# Barking at farm animals and other dogs



## boscopup (Jun 17, 2003)

I have a 3 year old GSD that I adopted about a year and a half ago. She's a wonderful dog, but...

We have horses and goats ourselves, plus there are cows next door that she can often see through the window. Whenever she sees the farm animals through the window, she starts barking and going crazy. She really wants to go chase them. She HAS been in the pasture with the goats and horses, both on leash and accidentally off leash (she did not try to eat the goats, but tried to herd the horses toward the goats, which the horses didn't appreciate, so they chased her back ). I usually keep two fences between farm animals and Keiko (the dog), and I periodically walk her on leash near the animals and use the "leave it" command if she starts to chase. She listens to that when I do it, but in the house, it's hard to get her attention to do much of anything.

Another problem we're having, related to this, is that the people next door have a dog running loose. I call and complain if their dog comes on our property (their kids had brought the dog over, even after I told them not to). That dog has charged our goats at the fence, so we're really quite annoyed at the whole situation, but alas, there's nothing we can do unless the dog actually hurts one of our goats. Then we can get the sheriff out. We're out in the county, so no animal control and no leash law, but state law says your dog shouldn't be on someone else's property without you accompanying it. Anyway, the problem I'm having is usually that the dog is still on its own property, but it's running past Keiko's line of sight. The owners have essentially encouraged the dog to chase cars, and they drive from the front of their property to the back of their property daily (going down our driveway part of that way), with dog running ahead or behind. Now Keiko gets riled up if she just hears the guy's motorcycle start up, as he first had the dog chasing THAT going back and forth. I can't leave Keiko in the backyard unattended anymore. She can jump one fence (that we plan to replace with a no-climb fence), but thankfully there is another fence after that that she has not figured out that she can jump yet. I catch her before she learns to jump the 2nd fence. The fence situation is being dealt with, but I can't put up a privacy fence or anything - it's too large an area. In the house, she sees this dog running and goes ballistic, jumping up on a window sill to see out, running back and forth, barking like mad. I have to crate her, and she still barks for a bit in there. It takes a good 15-20 minutes to settle her down.

How do I train this out? It's stressing me quite a bit. The farm animals alone I could live with, but the dog situation is driving me nuts, and I can't complain to the neighbor because the dog IS on its own property most of the time (I chase it off if it comes over, and call if necessary). After some calls and me chasing the dog away, he is staying off our property more than he used to, and again, Keiko goes ballistic even if he's on his own property, so at that point it's my dog's fault, not his. His dog technically has a right to run back and forth across from our den doors with big windows.  I wish they'd keep the dog up by their house, as then this wouldn't be such an issue, but at this point, I need to train MY dog. So what do I do? She gets so worked up that it's really hard for her to focus on anything else. She's completely hyper at that point, and even if I get her to sitz or platz, she is still vocal - whining, yipping, etc.

Her reactions are not aggressive. She is wanting to go chase, herd, what-have-you. So it's pure excitement.

I have a baby coming early next year, and I'd really like to not have to deal with this every day when that time comes around.  I'm willing to put work into this training. I could also get the owners of the loose dog to help with planned run-bys when she's ready for that. The owner of the house is very nice (and we're trying to stay friends with them instead of putting up a fence all along our property ). The loose dog situation is a new one since his adult grandson and his family moved in (dog belongs to the grandson). The grandson and I are not on good terms, but the owner of the house and I are, so I know he would help with the training. 

:help:


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## Mary Beth (Apr 17, 2010)

I had the town version of the dog loose or being walking on the sidewalk in front of my house and my Sting barking. And yes, the neighbors who let their dogs out in the alley and Sting would hear and get excited. It usually happened during meal times. What worked for me and I still use it, since life is so peaceful with it, is a dog gate. I put the gate up and during meal times - Sting is in the kitchen with me. I could stop him barking and I did reward with treats when he was quiet then and amazingly, that quieted him. He couldn't watch outside the window or go dashing from room to room. I did have to work on him barking at the mailman and for that as in front so the gate didn't work there. But I did have Sting come with me away from the door - and he really protested at first - whining, but I had him heel, go on the down - put myself between him and the front door. It takes practice and time so you are smart to start now. When the dogs were loose outside and Sting was in the backyard running the fence line. I would go out with his ball on a short rope - that helped redirect him and he could chasing after the ball - i also used his tugs.


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## Chip18 (Jan 11, 2014)

Those are a whole lot of issues to be dealt with to state the obvious!

Quickest results are going to be with a qualified instructor and a E collar! But that's not the only way to get what you want!
A lot of links here:

http://www.germanshepherds.com/forum/5296377-post8.html

Don't know if you actually walk this dog but you need to start doing so! It teaches discipline and respect both of which are currently lacking!

These are going to be less obvious in the benefits but this dog will benefit from both! Don't over look them because, they look to simple! 

Train a behaviour you want the place command:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OIGq_5r0DeE
Why the “Place” Command is So Important and Your Dog Should Know It! : TheDogTrainingSecret.com

If the dog starts barking and acting like a fool! Simply point and say "Place" game time is over! But you can't do that until you train it! 

And this thread:

http://www.germanshepherds.com/forum/training-theory-methods/426322-selzer-sitting-dog.html

And it looks like this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W2WgOZUebnY

So Sit on Dog work on loose leash training, go for walks and you can work on dog reactivity. loose leash and distance is the key there.

And train the place command! You can get there but yeah a lot of work!


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