Bubble Wrap?? General Chat

My dog Darkstar (my first Akita) used to visit the (chain link) fence line between us and the guy who lived next door, who had a pack of hybrid wolf dogs. Two 50% and four 25% wolf. Darkstar would go flirt with one of the females until the rest of the pack keyed into him being there. Then a bunch of them would be right up at the fence barking and snarling, and he’d be barking right back, running up and down the fence line. When I’d try to get him he’d just run further down the fence line. He knew I couldn’t catch him if he didn’t want to be caught. I blame my first grey hairs on him.

He was also extremely intelligent. He and the local deer had an understanding. As long as they didn’t get to close he wouldn’t bother them. He didn’t want to waste his energy chasing them because he knew he couldn’t catch them.

Another time I was tossing firewood up that same fence line (I was much younger than I am now) and he was up by the house with his brother, who belonged to a friend of mine. I was dog sitting while he was out of town. I didn’t have a fence back then, and Darkstar was pretty well behaved and didn’t wander off (after his puppy stage). So when dog sitting I’d keep one of the dogs on a long line and they’d just hang out together (they were each other’s only dog friend). If one was on a line, the other wouldn’t wander. So I hear Darkstar and Big Guy (I know, dumb name…) barking up a storm, but from different places. I was involved with what I was doing, but after about 5 minutes I realized I should investigate what was going on. Well there was a sketchy guy who had walked 1/2 mile down our steep, narrow, winding private dirt road. He wasn’t wearing a shirt and had a hatchet tucked into his belt by his back. Darkstar was circling him, not letting him move, but also not attacking him. He had been barking so I’d come deal with this guy. I’m not that big a guy. I used to be 5ft 8in tall (getting older I’ve lost an inch) and about 150lbs. I grabbed Darkstar by his collar and asked this guy what he was doing down our road. I didn’t like his explanation. Now the other Akita is still barking by the house, but you can’t see the house from where Darkstar stopped him. Darkstar was 115-120lbs, and Big Guy was a little bigger. So I tell him that I don’t ever want to see him down the road again, and that the other dog he hears is bigger, and meaner than the dog that had corralled him. He left, never to be seen again.

Darkstar earned every bit of food, treats, dog toys, and veterinary visits he ever got, just from that one instance. I hadn’t trained him to do that. He just did that instinctively. He was an incredibly loyal and extremely intelligent dog. He looked out for me. He considered that his job, to protect me. I could leave him in my truck with all the windows open and nobody would approach my truck.

My current Akitas are much friendlier. If I’m parked somewhere Katie Mae will look all cute and happy and get people to come over and give her attention. Bandit will take some attention too. These dogs love me, and let me know if someone is passing through the property (I now have a fence for these dogs), but they aren’t on the same level as Darkstar.

Darkstar sounds like a great dog.

With these two, the fence fighting is Cat-dog's way to be brave about her fear of dogs. She knows those dogs can't get through the fence, so it's safe to bark at them. Tornado-dog just joins in because it's fun. The neighbor dogs just bark because they are being territorial.

When Moose-dog was young, he would jump straight up and bite the top of the fence slats to break the top 3 or 4 inches off. Then he could jump up and see what was happening on the other side. He wanted to know what people were doing. I ran horse wire the entire length of the fence so that the dogs couldn't get out even if a slat broke. One time, a neighbor from behind me came to complain about him. I said "he can't get out of the yard" and started to explain about the horse fencing but she walked away in a huff. All he ever did was jump and look. I just replaced that fence last year - it's sad not seeing those Moose-dog peep holes in the fence.

The whistle is accomplishing what I was hoping for.

I let the dogs out. After a couple moments (have to pee), all the dogs converge on the fence. I whistle and my dogs move away from the fence and quietly enjoy their yard.

The neighbor's dogs remain at the fence and make calling barks to entice mine back.

If mine go back I whistle and mine move away again while theirs keep trying to entice.

I'm not having to bring mine in because they are listening to me and behaving. And the neighbor dogs are obviously being jerks.

My Eddie was reactive and we live next door to two terriers. They bark all the time and this increased when my dogs were in their garden. This led to Ed fighting back at the close-boarded fence, but only in one area. We double fenced this area, and there was a marked improvement on our side.
I lost both Merry and Ed in lockdown and although they are out all day, Tally just ignores them. When we are in the garden the terriers bark continually, our neighbours don't seem to hear them, just an occasional, 'Get In!'. They do this meaningless barking in the house as well. Thankfully they are quiet at night - unless there are visitors!

I was going to add a short fence around that section of the yard but really didn't want the expense.

When they moved in there were just two dogs and they were inside a lot more. But they had puppies and ended up keeping two. So there are four big rambunctious dogs in a small cottage. So I get why they tend to be outside. But it is all the time. And they never take the dogs out for the day.

And yes, they are outside at night a lot too. They don't bark constantly fortunately.

Tornado-dog barks more inside the house. But it's usually only to tell me to hurry up and let him out when we get up and to give him his cookie at bedtime. Or when a delivery comes.

I was sitting on the couch just now with Tornado-dog laying at the other end and Cat-dog laying on the floor.

I sneezed.

Tornado-dog IMMEDIATELY got up and crawled up the couch to hug me (laying his head on my neck).

He does this every time I sneeze. Sometimes he does it when I cough. I have no idea why. He MUST hug me when I sneeze.

I appreciate the concern (if that is what it is), but sometimes it is annoying...

I wish Tally showed more concern when I ouch when I get up, or don't feel good. She is more likely to dance around trying to hurry me up. I have come to accept that Tally's world is completely self-centred.
Going back to living with provocative dogs next door. I think I have written before that a friend suggested that we try an aerosol spray collar for Eddie - in fact she gave us a kit to try with. The spray was not activated by us but by the barking of the dog wearing it. The first time we put it on him it worked brilliantly, he stopped returning the aggressive barking, and just mooched round our garden. The next time we let him out wearing the collar, when the next door dogs were in the garden, he was not our Eddie, he was just a shadow of himself. We tried a third time and he was the same, though if he went out without the collar, (when the other dogs were indoors), he was his old happy self. We decided not to use the spray collar any more as we felt it could destroy his personality.
Remembering this made me think about the experiment which aimed to evaluate training methods, and wonder how efficient shock collars were at actually reframing a behaviour. If the dog recognises that it is wearing a box that may deliver punishment round its neck, its behaviour is governed by that potential fear. Once the box is removed, how much training has actually taken place?

Tornado-dog otherwise shows no concern for my welfare. It is all about him having fun. That's why the sneeze reaction is so weird.

That is one of the biggest complaints about the efficacy of shock collars and such. The dog is likely to just shut down completely out of fear. And averse-based trainers don't acknowledge that. They think a shut down dog is an obedient dog.

I don't know any positive-based trainers who consider getting bit as part of being a trainer. Averse-based trainers do. And that's because: 1) they do not read the dog; and 2) they punish the dog to the point that the dog feels it necessary to bite to get their message through.

I also think that "how much taining has actually taken place" is key too. They routinely claim that these tools are for training only. Yet, you will see prong collars on their dogs all the time. Even if the prong collar is prohibited in the ring, it will be on the dog up to their going in the ring and as soon as they step out of the ring. That leads me to believe that they do not have faith that their training is effective. It also suggests that the dog will be punished as soon as they walk away from that ring for every mistake made in the ring.

The whistle has definitely made a difference with my neighbor. They are much more timely in their controlling their dogs' barking. So I guess the question is: who did I train?

@CaroleC I have a question for if I may. On another forum, there is a person who writes using a lot of British terms. It seems over the top to me and I suspect they are faking the "accent". There are a couple things they'd written that come across as fake, so I wanted to ask if you hear these things commonly.

The first is that they screen tv shows or movies. It's always "I screened this movie last night", never "I watched or saw this great show". I have never heard or read someone use the term "screen" as a substitute for "watch" or "saw" not even on international sites with folks from all over. Is this something that is spoken commonly in the UK and just not written?

The other comment was "my motor is out of commission again". Now I've watched all the Top Gear episodes over the years and have never heard them refer to the engine as a "motor" in that fashion. I know it was commonly used in tv shows of earlier days (eg, James Herriot would have said his motor was broken down), but I haven't heard it said in contemporary shows.

Just curious if my suspicions are leading me to this or if these phrasings really are off.

No you are right, we would usually say that we 'watched that film last night'. I have occasionally heard 'movie' but 'film' is more usual. I think 'screened' would mean that you were providing the showing of a film for others to watch.
If I heard someone say, 'my motor', I would expect them to mean their car - rather than just the engine. 'Out of commission', does sound very formal, it's more natural to say that the car has an engine problem and is, 'off the road'. Of course there is a possibility that she may be trying to be comical by using old fashioned language.

OK. Thanks.

Your explanation of the motor and "off the road" I think really clarifies it. I watch and read a lot of British stuff (as she claims to do) and I have never read/heard the phrase "off the road" and it's not something used here at all, other than to say "I went off the road". Here in the states, we'd say the car is not running at the moment or having engine problems. So her using such a formal phrase as "out of commission" in conjunction with "motor" seems deliberately done to elevate herself in some way. Otherwise, why not use the more common "my car isn't running" (US), "my car is off the road" (UK), or "I'm having engine problems" (both) - because she's never heard "off the road" in any of the shows and the other two aren't "British enough".

And the screening films is too. It's like she gets most things right (tele, film, etc) but occasionally goes too far using terms and phrases that sound like they came directly from a Keeping Up Appearances episode. I'm waiting for her to go on a riparian picnic...

That show was hilarious. Her poor husband!

I don't believe she has a long suffering Richard...

It was a great show. My favorite though was The Good Life:

Methane. You inthane

The ooh aah bird is so called because it lays square eggs

So we're being lazy and laying in bed. Tornado-dog is laying next to me and Cat-dog is under the bed. Suddenly the bed starts shaking and Tornado-dog starts looking around like WTF! I had to explain to him that it was just a Cat-dogquake - she scratches an itch and the bed has seismic activity. I've woken up several times thinking we're having an earthquake. Poor Tornado-dog has never been on the bed for one before - he didn't know what was going on.