Fence fighting. It’s not fun. No one likes it. And no one wins.

Until the last couple, we haven’t had a next-door dog for more than 20 years. It’s been a huge learning curve. Mostly learning to look out back to see if our next-door neighbor’s dog is there before we go outside with our own pups.

Chloe is mostly a black Labrador Retriever. Unlike most Labs we’ve known, she’s not a very nice dog. If she sees us, or our dogs, she charges the fence, barking ferociously.

We have no idea what kind of training her owners have done, but they do have her under control when they’re outside with her. After her initial charge, they’ll call her and she goes to them. And, aside from watching us and our dogs constantly, she obeys.

The problem with Chloe is twofold – her owners are rarely out with her. She’s left out in the yard on her own for seemingly hours at a time. And, when she’s there, she spies on us. You can just see an ear and an eye watching around the corner of the house.

We’ve taken to calling her “creepy dog.”

No Angels

Of course, our dogs aren’t blameless in this contretemps. Tango and Torque are the worst offenders. Both are back-yard barkers. Tango will let out an initial bark, but after we tell him to be quiet, he usually does. He also doesn’t see all that well anymore, so we think he relies on the other dogs for his “Danger, Danger!” signals.

Torque, on the other hand, has a single-minded obsession with Chloe that’s hard to fathom. And to deal with. He’ll race to the shared fence to see if she’s out (we’ve already checked – she’s not). Then, depending on how badly he has to eliminate, he’ll stand there, staring into our neighbor’s yard, until we insist he knock it off and get down to business.

Behavior Options

There are always three choices when dealing with dog behaviors:
Ignore
Manage
Train

Ignoring the fence-fighting isn’t really an option. It wouldn’t end, it would escalate and behavior would further deteriorate over time.

And despite extensive research, we haven’t been able to find any effective method for training without the cooperation of the other party. We haven’t asked, but based on their lack of response to friendly overtures, we’re guessing our neighbors wouldn’t be on board with a training program that would require their engagement over the course of a few weeks. So that’s out.

What’s left

So we’re left with the only other option – managing our own dogs’ behavior to keep the peace and at least limit the fence fighting. Our dogs now go out, in their own backyard, on collar and leash, practicing attention exercises all the way. If Chloe is present (sometimes she hides around the corner so we don’t spot her), Torque immediately goes back in the house. If we have an “all clear,” the leashes can come off and we can enjoy our own yard, at least for a little while.

One of the consequences has been having our dogs become increasingly reactive to any activity in any yard they glimpse along our block. We live in a congested, urban environment, so there are at least six or eight yards we can see parts of. They used to ignore human activity in all of them. Now? They notice. A casual “knock it off” command still works if they see people. If they’re amped up after a Chloe sighting – we have to retreat back in the house.

If anyone has ideas on how to improve the situation, we’d love to hear them! In the meantime, we’re saving up for a privacy fence.