Territorial Aggression of our yard... HELP!

[TerraBear]

Okay, so my two year old boxer Terra has always been annoyingly territorial. We have a bark collar for her (actually it is the FOURTH one we've bought) but it either doesn't shock her anymore or it shocks her for no reason. Bark collars are crap I have discovered. Better than nothing, but too expensive to only work for a short amount of time before breaking down in some way.

Terra will bark at ANYONE that comes near the house or yard. She is very social, goes to dog park with no problems at all, loves everybody, etc. but the minute they come near "her" space, she gets defensive. This has culminated in two separate incidences of her getting out of the house and attacking people walking their dogs. The first time a lady was walking her two Bostons past the house as I was coming home from the store. It was dark and I did not see the woman, so I opened the door as usual. With my arms full, I couldn't stop Terra rushing past me. She ran full speed and barking right at the dogs. The dogs were screaming, the woman was screaming, it was a nightmare. Terra didn't bite or anything, but she was definitely aggressive.

Tonight it happened again. We were going inside the house after a car ride (she loves the car) and a couple was walking their two labs past the house. Terra went after them. She charged into one dog making it scream and fall down. That dog is potentially injured from the ordeal, it was hard to tell in the dark. The husband had to chase Terra away twice before I was able to grab her collar and drag her back inside.

I don't know what to do to curb this behavior. I am reasonably confident that my fiance and I are alpha in the house, but outside the house is Terra's world. She cannot stand for anyone to be near her house and yard. I am afraid that she will be taken from me if I cannot train her to get over it. My plan is to get a pronged collar and ANOTHER bark collar and assert my dominance outside the house. The pronged collar will help me keep her in check because she pulls on the leash and is freakishly strong. The bark collar will immediately correct her for barking at people while we walk by.

Any advice is welcome...

 

[gmacleod]

In the first instance, you need to go back and read the rules you agreed to abide by when requesting membership of this site. We will NOT allow threads that promote devices such as electric or bark collars anywhere on this site, nor the promotion of negative training methods. The part you need to read carefully is as follows - and if you can't abide by those requirements and ethos, just say so and your membership will be terminated instantly:

Topics and behaviour inappropriate on this site include:
-Discussion of devices or practices that cause electricity to run through a dog. This includes shock collars and electronic fencing.
- Discussion of deliberate use of devices or practices that cause or have the potential to cause physical trauma to a dog. Boxerworld does recognise that people do have genuine questions regarding training tools (choke chains, prong collars, mousetraps etc) and methods, but we support and promote wholeheartedly positive training and behaviour management, that is, teaching the dog what to do by using positive methods, not teaching a dog what not to do by causing it discomfort and pain. Any threads which appear to promote "negative" training and methods will be closed.

With that out of the way, I would suggest that you dump your shock devices in the trash where they belong, ditch the "dominance" concepts ("alpha" where? Leadership is a matter of fact, not achieved by dominating anything, and not dependent on location either), and start training the dog instead. How much socialisation does she get in group training classes, on leash amongst other dogs, and off leash at places such as dog parks? How are you reacting when she is barking at people/other dogs? Does she stop barking when you ask? How have you tried to train her not to react and look to you as the leader instead? Those are the basic sorts of information that is needed to give you any help at all in terms of suggestions on how to start training.

 

[LILYLARUE]

First thought was why was your dog allowed to attack after the first time? After the first time, knowing there was a situation with territorial aggressiveness, why wasn't your dog leashed for any time outside? It sounds as if your dog doesn't not obey you nor has any recall. These are two things that MUST be acquired BEFORE allowing your dog off leash. It makes common sense that if you do not have control of your dog, then take control with a leash.

 

[Caney Creek]

First I have to ask what you mean when you say that she "attacked" all of these people/dogs. From your post it seems hat Terra has had plenty of opportunities to bite someone/something if she wanted to, yet if NO ONE has been bitten during these episodes. If she were truly attacking in an aggressive manner I would think that she'd actually have caused harm to someone by now. Knocking over a person/dog does NOT count; that can happen even with friendly dogs if they have not been taught proper manners or had any socialization with other dogs.

Barking also DOES NOT equal aggression. If Terra has always been SHOCKED whenever she barks, and she barks whenever she sees another person/dog near her house, then she has learned to associate those people and dogs with something NEGATIVE (the shock). Maybe she was barking at people before you got the collar, I don't know, but it makes no difference now because it sounds like the shock "training" has been going on for quite sometime and she has effectively learned from it that those passersby are bad.

Inflicting more pain onto Terra through harsh methods of training will only be counter-productive because she will STILL be associating people and dogs near her home with something negative and when/if she does happen to get out of the house again in the future it could be much worse.

 

[blackrose]

I would think that instead of spending a $100 each on those collars your money would be well spent at the trainers or better yet get a trainer that will come to YOUR HOME where the problem exists and have them work with her there.
I hope you can resolve your problem in a humane way so you can all live together in peace and before some one gets hurt.
PLEASE make the call to a trainer in the morning.

 

[TerraBear]

It's all been resolved...

Sorry for being so late coming back to the board. But I am back and I want to respond to your comments.

1) Bark Collar- No, I didn't realize that it was against the rules to mention electronic devices. I have gone back and reviewed the rules.

2) Socializations- Terra never had group training classes as a puppy. She grew up going to dog parks (once vaccinated) and we made it a point to expose her to as many different people, places and things as we could. As I said in my original post, she is wonderful at the dog park in an off leash situation. She is only territorial about our yard.

3) Training- Terra is extremely well trained. She will do every trick in the book, on command, for almost anyone.

4) I guess I didn't mention that in the last incident she was on a leash, but it was wrenched from my hand when she made a run for it. The other two incidents were when she bolted from the house. I am not making excuses and I know that this was all my fault, but I do want you to know that it was never my intention for her to be off leash in the yard.

5) She didn't actually "attack" as it were. She ran right into one of the labs, but I do not know if she actually intended to collide with him. She mostly got up in their faces and barked at them.

6) Since posting this, I have had a trainer come out to my home. He assured me that Terra is not aggressive in the slightest or she would have bitten the large man who pushed her away. The fact that she instantly submitted to him shows that it was all posturing. He gave us some good tips and worked with us for several hours to help get Terra to accept that the house and yard are not her possessions.

 

[Caney Creek]

Glad to hear that Terra's issues are getting resolved. Kind of reminds me of my Creek... a lot of bark and no bite. If there is a fence, a door, or even just a leash that's keeping her from getting to a strange dog nearby, she gets pretty worked up trying to get to them. And, when she's off-leash, she hovers over strange, submissive dogs, gets up in their faces, and even "body-checks" them. However, she has NEVER shown true aggression or tried to harm another dog, and her "tough-dog" act has never started a fight... which leads me to believe that she must know that the dog(s) are non-confrontational before she decides to bully them. Anyways, I agree with what the trainer said, that Terra is not truly aggressive... like Creek, she is probably just a little bit insecure so feels the need to intimidate. Hope the training goes well!