I haven't posted in a long time, but I got some great advice the last time, so here goes. For background you can look up my post "the destroyer" from 2005.
Corbin is now a much better adjusted and much less destructive dog, in fact now he can barely be bothered to get off the sofa without the enticement of his walk or food.
Anyway, when we go out of town, he usually stays with some friends of ours. They have a large fenced yard and two golden retrievers. He's stayed with them like this since he was a puppy, three years now.
The last time we left him, they told us that he had been acting very aggressively to their neighbors. Someone had come over to give their dogs scraps (not something we do, but whatever) and she said that he jumped at the fence and snapped at her. Also the neighbor's son mows the lawn and says he went crazy at the lawn mower and was snapping at him. Our friends say that he will have to wear a cloth muzzle if we want to leave him there anymore. I really don't want to take him away from the "pack" he's had since he was a puppy and quite frankly, as students, trading babysitting for dog sitting is a lot more economical than a kennel.
Now, I really don't want to be the type of person that doesn't take responsibility for my dog and if he is doing this, I want to do everything I can to stop the behavior ASAP. But the problem is, we have simply never seen him exhibit behavior like this with us, in any situation, including when we house/dog/baby sit for these same friends at their home with all three dogs in the backyard. The last thing I want to do is blow this off, but I don't know how to train him against a behavior that we (or the vet, or any kennel he's stayed in) has ever observed. He's not a perfect angel and he does run up to new people, but we've only seen him lick and beg for affection.
We're going to enroll him next month (next available class) in some obedience classes at the local pet smart just to socialize him with other dogs and people, but if his exhibiting "fence aggression" as my friend calls it only when we are not around, what can I do to train him not to?
(side note: Asking the friends to discipline him is a bit of a sticky issue. They "spank" their dogs for discipline and we don't)
Corbin is now a much better adjusted and much less destructive dog, in fact now he can barely be bothered to get off the sofa without the enticement of his walk or food.
Anyway, when we go out of town, he usually stays with some friends of ours. They have a large fenced yard and two golden retrievers. He's stayed with them like this since he was a puppy, three years now.
The last time we left him, they told us that he had been acting very aggressively to their neighbors. Someone had come over to give their dogs scraps (not something we do, but whatever) and she said that he jumped at the fence and snapped at her. Also the neighbor's son mows the lawn and says he went crazy at the lawn mower and was snapping at him. Our friends say that he will have to wear a cloth muzzle if we want to leave him there anymore. I really don't want to take him away from the "pack" he's had since he was a puppy and quite frankly, as students, trading babysitting for dog sitting is a lot more economical than a kennel.
Now, I really don't want to be the type of person that doesn't take responsibility for my dog and if he is doing this, I want to do everything I can to stop the behavior ASAP. But the problem is, we have simply never seen him exhibit behavior like this with us, in any situation, including when we house/dog/baby sit for these same friends at their home with all three dogs in the backyard. The last thing I want to do is blow this off, but I don't know how to train him against a behavior that we (or the vet, or any kennel he's stayed in) has ever observed. He's not a perfect angel and he does run up to new people, but we've only seen him lick and beg for affection.
We're going to enroll him next month (next available class) in some obedience classes at the local pet smart just to socialize him with other dogs and people, but if his exhibiting "fence aggression" as my friend calls it only when we are not around, what can I do to train him not to?
(side note: Asking the friends to discipline him is a bit of a sticky issue. They "spank" their dogs for discipline and we don't)