So territorial but friendly?

[Drewberry]

Jager recently has become more and more territorial. His problem is other dogs walking by the house. We live on a corner so we have a sidewalk both along the side of our house as well as the front. Every time a dog walks by, whether Jager is inside or out, he barks aggressively and the hair on his back goes up.

The thing is that he LOVES all other dogs and people. Once he meets dogs face to face he just has a blast.

What can I do to correct this behavior? I hate to think that our neighbors think he, especially as a GSD, is dangerous and mean and that's certainly how he would look to anyone who doesn't know him. I also don't want this to lead to actually physical aggressive behavior.

Any advice is really appreciated.

[big_dog7777]

Your situation is virtually identical to mine. I live on a corner as well, and have a very territorial dog. Out on leash, Diesel is very social and at the very least dog neutral. Put him behind his own fence or in his crate and he is a completely different dog. This is not out of the ordinary though, and an issue that we need to work through. You need to perfect his recall under distraction. This works a whole lot better if you are working hard on your recall while training obedience. The best way to do this for this situation is to set him up. Create the picture of what is causing the behavior, only stack the deck in your favor so you have all the control. Get a long line, and have it on Jager. Enlist the help of a friend or neighbor, and have them walk by with a dog. When he runs at the fence, recall him. When he ignores you give him pops on the collar while calling him. The moment he relents and starts to come to you mark that behavior and praise the heck out of him. When he totally gets to you, have whatever his favorite thing in the world is (food, toy, whatever). Repeat. Until he does this 99.999% reliably while on a long line, do not ever try and call him away from the fence if he's not on the long line (do not issue a comand you cannot enforce).

This is the first step in controlling him when he behaves this way, but the reality may be that he cannot be left outside unsupervised. Privacy fence will help (provided your municipalities code allows since you're on a corner - mine did not), as will hedges or even a second fence within your yard to keep him away from the sidewalk.

[zyppi]

google 'barrier aggression.'