Hi everyone,
I have been reading many of the posts here and have to say I really love how much heart everyone here has for dogs.

My name is Jessica and I have a GSD and two Bull terriers that were rescued and I bottle raised since they were 10 days old. The Bullies are now just over 9 months old.

My question is with one of the bullies(Mocha). All of my dogs are indoor/out door dogs and get along well with anyone who comes to visit. They all sit, down, etc. , but my situation is this:

Mocha loves to bark at the kids and adults that cross the lower half of our yard(we are planning to fence the rest of this in the future), usually this is her with her ears up, tail curled, front end crouched, and a high pitched puppy bark, except with my immediate neighbor.

I have caught her hitting the chain link fence and yelling at Mocha, now when Mocha sees her outside(even on her property) it's a different attitude.

Either it is the same stance with a deep bark, or with hackles raised.

I have spoken to this neighbor before it got to this point and asked her not to hit the fence, yell at her or dangle things over the fence(her oldest son was doing this). I actually had to put a lock on the gate to keep the neighbor hood kids out.

I think my main problem is a neighbor problem, but now turned into a dog problem. She used to play with mocha when she was a smaller pup. They do have a Chihuahua that they have teased to fury. He will actually bite if engaged.

Aside from building an inner and outer fence, is there anything I can do to stop Mocha's now aggressive behavior? I hate the stigma that bullies generally get, and we try to educate our friends and guests on this breed as well as show responsible dog ownership, I don't want a disaster situation.

I am expecting my first Dog obedience video from Leerburg on Wednesday and hoping this might eventually help some also.


Sorry for the book, but again I want to keep everyone(including my dog) safe. This is the only person Mocha has ever acted this way with. Any advise would be greatly appreciated.

~Jessica

Hi Jessica, welcome to the board.

I think if I were faced with that type of situation, I would not allow my dogs outside unless I am out there with them. I would also keep a drag line on them so I could correct any aggressive behavior toward people walking by your fence. In your training you will be teaching your dogs that you are the pack leader and that you will not tolerate them overstepping your leadership regardless of what is going on around them.

Since your neighbor is an idiot, and has no clue that teasing a caged animal is abuse, I’m not sure if there is anything that you could say to them to get them to stop teasing your dogs. I would make every effort to talk with them and explain that you are training your dogs to be safe social animals and that you have noticed that your dog is showing aggression when someone hits on the fence. Try explaining that your dogs are still very young and in their learning phase and you need his/hers help in not hitting or dangling anything over the fence since the dog perceives this as a threat and it is interfering with your training. Maybe if you approach them as a friend and neighbor enlisting their help, they might be more willing to stop teasing your dogs. JMO

Good Luck,

Thanks Peggy
I really didn't think about the drag-line in this case. I have been keeping Mocha in the house more in the evenings to limit exposure.

"In your training you will be teaching your dogs that you are the pack leader and that you will not tolerate them overstepping your leadership regardless of what is going on around them."

I agree totally. Although I don't want to squash her drive or protective nature, I doubt this is protectiveness. She isn't growling and totally vicious looking, but I want to nip this in the bud before it becomes a very aggressive situation. I have thought about video surveillance for when I cannot be home to see if it is still going on. Sometimes I have to commute to work, making for very long days and keeping Mocha in the house would just be cruel. The other two just avoid the fence line altogether for the most part. I'm hoping when we enlarge the yard and stop some of the traffic this will help also.

 Quote: Jessica Beck

Thanks Peggy
I really didn't think about the drag-line in this case. I have been keeping Mocha in the house more in the evenings to limit exposure.

I could be wrong here and I'm sure other's with more experience will respond also. Myself, I would use the evenings when your home to give Mocha that very exposure so you can work through it. Just keeping her away from it is not going to teach her anything.

Not to make it more difficult for you, but leaving a pack of 3 dogs to hang out together alone all day while your at work isn't going to help make your training any easier. What one dogs does, the others will soon follow suit and it also makes your dogs more doggie, meaning they will look toward each other for leadership more so then looking to you. You might want to look into putting up three kennels in your yard. That will keep the dogs away from the fence while your gone and do a lot to keeping your dogs focus on you.

 Quote: PeggyBayer

I would make every effort to talk with them and explain that you are training your dogs to be safe social animals and that you have noticed that your dog is showing aggression when someone hits on the fence. Try explaining that your dogs are still very young and in their learning phase and you need his/hers help in not hitting or dangling anything over the fence since the dog perceives this as a threat...

AND, even more important, as Peggy said:

PLEASE don't leave three dogs together ouside, unsupervised. There are so many reasons why NOT to do this that we probably can't list them all..... but to start with, I would not trust any strangers (never mind the neighbor who is already engaging destructively) not to tease (or much worse).

The lock on the gate goes without saying -- because even an innocent idiot can leave it open accidentally -- but everything Peggy says about three dogs becoming more important to each other than you are to them, derailing your pack structure and your training, as well as the potential danger from that neighbor or anyone who is angered by a dog charging the fence.....



Not a good situation.

JMO.

Thanks,

I didn't think about how them being together would effect the pack structure. In fact I only learned this term and concept since I started comming to this site. It was only the shepard for about the last 10 yrs. The bullies came to me as orphans at about 10 days old. One left with the original owner for a few months then was given back to me. So you would suggest dividing the yard then?

~Jessica

Hi Jessica!

The answer would be yes. But not really the whole yard, Just the dogs, especially the pups. They will look to each other, or the GSD for fun, direction, attention and affection and not you.

Many have packs that work well together, but it makes if SOOO much easier to have them look first to you for these things. As they get older, and if you keep the routine, then slowly reintroducing them is OK.

And you may not have to keep them separate all the time, but at the very least when you cannot give them attention. Crates work best and the cheapest, and they are not permanent like a kennel in back yard or dividing the yard.

Good luck with those babies!

Thanks Jessica,
I think you are right, the pups together had more influence than I realised. Most of the time the pups played very well together(GSD(Curtis) usually stays to himself), but from time to time(usually after I have had one in the house or shown them attention) a fight breaks out. This never happens while I am outside with them, but usually after I have been back inside for a bit. I have seen Bambi bully Mocha as soon as I stepped back in. We had a couple of bad scuffles lately(no puncture bites but scraping a little hair off of Mocha)and I have gone to great measure to keep them separate this week, I can really see a difference with Bambi. She calms down much quicker when I bring her in or to the front yard for training and today when I let her in she actually went up and licked my daughter and was looking to play. She has never sought attention from other family members than myself and the jealousy thing really had me worried.
My husbands cousin wants us to bring her out this weekend for a meet and greet, but we are going to finish out the second yard this weekend just in case they decide against taking her.
Thanks for everyone's suggestions. Because they usually play so well together and the scuffles had never been this aggressive, I did not understand just how important it is to separate them.
Mocha gets along very well with Curtis when he decides he wants to socialize, but may look at separating him at some point too. Mocha spends a lot of time in the house because of the neighbor that hits the fence when she barks, so it may not be such an issue for those two dogs. If Bambi goes to a new home then we will have the extra yard. That might also limit the neighbors access to Mocha.
Thanks again for everyones advice and sorry for being so stubborn.

~Jessica