Puppy barking aggressively at neighbours dog

[Opoly54]

Our pup is 9 months old. We’ve got a small garden, our neighbours have 2 terriers who don’t get walked at all. They bark at absolutely everything. Every time our pup is in the garden he gets barked at. For months he just ignored it, he often does still ignore it but 3 times over the last week he’s barked really quite aggressively back at them.

The first time he was burying a treat along the fence so I think he was being protective over that. The last 2 times have just been because they’ve barked at him. It’s not ‘normal’ barking though. It’s frantic and aggressive. Next door take their dogs in straight away. The only way I can stop our dog is to temp him in with a treat. I’m sure that’s completely the wrong thing to do as he now associates barking like that with getting treat. In the moment though it’s the only thing he’ll respond to.

I don’t know how to stop this and I don’t want it to escalate. Our pup gets lots of mental and physical exercise, lots of socialising and I train with him every day. He gets plenty of quiet time in the home too. Many thanks

I would make a secondary fence your side of the adjoining fence, about a foot or 2 in. You can plants some shrubs or flowers in between to strengthen the barrier.

They sounds a bit extreme but I can completely see the logic to it. I do think he’s protecting his boundary and when they’re nose to nose there’s only the sheet of wood between them. I’ll have a look at some options. It’s only the area of fence near the house that sets them off, he doesn’t react if they’re near the end of the garden, just where he buried his treat.

As youve said really, hell associate barking like that and the treat as being rewarded for it and will reinforce the behaviour. He probably is resource guarding but probably a good idea to train him out of it as opposed to putting a fence up to stop him

Of course he won't associate barking with a treat if you use a treat as a distraction. You use the treat to distract him, ideally turning him away from the fence by luring him with the treat, then you click (assuming here his attention is on the treat and you, and he is not barking), and then you treat. You are marking and rewarding the desired behavior, i.e. stop barking, turn around and give me attention.

I’d like to try training him out of it before we go down the fence route.

When it’s happened I’ve been stood at the back door, I’ve called him and showed him the treat pot then thrown some treats by the back door and into the house and he’s come in then I’ve said said good boy. Should I just continue doing that? I haven’t told him off, mainly because I don’t want to creat any more of scene outside!

In this case I think prevention is probably your best bet. Dogs guard their homes and territory - it's totally natural and normal. The reason it's started now is probably because your dog is going through adolescence.

Stop your dog from being able to see out - either put a second fence up as a PP has said, or block all the gaps in the current fence and put some plants or similar up to stop him being able to see into next doors' garden.

We have one garden wall higher than the other and ours only barks at the wall he can see over.

He can only see through through the very slight gaps in the fence, it’s the barking from them that starts it off but I will add some pots along that side to try and add some distance.

He can only see through through the very slight gaps in the fence

That's all it takes. The barking from them will set him off but it may be better if he can't see them.

I’ll have a look at the gaps and see what we can do.

If he has a good enough recall that you can call him back from the barking then use that. His name and come, as soon as he comes two fingers under the collar, click and treat. If you cannot distract him use a treat to lure him away from the fence, click and treat. Build up from that so you can recall him before the barking begins. It’s very time consuming and it requires a lot of patience on your part but if you keep at it and distract him every time he goes to bark he will get the message and it will save you years of annoying barking.

What have you done with him in terms of training?