Neighbor dogs sharing a fence, advice?

[Flyinsbt]

My advice is that if there is fencefighting, it sucks. I've got that problem with my neighbor dog, and I hate it. My dogs are not naturally fence aggressive, they wouldn't really care about any dog on the other side of the fence (wood privacy fence). But they don't react well to the death threats. It used to be only Tully who responded, but Pirate is such a boy, he got involved too. And with Tully incapacitated and then gone, Tess decided she had to back Pirate up.

I've had injuries from my dogs charging the fence (Tully lacerated a pad bad enough to take her to the vet once), as well as the major incident where the neighbor dogs mauled mine, of course. And I worry about the behavior my dogs are learning.

The inner fence is probably the best option. A hotwire will also work, and is relatively inexpensive, but I think it's illegal here.

[crazedACD]

The other problem is if you get multiple dogs of yours fence fighting, there is a possibility of redirected aggression/a very quickly escalating fight. Sometimes mine run into each other when they run the fence line (barking at a cat or a squirrel), and they get into tiffs. It really sucks.

[jenv101]

We befriended our immediate neighbors when we got Riley because they had two labs. So it was easier to do when he was a pup. Now they are friends and don't concern each other two much. Riley only gets worked up if they are out playing and he wants to join in. Our back fence is part chain link with some bush cover in the neighbors yard. No dogs there currently but Riley will bark at anything so we put our shed back there with a small garden and used really high chicken wire to block off the whole section. Eventually we will put up a real fence there.

Extra buffers really help and prevent the digging issue too.

[sassafras]

We have dogs on two sides, and in the back is an alley so no immediate neighbors but people do walk their dogs there. Our dogs get along fine with the neighbors' dogs themselves, but our neighbor on one side brings a very DR bordering on DA dog over for a few hours during the day 3-4 times a week. This dog and Maisy absolutely despise each other.

We ultimately ended up just replacing our chain link with a 6' privacy fence partly because of that although mostly because Maisy learned to jump the fence in back into the alley. It is not perfect, but at least when they can't see each other things peter out pretty quickly. There are no gaps at the bottom on that side, either.

Before we got the privacy fence, we put up some visual barriers on that side of the yard... we just used some big sheets of plywood which were ugly as hell but oh well. We also just coordinate with the neighbors so we know when that dog is there and manage accordingly. Even with the privacy fence I just try to not let her out when that dog is over there, or if she absolutely must go out I go out with her and just keep redirecting her away from the fenceline, long leashing her if I have to. That dog is fine with our boys, though.

[AdrianneIsabel]

Originally Posted by Aleron

My advice is...it sucks to share fences with other dogs :/

IME is that even dogs who are "friends" will often fence fight in these settings. So I don't know how far trying to get them to be friends could go. I think you've said your dogs are trained to bark collars. I have had good luck preventing fence fighting with those. However, that won't solve the entire problem obviously. The best solution I have come across seems to be the "fence within a fence" idea, where you put up another barrier a couple feet in from the main fence. The purpose is just to create a buffer more so than to contain dogs. You could say put up some cheap posts with chicken wire or rabbit fencing or if you want sturdier, livestock fencing. If it's possible where you are, let the grass grow up around this barrier. Or attach these to it for an additional bit of visual barrier. http://www.homedepot.com/buy/backyar...-dan-rf01.html For a more permanent, long term extra barrier, you could always plant shrubs or crazy vines along the main fence and/or interior fence.

Of course, that depends on what is or isn't allowed or frowned upon where you live. If you have wooden and chainlink fencing on different sides of the yard though, I'm guessing there's probably not real strict rules.

Thanks, I am less worried about mine than maybe I should be. I do worry about Arnold turning on the girls when excited, so we'll be rotating in the yard until I have a better grasp on things. Sloan will probably love the excitement but she has a great recall. Shamoo will probably be the biggest problem, it's no secret she's just naughty and her recall against stimuli is barely a glance to humor me anymore. She'll need a leash.

The visual barrier seems like a great idea. The previous home owner put in cement garden edging bricks along a lot of the fence and I found a mostly buried nylabone on our side of the fence which makes me wonder if they used to get through. In that case my dogs will fight, I have no question about it and I worry. They're tough and I hate for them to hurt anything but the three to the back and big pit bull/bully/ambulldog looking creatures which could probably eat my dogs alive. I was impressed they're not redirecting on one another though so maybe it's not as aggressive as it sounds. They seemed confused by me calmly kneeling by them and my dog trotting in circles ignoring them.

Originally Posted by Red Chrome

Here is what I would do. This is assuming I am understanding your back fence set up correctly.

Untitled5 by RedChrome, on Flickr

Here is what my fence on the shared side looks like. (well it isn't green and blue. lol)

Untitled6 by RedChrome, on Flickr

Thanks! I'll look into this fencing!

Originally Posted by Flyinsbt

The inner fence is probably the best option. A hotwire will also work, and is relatively inexpensive, but I think it's illegal here.

I would be tempted, I'm so afraid of hurting someone's dogs though, more for retaliation. I have seen too many movies. I don't think I need a hotwire for my own dogs.

Maybe we'll just layer more cement bricks where the dogs are close to digging through. Just as a precaution. Denis suggested for now we xpen off the yard closest to the house and use that as the potty break area and the rest of the yard for engaged playtime only. At least until we're re-fenced and feel it's more secure.

I could easily be overreacting as well, I've now seen their dogs once and we've been to the house a lot already at all hours of the day. Maybe they're not that big of an issue and mostly reacting to strangers in the yard being noisy while demolishing the interior of the house.

Originally Posted by crazedACD

The other problem is if you get multiple dogs of yours fence fighting, there is a possibility of redirected aggression/a very quickly escalating fight. Sometimes mine run into each other when they run the fence line (barking at a cat or a squirrel), and they get into tiffs. It really sucks.

Yeah, with Arnold that is a very real concern, he's not allowed to get excited with other dogs so we're used to recalling and putting him up first if anything exciting happens.


Thanks to everyone, all of your advice has helped a lot. I'll start seeing what I can move around and stack at that point in the fence until we can get new fencing or a visual barrier. We don't plan to be moved in for another week or two (It's now kitchen and floorless lol) but when we do we'd like to be as safe as possible.

The back fence, which is the one of concern.
http://sphotos-b.xx.fbcdn.net/hphoto...47921257_n.jpg

[Dizzy]

I have no advice.... But this does make me appreciate not having any immediate neighbours!

[Red.Apricot]

It might not go too poorly! We have a rickety wooden fence between us and our back neighbors, and when we first came to look at the property, their two large dogs barked non-stop.

Now the big ones never bark at us. The little one does, but Elsie made friends with him (through the fence--I've never seen that happen) and they play chase on either side of it now. That's not typical though.

Maybe it won't be so bad?

[Shai]

Well we don't have a fence yet. Apparently the folks who lived here before us had an invisible fence.

One immediate neighbor has no dogs, but an indoor/outdoor cat. The other doesn't technically have a dog but their kid does so he visits over the holidays...big male Lab. Both houses two-away have dogs...one is a Lab chained outside, the other has two ACDs behind a fence which is backed up with an invisible fence.

Apparently the dog who used to live here would have barking/charging contests with the various neighbor dogs. Like the ones behind you, when we first moved in their dogs would all charge and bark and then look disappointed and sort of bewildered when there was no reaction. Overtime they gave and not having any feedback apparently bored them into quiet and now they just ignore us, with the exception of the holidays-only Lab next door who has come into our yard on a couple occasions. The resident dogs gave up.

So maybe if you can keep your dogs from engaging with any of them they will lose interest and go about their business, but their edging under the fence and possibly getting into the yard would really worry me. Whether it takes stacking some cement blocks for now or double-fencing or providing some sort of additional visual barrier I don't know but that would be my biggest worry for sure...

[Flyinsbt]

Originally Posted by AdrianneIsabel

I would be tempted, I'm so afraid of hurting someone's dogs though, more for retaliation. I have seen too many movies. I don't think I need a hotwire for my own dogs.

The hotwire is safe, you get the one intended for pets, and it's a very mild zap. Not dangerous at all, just discouraging. But, after the mauling incident, we got one (the neighbors did actually) which we had on both sides of the fence. (it worked way better on my dogs than on their stupid, psycho Wirehair, who had to get zapped every day for a week before she decided to stay away from it). Then when their dogs got out and killed a cat, and Animal Control got involved, they were told that the hotwire was illegal. So, they took it down on their side. I still had it on my side, but it wasn't "hot" since they were the ones that had the box for it, so the dogs figured that out pretty quick. I miss it, because it really did solve the problem when it was operational.

I've not a clue why it would be illegal, since it was entirely safe to humans and pets, and if they had it around their entire yard instead of just the fence they shared with me, somebody's cat would still be alive.

[AdrianneIsabel]

Looks like they have a hot wire at the top(I honestly don't know but they have something strung across the top). I piled rocks and bricks at every spot I deemed weak and spoke to the neighbors to the left. They were pretty nice, they said their dogs will chill out once they get used to us. Their dogs weren't was worrisome anyways, seems they have two after all. The ones at the back haven't shown up all day so that's good.

I brought Arnold today and while he made one dodge for the fence he remained pretty calm. The girls are the worry (humorously they are dog friendly but love a good argument) so we'll bring them when we have less work and more supervision time.