Ideas to stop dog seeing through fence

[Ginger1982]

Just that really!

Dog is very reactive at the fence towards the neighbours. I could be smothered in his favourite treat and it wouldn't tear him away once he's seen someone on the other side, which must be very annoying for them when he's barking like a loony!

Just moved into new house and previous owners had some sort of bamboo thing over the fence which does block a bit but my resourceful doggy can still see through. Short of putting up a whole new, completely impenetrable fence, does anyone have any ideas? Or indeed and experience of how to get him away when he does start barking? Recall, which is patchy at best given he is a JRT, seems to go out the window!

A second layer of bamboo?

There's no reason why a JRT shouldn't have good recall - I have one, and so long as he hasn't seen a squirrel it's 99% perfect. It does, however, need some positive reinforcement every time he comes back - something nice and high value like dried sprats, a squeeze of liver pate or primula cheese etc.

That said, mine also has a tendency towards reactivity - in this case towards motorbikes, so he's always on lead. I've trained a 'this way' (followed by an about turn and a high value treat) but once he's barking he's over threshold and essentially a lost cause, so I work hard to avoid him getting to that stage.

I'd work on sorting out the fence ASAP, but in the meantime avoid letting him out when the neighbours are out, and if they do appear and he kicks off, go outside immediately, put his lead on and bring him back into the house. You're not punishing him, but you are taking him away from the source of his distress.

Thanks, yes we do need to work harder on his recall in general. At the moment, seeing as we've just moved in and haven't identified all the trigger points yet, I usually have him in the back garden on a trailing lead so I can grab him. If I try to grab his collar while he is going nuts he will either jump and twist out of my reach or, occasionally show his teeth, which is a whole different problem!

Will look into more bamboo, thanks!

Take the bamboo off and tack a roll of anti weed netting along the fence, then put the bamboo back up over the top.

It might not help though if he can still smell or hear them, in which case I think you’ve just got to keep trying with training and removing him into the house every time he kicks off and won’t stop.

Yes, the redirected bite is an absolute joy - I've had a few of them on my lower legs. It's nothing to do with biting me, it's being so stressed he bites whatever is nearest - on one occasion that was a bag of supermarket shopping. Have to say I'm glad it's been a while since it has happened. A trailing lead does sound like a very good idea.

You don't, however, want this to become a major habit that he associates with that location, so I would sort the fencing ASAP

I think you need some advice from a dog trainer on improving his recall and dealing with his reactiveness.

you can get black impenetrable fleece/plastic stuff which you usually put down under gravel. It is weather proof and definitely not see through.

As pp suggested, remove bamboo, put a layer of this stuff behind and then reattach bamboo

Thanks everyone. Will look into the suggestions. I had a dog trainer in relation to his hatred of strangers coming in the house. Friends couldn't come over without him barking and snarling. The solution was to have more people come over and gradually he would get calmer but there's few folk who want to come over for training purposes just to be barked at...

Where did you find your dog trainer? Bear in mind it's a thoroughly unregulated industry and quite literally anyone can call themselves a dog trainer.

I'm not a dog trainer, but what I do know about dog training tells me that just having loads of visitors over is only going to allow your dog to practice the unwanted behaviour. I can assure you that my dog's hatred of motorbikes has absolutely not lessened by him seeing lots of them every day!

I'd recommend having another go with a dog trainer - but this time go for someone APDT accredited www.apdt.co.uk/dog-owners/local-dog-trainers/