Worried about my dog's behaviour, any advice?

[allotmentgirl82]

Hi all
We have a dog called Buffy who is 13 years old. She is an Alsation/whippet cross.
We have just moved house so realise this could have unsettled her.
Our new next door neighbours have four small dogs- I think two are Jack Russells.
There is a chain link fence between our gardens about 1.5 metres high.
Both our dog and their dogs have been barking and snapping at each other through the fence.
I asked our next door neighbour if we could introduce the dogs one by one to her in the hopes that they would get a long better if they weren't in a big pack. The neighbour climbed over the fence to our side- it didn't work- the neighbour had hold of his dog and mine jumped up at it and tried to grab it by the throat.
I apologised profusely and checked his dog was ok (thankfully it is)
Our dog is (was) such a laid back dog. She is brilliant with children (we have 3) and adults. She used to be brilliant with other dogs too. The only thing she doesn't like is cats.
We are going to put up a wooden fence between our gardens as I don't want the dogs attacking each other.
We are taking her to the vets tonight as she needs boosters and we need to find out if there's an underlying problem/illness.
I'm really worried, not only for her but for other people and their dogs.
She tried to run out the house before to attack a dog as it walked past our door- door was open to let handyman in.
What else should I do? Has anyone else's dog behaved like this?

[SpicyPear]

Introductions need to be done on neutral territory, very slowly, for example just walking parallel to begin with. It's not that unusual for an otherwise friendly dog to become reactive guarding their patch.

[Booboostoo]

As above you need to introduce dogs in a neutral space, ideally take them for a long walk on lead first to tire them out and occupy their minds.

Even then it may be that in their home territory the dogs will always bark at each other.

I'd get a wooden fence so they can't see each other and agree with the neighbour that you each recall your dogs inside when they start barking to help break the habit.