I am quickly losing what is left of my sanity

pixgal said:
So sorry your going through this. I know how hard it is.
:gaah

I had that situation a few years ago with a dog I had. The neighbor was so bad. I tried to talk to her. She just told me tough. She would deliberatly put her dog out as soon as mine was out. I would work all day, come home and want a few min in the yard with my dog. She would make sure her dog was out. As soon as I would go in she would call her dog in. I'd go out she would put her dog out. I got so upset I ended up having to go to the doctor. I was near a breakdown. We were renters so my husband finally said this is no way to live so we moved. Most people own their homes so they can't just move. It was move or litterally my sanity would be gone.
Click to expand...

Sounds like my neighbor has a clone.:eek2:
 
Ugh! You poor thing. I mean, Koji is reactive, but I don't have a backyard which means no fence. I'm sure Koji would be the same.

It sounds like some training is in order so she stops reacting.
 
just awful when you can't enjoy your own yard...
Ellie has come such a long way to see her do that must break your heart!

But don't worry, it will get better...
 
Our neighbor with the original SND is a friend of ours. She is a very cool person. The SND is (I hate to admit it because she DID bite Ellie) is a well-behaved, extremely obedient, devoted dog to the owner. When the SND's mom calls her away from the fence, she actually leaves the fence. Sigh. However, until that moment, both the SND and Ellie are so over-the-top aggressive that they look like they are in a dog-fighting ring.

I have no idea what the new neighbor dog is. It has a deep voice. I think it was actually barking at people on the walking path across the greenbelt and Ellie doesn't care what the dog is barking at, she (Ellie) wants to pick a fight.

The sad thing is, I am sure the new neighbors and our original neighbor hate Ellie and are sick of her noise. If I was them, I would be too. We try so hard. All I want when I come home is to sit in the backyard and enjoy some interaction with my dog and my husband and enjoy this fantastic weather. It turns out, it is just one big long exercise of trying to handle Ellie. Getting her away from the fence and inside where she won't disturb every single person on the block.

We have tried every humane method possible. I don't know what to do. She is not a good Sheltie ambassador.

Thanks everyone for your comments. I am interested to see the video and the article by Pat Miller. Thank you so much!
 
So, it sounds like Ellie is the one reacting to other dogs then and is becoming aggressive. I wonder if it's a fear based aggression like Koji's. Basically, he barks and growls when he's not sure of something, because he has no idea how to react, or this is what was reinforced when he was younger.

Therefore, a lot of the work being done was to counteract this, teach him it's okay to bark, ONCE, but that's it. No lunging, no snapping. And it will help him to learn to control himself and also teach him what's an okay way to react.

This is a lot of work. Many people have suggested Controlled Unleashed to me. I mean, for Ellie, if she can't control herself, the backyard can't be her "playground" anymore. Things like that. It's going to take time to train her and fix this.

You want to teach them that a bark is okay, but becoming the devil dog is not. Does that make sense? Ugh. I wish I had more resources. Maybe look up "reactive" in the search feature. There were/are many people who deal with this. Fence aggression, isn't any different. Well, from my readings, it's not different in how to fix it.
 
k9kreationz said:
So, it sounds like Ellie is the one reacting to other dogs then and is becoming aggressive. I wonder if it's a fear based aggression like Koji's. Basically, he barks and growls when he's not sure of something, because he has no idea how to react, or this is what was reinforced when he was younger.

Therefore, a lot of the work being done was to counteract this, teach him it's okay to bark, ONCE, but that's it. No lunging, no snapping. And it will help him to learn to control himself and also teach him what's an okay way to react.

This is a lot of work. Many people have suggested Controlled Unleashed to me. I mean, for Ellie, if she can't control herself, the backyard can't be her "playground" anymore. Things like that. It's going to take time to train her and fix this.

You want to teach them that a bark is okay, but becoming the devil dog is not. Does that make sense? Ugh. I wish I had more resources. Maybe look up "reactive" in the search feature. There were/are many people who deal with this. Fence aggression, isn't any different. Well, from my readings, it's not different in how to fix it.
Click to expand...

Well, with the original SND, it is a mutual aggressive thing. WHen they hear each other, they both run and throw themselves at the fence and act like idiots.

With the new SND, it's clearly Ellie who is the "bad" dog. She is definitely unsure of that dog, however, because she has never seen it and can only hear it. She barks while backing up--her clear "I'm afraid" signal. She barks and backs up clear up to the porch.
 
A small miracle just happened.

The original SND came into the yard, Ellie pricked up her ears and her body got tense and she stood up. I said, "Ellie, come!" She turned her head towards the SND, then turned and looked at me and made her choice: SHE CAME TO ME! Big, huge, overjoyed enthusiasm from me and we went into the house and got treats, treats, treats.

Please, please let THIS be a beginning of a pattern!!
 
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