Mike,

Similar situation. We have have a "herd" of dogs and ours are probably the quietest on the street. Close houses and lots of dogs. Had to laugh about WW III since the GSD next door and the 2 Maltese (sp?) behind us are constantly going at it. Add to that what I call a "junk yard" dog with what has to be a tow chain on it due to the noise it makes. This dog did jump the fence once and our dogs were more in shock that another dog was in their yard. None of the owners really take any responsibility. We ended up putting up a 6 foot fence that has eliminated most of the problems.

We do not let the dogs out unattended in the back, mainly due to a skunk problem. Our one cattle dog has been sprayed several times, so it is just easier. If we are out, we just correct quick and do not let them fence race, as much as they try. I guess the long and short of it is we do not put up with it.

As far as a game plan, I would try to work with your neighbors since keeping a good relationship will save a lot of headaches. There are constantly dogs getting loose in our neighborhood and one was actually killed by another dog right in front of our house. That dog was quickly put to sleep by its owner. It was a small dog and was probably seen as prey.

Guess the long and short is to be a responsible owner. You know what will work best with your dogs since it seems like you have dealt with this before.

Just my 2 cents.

Dave

Thanks. Its worked out so far so good actually. The neighbors are great people and the new dog is rarely out at the same time as mine. What I ended up doing was when I saw the new dog was out in his yard, I told the neighbors I would be letting mine out one at a time. I had their e-collars on and I figured I'd watch from the porch first just to see how they would react without my interference. My first went up to the fence, and while agitated and knew that the other dog was there, she didnt get nasty at all. Just alot of pacing and whining. At one point she smelled the other dog thru the fence turned around and looked at me, and I could have cried with joy! Praised her to high heavans for this. She has been stimmed for getting worked up in the past and she actually defaulted to keeping away from the fence (avoidance) and came to me for reassurance. Awesome. No stim needed.

My other dog, the hellion, meanwhile was barking up a frantic storm inside the house. So I put the one in, and let her out. She immediately got frantic, hackling and crazy barking. I waited a bit to let her calm down, which she did briefly, but when she got the idea to get worked up again, I stimmed her before she could go into that mode again. One stim and she was done. (for how much she makes herself out to be such a tough dog, the lightest stim on an ecollar stops her dead in her tracks) She came running away from the dog immediately to me on the porch, as if to say "sorry! sorry! sorry!" So we went in the house and had dinner and that was that Problem solved.

well, i met the staffy next door tonight while we were over cleaning the house....
(DON'T EVEN ASK ME HOW DIRTY THAT PLACE WAS/IS (we didn't finish by a long shot)....and these are supposed to be my friends? his entire office, desk, 2 filing cabinets, was still there. my mom and brother had their feet get dirty through their socks it was so filthy....argghhh. i'm not bring luc and teagan into something that unclean)

the dog is really nice, and the owner was out with it - no stick the dog out and go back inside. i introduced myself, said i had two dogs, and she said 'oh, that one dog those people had....always out here alone barking' so we discussed how we would get the dogs used to the yard, i'm quite happy. since these are my friends with the dogs who bite, the one who is now under a muzzle order (my friend laughed and said 'like we'll do that'....god....they're incredibly lazy with their dogs, i'm actually feeling very positive. teagan will give attitude, i've no doubt, but i think we'll be able to work through it and the neighbour is very receptive.

not feeling so positive about that neighbour now....

since the snow is gone, i spent about an hour outside today picking up the poop of the dogs who lived here before in the backyard. my dogs won't be allowed back there unitl a couple of good rains.

i was outside with the dogs, my brother had come over and we were playing out front.

my neighbour comes past with her dog, which due to BSL is muzzled. it's a nice dog, i really like it.

this is the first time the dogs have actually met. my neighbour asks if teagan is the female, i say yes, and she says 'oh, my dog is good w/females'. i said, 'oh no, my dog is not friendly.' (which has been mentioned before)

so what does she do?

BRING HER DOG OVER TO TEAGAN!! WTH? teagan was in a sit next to me, but i just told you she is not friendly, and you take your dog off the sidewalk and up the lawn towards her??? when your dog is muzzled and can't protect itself?

teagan is a lot better w/her dog aggression now, but she's not at the point where a strange dog can come onto our lawn and she's not going to react. i ended up with her between my legs snarling and my neighbour was still letting her dog come over. i had to say 'my dog will attack yours, can you please get it off the lawn' for her to take her dog away, and she had to drag it off.

it's ended up i don't see this neighbour much, so who knows what she thinks of me now, but it killed me - i told you teagan is not friendly, she's giving off unfriendly signals, and - completely oblivious.

oh well. teagan and me will keep on working, but i'm not going to rely on that neighbour. i'm thinking that i may keep the dogs on long lines in the backyard for better control.

oh god, i know. then they look at you like your dog did something horribly wrong. People look at me like i am a horrible owner when i ask them to not let their dog approach bart.
i'm sorry this is your neighbor, that makes it harder.

well, and i thought, maybe she misheard me - but once the dog entered our lawn, teagan's reaction wasn't really open to interpretation.

should i apologize to be friendly? i do wish teagan was better with other dogs, and she is doing better, but the whole thing startled the heck out of me.

i wouldn't apologize, but i would try and clear up things. I mean, you told her, and your dog told her too, and she either didn't care, or didn't notice, so you aren't at fault. But, maybe go over there(without your dogs) and explain that teagan is dog aggressive, and you are working on it, but for your dog and her dogs safety, she needs to be careful about keeping her pets out of your yard. You can even say that maybe one day in the future, the dogs can go for a walk together, but YOU will let her know when.
You don't want to come across as not caring, but at the same time, she needs to know that it is your job to keep your dog from going at another dog, and that may mean seeming aggressive yourself sometimes.

i did pop over, and she said 'oh no, nothing to apologize for!' she remembered my name and everything, so either she doesn't know much about dog aggression or had a gigantic brain fart. but i gave her dog a couple of treats and then we chatted about the neighbourhood - she actually said she was really happy i was here b/c i am always out w/my dogs rather than just sticking them outside and leaving them, and i've cleaned out all the poop and garbage out of my yard and am working to have it be nice.

so that went okay - i'm going to assume for the future that she's not good at picking up on certain body language/vocal signals, and will be very careful, but all is well in the neighbourhood at least. hopefully - teagan is fine w/luc, so she can be good with other dogs, she's just very poor w/outside the pack dogs - maybe i can teach her to see this dog as part of our pack.

that is exactly how bart is, he is fine with my other dogs(getting there with sonny and capone), and he is fine with about 7 or 8 other dogs we know. We go hiking with them, swimming and what not, they are his extended pack.
Hopefully teagan will start to see this dog as extended family, and either ignore it completely, or even better, have a new friend.

i'd love for her to be able to accept an extended pack. it might be silly, but a couple of times we've had friendly dogs approach, once another dog off-leash from up the street ran up to us in the yard. and she gets SOOO mad, and even though i did nothing wrong, i feel bad about how she'll react to even a friendly dog. we're working on it