[DreamDoby]

I have this issue that I need some advice with. It is kind of lengthy so I apologize for it.

There is a white german shepard that walks by my house daily that has never been a problem before. Well, until I was outside with Doodle and the owner decided to let him charge my fence at Doodle when I was around the corner of my garage. I suppose she thought I was not outside. I heard a huge ruckus and came running around the garage (inside my fence) and saw her dog standing up against my fence snarling and barking at poor Doodle. Doodle was high tailing it to my back door barking not knowing what to do. The other two were raising all hell inside. Her remark was, "He doesn't bite". Yeah, right. Whatever. Get away from my fence and kindly get your dog off of my fence now. She loves to walk him right along my fence line there letting him eliminate on my fence and scavanger for rabbits. This is a field on this side. I have finally gotten her to stay somewhat away from my front yard and to stop letting him urinate on my front porch and flowers. I still have to bring my garbage can in immediately. Sorry. :rant: It is really frustrating. The charge happened sometime ago though. She now stays clear when my dogs are outside, and I don't take them out when she is around. I don't trust her dog. You can hear her coming for blocks with the dogs barking.

My issue now is that when she comes around, my dogs go crazy in the house barking at her and her dog. When you have three big dogs trying to look out the same window barking, it gets distructive, and on my last nerve. Harmony gets so into it, she pushes the other two away and barks at them to get away. So I have been trying to get them to stop with no head way. I have tried to take them away from the situation and get them occupied with something else. They are too focused with the dog outside. I them turned to making them sit and settle down. I have had the best luck with this approach. For the most part anyways. Asher takes it and sits calmly. Harmony sits, but is so excited, she is shaking,whining and barely sits still. Doodle sits and stares at me the whole time barking. Someone always moves and we are back to the door and barking for another round. I have made them lay down and that doesn't make a difference either. They just feed off of that ones energy that won't settle. I want them to be able to let her pass without barking at him. Any advice would be helpful.

 

[DreamDoby]

Unfortunately, finding a room without windows in my house is useless. Every room has at least one. I have used the crate during my sleeping hours of the day so I can sleep. I can't sleep when they are ready to tear through my back door and barking.

The worse part is that she lingers there with her dog when I am not standing there. She will take 5-10 minutes(seriously) to sort through the brush for rabbits. If I am at the backdoor with the dogs trying to get them to hush and settle down, she sees me and will quickly leave. I think she honestly enjoys to hear my dogs and tease them. She does the same thing in the front of my house. If I am at the window, she will leave after a minute or so. My neighbors do the same thing to get her off of their properties.

It is hard to know when she coming when I am inside and doing things. Sometimes my dogs don't know she is there until she is in the back already and they are the ones to let me know. I was hoping that there was something else I could do to settle them. Maybe that I was doing something wrong. I hate people like this.

 

[DreamDoby]

I like that scarecrow idea. Drenching her would make me laugh, and probably my neighbors, but she will still be in the field.

I was lucky that I was outside with the dogs at the right time tonight, so she walked the opposite direction for now. She will probably come back later. She walks constantly.

I will try Kratty's idea when she does. This is the only time they go nuts at the windows. Otherwise a command works to quite them. I know my frustration doesn't help feed the energy. So I try to take some deep breaths to calm myself first. Thanks for the help so far.

 

[DreamDoby]

It's an expensive option, but what aoubt metal blines (the skinny ones are quite nice) oyou can keep them lcosed and then the dogs won't see her and maybe the sound when the dogs try to nudge them away wiill distract them.

I would also have a chat with her. explain you are trying to get your dogs to be more tolerant and not flip out and that her coing by so often and spending so much time infront of your place is a problem. basically, call her on her obnoxious behavior (in the nicest way possible...)

cc

The blinds would be nice. I don't think that my cats would appreciate it though. They would be a little peeved if I took away their looking posts. I have blinds on all of my windows and only keep a few open slightly for the cats to look out. These are the windows that the dogs collect at to look out. I've tried to close blinds on the backdoor so the dogs wouldn't see out there with no luck. They sense her out there and move them out of their way.

I have tried to talk to her. I really don't think that she is all there. Speaking nicely that is. She seems a little off of her rocker. That to me explains why she lets her dog pull her all over the neighborhood on a 20ft rope barking at all of dogs while she is standing there. I don't think I will get help from her.

 

[DreamDoby]

I just wanted to update to what worked and how it was going. It has been a process and we are still working on it. This is a huge distraction to overcome, but they are picking up quickly. Thank you again for all of the suggestions and advice.

I have been trying the treats and making them do training when she comes around. They have to do their exercises like sits and downs. The big bag of treats comes out and they come running for it in the other room. They are starting to get the idea. Asher will now bark once at other things that he usually alerts me of like people outside, then comes running to me and stares at me sitting. Where's the bag mom? Don't we do training now? Silly dog. We are progressing to the quiet house again that we were without the obnoxious house wrecking behavior. It will take some time still of course, but I have faith in the poodle. His brain isn't as big as the dobermans. icknose:

 

[DreamDoby]

I have been having good luck with the treats and training in the other room. I had to make sure that she is clear from their vision. They enjoy the sessions now and forget all about what they were all worked up about.

 

[DreamDoby]

It took them a few times to get the picture that they are to stay in the room with me for the training sessions. At first they wanted to come in, sit for the treat and run back to the window to bark somemore at her. I had to step it up some and make them all do something quickly. Asher would sit and stay, Harmony would lay and stay, Doodle would sit and they would all get treats. It had to go quickly so they would have the attention on me and not on the dog. Gradually they would stay focused on after a few days and knew that they I had a better prize. Now it works like a charm. Doodle doesn't even go to the window to bark at all. He whines staring at me to tell me that she is out there. The other two will bark and come running right at me.