Barrier aggression, barking, and a few other things

OK, so I was asked about fence running...

Fence running, or 'barrier aggression,' is an aggressive, territorial behavior, often born out of frustration. Basically, a dog tries to get to something they want - A kid they wish to greet, another dog they want to meet or play with or chase off, a stranger they want to confront, etc. - and they find a barrier in the way. So they run along the barrier, frustrated. The longer the temptation is present, the more frustrated they get. Emotional energy starts getting stored up as the dog races back and forth, and the adrenalin starts to flow. Barking, anxiety, hostility, redireted aggression (attacking something - like a fellow pack member - that they can reach, on their side of the fence) can all follow. It very quickly becomes a habit, and can be very hard to break. Barrier aggression can lead to some seriously nasty dog fights - I've seen dogs trying to kill one another through a chainlink fence - and nearly succeed! It can lead to people getting bitten, if the dog ever manages to get past the barrier. If nothing else, it's also annoying as all hell.

The ONLY way I know to reliably stop fence running is to step on it, hard, every time it happens. With Suka, that's easy enough - With me, she's got a rock-solid recall. So, when she starts up, I recall her, immediately. Lin cannot get that level of obedience from her, so Suka will fence run when Lin is around, and I am not - Until I stick my head out a window.

Now, Dakota is a dog less focused on me, and her recall isn't (yet) as solid as it should be - She's got a bit of teenage-style rebellion in her. Basically a very good dog, but inclined to try and get away with things, if she can. This means that even as I'm improving her recall, she'll try and blow me off at times when she thinks I can't see her, or can't intervene - So I go where she can't blow me off. Right in her path. Then she gets the message. But if I move out of the line, and she thinks maybe I've stopped watching, she'll be right back at it. So I'm still stepping on that behavior - And yeah, as the weather becomes cooler, that means I'm getting my barn coat and house boots on and standing out at the fenceline at 0500. She's getting it. Slowly, but she's getting it. I've had Suka some 14 months, and had plenty of time to settle her score. Dakota is a less responsive dog, and is still very new here - She'll come around.

Other forms of barking are also things you want to watch. You see, when a dog barks at something, there are a limited number of reasons - Play, excitement, warning, threat, call for help. Play barking is fine. Excitement barking isn't a real problem, if it isn't driving you out of your head from the noise - Suka's new-found excitement barking is like getting beaten in the head with a club covered in icepicks. Standard desensitization and behavior swapping generally works with this - Create the situation that leads to the barking, then don't provide the payoff! Swap in behaviors that are not objectionable that do provide the payoff!

Suka goes insane when I grab a lead. Until recently, that meant 'going for a walk or ride.' Now, I'll sometimes walk around the house all day with a lead in my hand, and even hang out near a door. But I never put the lead on her and take her out. Yes, I've had to put up with a lot of barking, but she's learning that 'lead' =! 'walk.' Now, with any obnxoius habit, there's a last minute frenzy of a particular behavior, called an 'extinction burst,' just before the habit is discarded. Suka's at that point right now, with regards to the lead. She's putting on one last furious display of barking when I grab the lead, hoping against hope that this time, she'll get to go for a walk. But all the yammering in the world will not get that door open. Silence, and a patient sit-stay, will. I've changed the 'go for a walk' behavior to require a quiet sit-stay at the door, and when she does that on command, she gets what she so desperately wants. If she starts yammering, I turn around and walk away. Very rapidly, her behavior is changing. Soon, the freakout derby at the door will be gone - I just need to stay the course.

By the way: If I were to yield, just once, I'd have to try ten times harder to stamp out the behavior again. NOTHING re-enforces a behavior like inconsistent rewards! This is one of the reasons fence running is hard to stamp out - The dog is faster than you are. You need to try as hard as you can to stop the behavior consistently. If this means you need to physically go out to the fence in the chill early hours, well, so be it.

Warning barking is fine - Until I respond. Then, I expect the dog to shut up and let me deal with it. When Suka or Dakota bark to warn me, my immediate response is to call them to me, and thank them. Once that's done, I expect them to hush. And I enforce it. I also check out the scene of the warning - Failure to do so can lead to more barking, and / or a shift to threat barking, if the dogs think I'm not doing my job as guardian. If I'm not doing my job as guardian, they will step forward and try to take the role; Letting that happen is a BIG no-no!

'Call for help' barking is when the dog is in trouble, or is facing something that scares them badly. You MUST respond to this! Failure will at the very least jeopardize your leadership status, or worse. Maybe disasterously worse. You'll recognize the change in tone - Like a child's cry, you'll know when it's serious, and when it's less so.

When a dog barks at an approaching stranger, they're warning at a minimum, and they may be threatening and / or calling for help, too. When the stranger passes on, the dog thinks "Ah-ha! I barked at the threat, and the threat went away! Mission accomplished!" Instant re-enforcement! When it happens again, well, that (in the dog's mind) is proof that the barking works. Now the mailman comes by, and walks Right. Up. To. The. House. The barking isn't working! So the dog barks louder, maybe spins around in frustration, bounces up and down a bit. The mailman moves on with his appointed rounds. The dog has now learned that truly obnoxious, over-the-top barking repells serious threats!

So, what do I do? I step up. I respond to the call for help. I relieve them at sentry, and require my dogs to take a subordinate role. I am the boss, the guard, the Alpha. When my dogs try to step in front of me to defend the territory, I stop them, and make damn sure they understand that I'm on the job. When my dog barks to warn me, I acknowledge the warning, and then tell her to stand down - I've got it now. "Thank you Dakota. That'll do. Good girl." If she doesn't stop, now she's disrespecting my authority. "Dakota. Come. Down. Stay."

Of course, I'm not a professional - I only play one at home. This is what I've learned from reading and talking to people I respect and from trial and error over time. There are most certainly people whom are much more sophisticated and scientific about this. Likewise, I live in an urban neighborhood - Things that I cannot tollerate because they disrupt the peace, might be much more acceptable or even desirable in more rural environments.

In general, I believe that "a tired dog is a good dog" but that can backfire on you - Teach a dog that every day they're going to get a lot of exercise, and then fail to provide it for a couple days, and you've got a potential problem on your hands! I keep my dogs exercised enough to keep them lean and fit, but I do it in differing ways. Sometimes, a nice walk on Main Street. Sometimes, a walk through a park, or the neighborhood. Sometimes, it's only in the back yard. Sometimes, it's in the house (usually when my wife isn't home!). Sometime, it's mental instead of physical - "hide and seek," "shell game," and obedience training all work a dog's mind well. Exercise alone will not produce all the behaviors you want, though, nor will it eliminate bad behaviors. For that, you need to train.

For a little relevent reading (I won't call it 'light!'), I suggest books by the Monks of New Skete, and Leslie McDevitt. Do a quick 'Google;' those names are easy to find on the 'web. There are many more books out there, but those are the ones I started with.