Help ! Evie wants to be friends with everyone even the dangerous

[Vanessa & Evie]

I am am in need of some help. I apologize for the thesis in advance..

Evie is now 7.5 month old. She has always been the life of the party and wants to meet everyone whether they be human or canine. She is still a bit jumpy but she is getting better. She is mainly an indoor dog, but has free rein of the back yard when we are home, she goes to obedience every week, plus we walk her twice a day and lots of play etc.

We live in a house with a decent sized backyard, there is lots of open grass for Evie to play on, plus gardens to jump thru, different levels - generally lots of fun. There are renters next door with massive scarey, untrained, unwalked, ignored, bark at everything, very bored dogs. They are bull dog looking ridge back who knows dogs. They bark and jump at the fence when we have a half falling down fence.  It took ages for me to convince the owners of next door to agree to replacing the fence with a 1.8m -6ft color bond fence. The fence was replaced and this was when we knew we could safely get a dog. Which is when we started looking for Evie at the end of last year.

Evie has never really noticed the large dogs next door , there are also two Pomeranian dogs (who also bark alot)  at the rear of property and they have aggressive dog barking sessions with the huge dogs next door, with lots of banging against the colorbond fence. But Evie has never been interested, she just wants to play with us, or hang out in the compost or where the pond is. A few times she looked over and started towards the area where it was happening behind the fence , but we just called her to play and she played with us instead.

We have just came back from 5 days away at the beach and it was a wonderful dog friendly house, where Evie had great independence and played lots of off leash beach etc. She was the ideal dog except for a few opportunistic food grabs. 

Since we have came home, she has realized there are dogs next door, and she is going to the fence and wimpering and whining.  They of course are barking and banging at the fence as if they want to eat her. Evie is not scared at all.  I had bricks along the base of the colour bond fence, but the dogs next door have now dug holes and the bricks are falling. and their paws were under the fence and their snout. I was so upset i put vinegar on the dogs next door paws (cause it was what i had in my hand to pour along the fence line to discourage Evie from going there), but it ofcourse it didn't work. I have added more bricks etc.  and will on the weekend talk to the neighbours about there digging dogs and ask them to do chicken wire or something to discourage the digging.
 Plus do some temporary fencing so Evie is atleast a 1m away fromteh fence and not encouraging them.

But I guess my main question is why does Evie not realise they are scarey  and dangerous ?

Would she be like this with other  dangerous dogs if she ever met them  without a fence in the way.

Does she need to experience them with out a fence in the way to be scared of them.

She has met lots of dogs on our outing most have been friendly, a few have put her in her place when she is too in their face.

thanks

Ps I am also a bit paranoid as i was told by someone at a pet shop whose friends dog was murdered by aggressive neighbor dogs and dragged under a fence.

[Vanessa & Evie]

sorry,

also we are taking her out for toileting on a lead in our back yard at the moment to stop her from going over there, and feel kind a stupid doing it wondering is we are worrying too much

[Bob Johnston]

I am surprised they put in a new fence so asking them to put chicken wire or something else on thier side might be a stretch. I would dig out on my side of the fence and put some bricks in the hole stacked up to the bottom of the fence and then get those round rocks the size of oranges and put then around and over the bricks. tat way if they dig threw thier side they would hit brick and then large rocks before they would even see your doodle or yard. you could even line the hole and up the bricks to the fence with chicken wire before putting the larger rocks to make it more secure.

[Gail and Bailey]

I agree that you should secure your side of the fence.  Bob has some good ideas.  Sorry you are having such trouble with neighbor dogs!  It is so sad that some folks let their dogs be so obnoxious...I always feel sorry for the dogs because it sounds like they are being ignored.  Hope you get it worked out!  Your yard seems like a paradise for Evie ..except for the neighbor's dogs of course.

[Bonne Bouche]

This is an excellent thread, I wonder if this would get better response in the general discussion thread. Some of your questions pertain directly to Evie being so friendly with not-so friendly dogs, which is definatly a puppy thing, but may also be the case with other older dogs too. If you don't get enough feedback, I'd suggest sharing it with DK as a whole, I know a lot of  them might be able to help out, too ;-]

I have no real advice, toher than to say what you say you are doing sounds like your on the right track....sorry... 

[John and Finn]

Dogs can read other dogs language better than we can. Maybe the dogs are not as aggressive as you think.  I encountered a huge pit on a walk that I thought was going to eat Finn and Finn showed no fear.  Of course when the dog seemingly charged us I sprayed him.  A week later he came out of some heavy brush on a walk and was on us before we knew it and all the pit did was lay at our feet in submission.

BTW, Finn is the same way and approaches everyone and everything but if the dog starts showing true aggression he is more careful.  I though we would have problem with our neighbors dog since he would charge us daily stopping at his electric fence line.  But, the same thing happened with her.  Finn got loose and ran right over to her and she actually got scared and ran away.  The only problem I have ever really had was with a friends dog that was never socialized face to face with other dogs.  He is aggressive and Finn is much more careful around him.

My advice is to talk to the neighbors and maybe introduce them one at time on leashes and see the reaction is with no fence to separate them. 

As far as securing the fence I can't help with that.

[Vanessa & Evie]

Hi Everyone,

 

Thanks for the feedback, I was busy over the weekend making sure it was secure.

It is so sad about these dogs, I get quite angry at the dogs sometimes but then I remember it is not their fault.

When I went next door to have a chat with them on Sunday afternoon, as I was so sick of the dogs banging against the fence, no one was home ofcourse.  It was so unbelievable but  they now have a cat inside the house. So they have two dogs in the yard they ignore, a lone poor cockatiel bird they ignore, a snake in a glass cage thing now a bloody cat.  So typical of these people.

I ended up leaving them a polite note about the fence and saying I am see their dogs nose and paws under the fence. Who knows what they will do about it, but i made a copy if it escalates and I end up contacting the owners or realestate agent for next door.

Evie still goes near the fence, but she doesnt stay their long, I think she realises their intent. Thank God she doesnt bark back.

Thanks again :)