Lady sprayed my dog

[Shyfrog]

My dog is a chihuahua and barks loudly and incessantly at anyone who passes by the fence. It’s not a main road. She’s hard work and I can’t seem to control her. She stops listening to commands when she’s afraid and will run away from me and she runs along the fence to stop me from grabbing her and taking her back in just so she can keep barking. Someone has come with a spray bottle and sprayed something on her face and when they saw me coming they left quickly before I could say anything. She seems ok I’m hoping it was just water. What should I do? I know she’s my problem

There are some thick as mince people on here who know precisely fuck all about dogs and just love to hate them. Her spraying your dog on your property could have been very dangerous for her if you weren't such a nice person. I wouldn't have been so nice. Many wouldn't.

Look up Reactive Dogs UK (RDUK) - website and on Facebook. Their trainers are EXCELLENT and membership with tailored advice every day if you need it is £5 per month - or £3 if you can't afford that. It's online so no need for a trainer to go near her in person.

Her behaviour can be managed and improved. It's good that you're starting from a position of knowing she is scared - a lot of people assume that reactive dogs' motivation is nastiness, when actually it's defensiveness out of fear.

I’ll look at that

Not at all. The dog was acting as dogs do, it is in its nature

The dog was on the OP’s land.

Irrelevant- your dog has to be under control at all times by law, whether that's out in public or on your own private property.

I'm not in agreement with the fact that it was sprayed with water but the fact that the dog was on OP's land doesn't mean it can behave however it likes.

A barking dog is not out of control - don’t be daft. If that the case local authorities and the courts would be overwhelmed.

Of course a barking dog is an out of control dog. Unless of course the dog has been instructed to bark incessantly.

Rubbish. A dog barking in its own garden is not out of control. It may be considered a noise nuisance if it barks excessively, but it’s not classed as out of control just because it barks.

Do you also have an annoying yappy dog?

Nope - and even if I did it wouldn’t be considered out of control if it barked in my garden, regardless of the nonsense you claim.

@Shyfrog you are getting a horrible time from people on here. The dog haters are out in force.

Chihuahua's are buggers for noise. Mine is a cross breed but she has been hard work tontrian out of it.

The woman was completely out of order. Essentially she has abused the poor dog and that won't help her reactive nature. First off I would report to 101 so that is on record in case this awful woman tries something more.

However, a water sprat is quite a popular tool for training dogs out of poor behaviour. We have one for ours and after about 2 days we only had to pick it up and she would stop.

You definitely need to be more consistent with training. Try and block up the gaps on the fence. And bring the dog in the second it starts to bark.

You also need to do more to wear the dog out. A lot of this behaviour comes from boredom. Walk it a lot. Places where there is lots of stimulation. Lots of sniffs basically.

Your dog needs to know you're in charge.
It can't be dominating you/ passers by like this

Lots of brain games too - dogs need mental exercise and stimulation as much as physical exercise. Sometimes more so. A dog that’s walked briskly round the neighbourhood won’t learn to relax, experience its surroundings by sniffing or learn through training. Build in games when you’re out for a walk - practise your commands as you go, hide a toy and ask it to ‘go find’ to let it sniff it out, play hide and seek, that kind of thing. Do the same indoors.

The constant barking can be very wearing. We have a Jack Russell next door who used to bark constantly, especially when I put the washing out. Felt like I couldn’t step out of my own back door. Another neighbour complained to the council (it was that bad!). Now as soon as it starts they usher him straight back in. It’s not easy to live near!