witholding a high value ball and allowing the dog to play with the ball on a limited basis(sorry for the very basic example). Is this essentially what's happening with my dog and it's dog aggression. Is it being frustrated by my neighbor's dog's barking therefore increasing it's "drive" to get a piece of it?

So, do I negativly reinforce? Do I redirect to a toy (that has worked well when we're outside).

Thanks everyone in advance!
matt

I am not a trainer, so will let wiser people comment mostly. But, I would think you'd treat this behavior the same way you'd treat fence fighting. It seems to me to be the same sort of thing as fence fighting, anyway. You may have to put a line on your dog indoors so as to be able to stop her when she starts getting 'amped up'.

so a correction from her e-collar would be the proper method?

Gosh, Matt. I hate to answer, I am not a trainer. But, if an E-Collar correction is what you do for fence fighting, then I'd have to say yes. Would one of the pros please chime in here?

I have Ed's dominant dog video. He works on a dog with a similar problem, using an e-collar. It's amazing how fast it works. If you don't have that video, get it, but yes I think the e-collar will work. You could even use a prong because I'd still have a long line on that e-collar.

OK, just to be clear, when the dog next door starts barking I should administer a mild correction at the moment she acknowledges the barking dog (ie. looks that direction), and probably a greater correction for a greater "acknowledgement" (ie. runs to window, hackles up and growling)?

If your on good enough terms with your neighbor, try asking them if they'll work with you on this. Try to get them to make a phone call when they are going to let there dog out so you can be prepared with a long line and a prong. Nothing wrong with using an e-collar if you know how. Your dog needs to understand that you are the pack leader real well. You'll know when you get there because you'll be able to tell her to stop it or however you want to say it and she'll obey simply because you said it. I had a similar problem with my female shepherd who is a dominant dog. I used a lot of o/b training to accomplish this and it worked real well. My girl is still a dominant dog but I have brakes now.

thanks everyone for the great info!

matt