Tasha has a vendetta against my neighbors

I have two sets of neighbors, one on the side and one behind me, who are either retired or don't work and they spend a lot of time out in their yards. Every time I take the dogs outside, Tasha immediately races out and checks if either neighbor is outside, and then proceeds to loudly bark and growl with her hackles raised if either neighbor is out. No matter how much David and I tell her "No!" and "Quiet!" she insists. This is the ONLY time that it ever seems like she deliberately disobeys us.

After awhile, as soon as she barked I made her come and sit next to me for a time out/cool down. Well now, she runs out, looks, barks, then runs up to me and sits down without me even telling her but she still gives a "woof!" off and on.

Recently I've gotten into the habit on taking the dogs for a walk in the afternoon around the neighborhood area. We can walk by cars, bikes, other people out in their yards, other walkers, even other dogs, and she's a perfect angel, ignoring all of it and happily enjoying her walk. BUT, if we walk by either the house behind us, or the house next to us, and one of those neighbors are out, she starts snarling and barking! Yet she will ignore everything and everyone else on the whole rest of the walk.

Neither neighbor has ever done anything unkind towards her at all, and she is never outside without supervision. My conclusion is she considers our neighbors constant encroachers and/or threats to our territory. Everyone else we pass she seems to accept that they are not threatening our territory so she ignores them.

For the life of me I'm not sure how to curb this in her. It's very embarrassing every time we go out or walk by my neighbors and they wave and say hi, Tasha is barking and snarling like a mad dog. Anyone have any ideas or suggestions?

Have you tried to have your neighbors give Tasha a treat when she comes out? I.E something smelly like a hotdog may work. If Tasha begins to associate your neighbors with the reward of a tasty treat, she may happily look forward to greeting them outside. :D

Hi lovingisliving! Thanks for your reply and your idea is good, I'm just not sure it would be too much of a success with Tasha for a couple of reasons. One she is very suspicious of people outside her family circle, especially men, and the more they try to get her to come up by cooing and even offering treats, the more suspicious and upset she gets. She's so funny that way. But, if I could actually get a neighbor to do it every day, I still think she'd eventually thaw out. But one of the neighbors is a very elderly, hard of hearing man and his 60-year-old son. The son might be interested but he works night hours so I don't see much of him, and the older man never seems interested in getting social.

The neighbor behind us is more social, but he has a mentally handicapped boy, I think his nephew, staying there a lot, and he has constant company coming and going from his house. The boy often plays out in the yard, I'm not sure how old he is but I think he's perhaps 13 or 14, he likes to run through the yard humming or just making happy noises. Of course this makes Tasha even more vehement and loud in her barking and growling because she is alarmed at this human running around making noises like that, it's very embarrassing. :o

I think in this situation it'd be tough to make the treat idea work unless I had neighbors willing/able to work with me on a daily consistent basis for awhile. I'm still brainstorming ways to handle this whole thing, and I sure appreciate your input!

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Originally posted by lovingisliving76
Have you tried to have your neighbors give Tasha a treat when she comes out? I.E something smelly like a hotdog may work. If Tasha begins to associate your neighbors with the reward of a tasty treat, she may happily look forward to greeting them outside. :D

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thats my suggestion too.... We have ppl who come to our door do that for Lucy as she is terrible for barking when they come.... she is getting better,, perhaps this will work for you too...

If you don't think she'll warm up to them, even with a tasty treat... then perhaps you could try taking her favorite toy with you when you go outside. Anything treats or otherwise that will make her pay attention to you instead of the neighbors when you walk out your door. She has probably done it for so long its more of a habit now. Or she could be reacting to your own reactions. Such as if you have her on a leash and when she starts barking etc you are holding tension on it. A dog will react if they sense tension or apprehension in you etc. I would try taking a treat, a really good one, and holding it in my hand where she can smell it but not necessarily eat the whole thing. Just kinda nibble it until you are far enough away that she will not notice she even passed by those neighbors. Then give her lots of praise along with the rest of the treat. If you do this long enough and consistantly she should do lots better. Just try and keep her so occupied she doesnt have a chance to bark. This way its more of a positive thing when going outdoors. Hope something I've said may help you. I've had a similiar problem with my Aust./German shephard mix.

I would try a squirting barking collar on her for just those instances.

Thanks again to all for the suggestions and advice.. I actually did try to have one of the neighbors who was out this weekend offer her a tasty treat... well it didn't turn out too well. As soon as he bent down and held out the treat, she went berzerk, barking angrily with raised hackles and running back and forth. He tossed it on the ground and she ignored it (Tommy proceeded to run over and gobble it though :p) I had a much harder time getting her settled down this time, had to take her inside. It was pretty embarrassing, but Tommy was more than happy to take treats from him at least :p.

I don't think she is reacting off of me because I don't even know the neighbors are out until she starts in (yard is surrounded by fir trees).

It seems any attention given to her at all by a stranger (mainly men), makes her much more upset and suspicious. The men she eventually warms up to, like one of my brothers-in-law and one of my husband's friends, are people who completely ignore her at first and let her approach them on her own, let her sniff without trying to pet her until she's comfortable and even gives them a little kiss.

I'm still not sure how exactly to handle the neighbor problem. I hate to take a corrective path, but I am really not seeing another way to handle this at this point. Her habit needs to be broken. It was not bad before until this summer, when for some reason it seems to have gotten much worse.

Also it should be understood that by corrective, I do not mean physical punishment, but more like having to go back in for a time out or something along those lines. She is very bright and learns very quickly. In the past, a couple of times when she did not come when I called her, I then shut the door and when she came up to the door to come in, I let her stay out there longer. After one or two times of this, she now comes running every time when I call her to come in.

Well, I think your answer is pretty clear and your dog must think you dumb, your neighbors are, of course, the living dead. Think about it, doesn't it all work? I mean I am kidding but.... your dog IS your protector...

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Originally posted by leslie
Well, I think your answer is pretty clear and your dog must think you dumb, your neighbors are, of course, the living dead. Think about it, doesn't it all work? I mean I am kidding but.... your dog IS your protector...

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I know why she is doing it.

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My conclusion is she considers our neighbors constant encroachers and/or threats to our territory.

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I have always known it was a territorial issue, however, I think she can learn that the neighbors she sees in their own yards every day are not to be snarled and barked at as if they were indeed the living dead.

As an aside, I doubt she thinks me dumb either, the wonderful thing about dogs is they pass no judgements like that on their people ;)

My best advice would be like others have said, get them to have a treat or maybe just get her used to and familiar neighbours. See if your neighbours wouldn't mind just one day coming over to your house or if you came over and just petting your dog, getting used to her. Then they could feed her some treats...get the hang of it? If they're not willing to do that or it's just not a good idea, try and get your dog to pay more attention to you when you step out of the house with her or train her not to bark at them. Don't punish her when she barks, just tell her to be quiet and when she stops reward her. Or if you want her to instead pay attention to you then teach her the command "watch me" and again reward. Hope some of these things will help! Good luck and keep us posted.:)

I was totally kidding about the "dumb" thing. some people believe that animals have a special sense about ghosts, evil etc (we do know some dogs are able to locate cancer). But it was a JOKE! :)

I hope I didn't seem offended, it's sometimes hard to know how to read the "tone" of someone's words. I thought you probably were being light-hearted (though I wasn't 100% sure) and meant my response in the same manner. :) No offense taken!

oh good! I was just imaging that your dogs were "in the know" that the neighbors were evil somehow (kept thinking of that movie, "Night of the Living Dead" and you just innocently not knowing.. all the while they are raising their hackles and growling at these ghouls... raised the goose bumps on me! I mean, there really is no obvious reason for the territory issue much but that must be it, right? Or there is a possibility that they smell funky. Have you been to their house yet? Know what goes on over there?