Others, like Dubhy, may generalize their aggression to some or all dogs even when there’s no fence present.Īs dog owners become more and more responsible about keeping their dogs safe at home, the incidence of fence-related behavior problems rises. Some dogs who fence fight are fine if they meet the same dog sans barrier. Aggression is caused by anxiety and stress, easily triggered by the arousal of fence-running. Restraint frustration also quickly turns into aggression. We are fortunate that our fence doesn’t conjoin any of our neighbors’ fenced-in dogs, or we would have to take much stronger steps to manage or retrain the behavior. Instead, he’s only outdoors when we are home, and if he starts his fence-running behavior we interrupt it and bring him in. I have no doubt that if Dubhy were a (shudder) backyard dog, he would have serious problems. He has a path worn around the interior of our large yard, which wasn’t there prior to his joining our family. I see a mild version of it with Dubhy – stereotypic running along the fence line, accompanied by aroused barking, and spinning at the corners. The frustration that a dog feels when he can see – but not reach – his objective can (and often does) give rise to canine obsessive-compulsive disorders (COCD) and aggression, both of which are serious behavior problems caused by stress.įence-running can quickly become a COCD.
In his famous poem, “Mending Wall,” Robert Frost starts out by saying, “Something there is that doesn’t love a wall.” We could revise that slightly to say “Something there is that doesn’t love a fence.”įence-running, and its close cousin, fence-fighting, are manifestations of barrier frustration, also called restraint frustration. There’s a good chance that Dubhy has a strong negative classical association with black Labrador Retrievers as a result of his irregular but frequent encounters-of-the-fence-kind with our neighbor’s wayward dogs. Three years ago when Dubhy’s on-again, off-again dog aggression erupted for the first time, it was directed at a black Lab. Leaning forward, I look out my window to see Dubhy the Scottie running the fenceline and barking madly at two black Labs who have wandered over from a distant neighbor’s house, still sporting the highly ineffective shock collars that are supposed to keep them home.Īs I cuss under my breath yet again at my irresponsible neighbors and get up to call Dubhy in, I have a sudden epiphany. If bikes trigger his fence-running and barking, sit in the yard with him and toss delicious treats to him as a helpful friend on a bike approaches and passes by.Īs I sit here writing, I hear a ruckus from my backyard. Counter-condition your dog to the stimulus that sets him off. If you already have a solid fence, keep him in the house unless you are supervising him.ģ. Build a solid fence to prevent your dog from being able to see the things that arouse him and trigger his barking. The more opportunities he has to practice the behavior, the more difficult it will be to control it.Ģ. If your dog is just beginning to display barrier frustration, take steps immediately to eliminate his opportunities to practice the behavior.
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