By Peggy Swager
For me to get to my riding and hiking trails ¾ of a mile from where I live, it is necessary for me to go on dirt roads to the beginning of those hiking paths. I’ve lived in the same area for over thirty years. At first making this ¾ of a mile trek was not a problem. However, over time, people moved into the area, fencing in their five acres with the concept that a dog finds ecstasy when allowed to roam all day on five acres. Most of the dogs allowed to roam, provided me with an unexpected opportunity to study how barrier aggression and territorial aggression can develop in different dogs.
The most problematic dogs in the subdivision where I live were on my path to get to the hiking trails. Making these dogs all the more problematic was that when walking on the road, you could sometimes encounter three different sources of reactive dogs all at once. We quickly named this location Dog Hill. Below I have tried to give a visual illustration of Dog Hill so I can better discuss the development and progression of the different dog’s behaviors.
My house was about 3/8 of a mile from the beginning of the lots for the German Shepherds and the Great Pyrenees. The German Shepherds were only in that location for two years. The dogs were kept in a kennel off of the road and were almost never out without their trainer, although one time one did escape. These dogs would bark when you went by. The barking by itself was not an issue since the dog’s distance from the road was far enough as to not upset either horse or dog. However, once a dog became apprehensive about the other dogs on Dog Hill, the barking German Shepherds would often tense the dog I was walking, adding to the dog’s concern about encountering the problematic dogs.
Duchess and Bear
I have a bad attitude about people with corner lots. If you think about it, corner lots can have a lot of road exposure. I find people with corner lots more often than not end up with problematic animals. This was true of Duchess and Bear, though Duchess was not as problematic as Bear. The fencing of Duchess’ and Bear’s property allowed the dogs access to the road in two areas. When you added up the road frontage, you found the dogs could harass people for almost a quarter of a mile.
Unfortunately, I didn’t get pictures of Bear and Duchess at the beginning of where I might encounter them on their property. That was in part because they often didn’t see me coming until part way up Dog Hill. The times these two dogs saw me at the beginning of their property, the dogs would run to the fence and bark to fend me off. Great Pyrenees are a livestock guarding breed. This kind of breeding offers these dogs genetics that can make the dog more territorial. Add to that the fence as a barrier … and you can end up with barrier aggression.
Near the top of Dog Hill (before I turned the corner to go back down towards the end of Duchess and Bear’s zone), was the gate to the property. Since the dogs were often closer to the house, this was one place I most often began my encounter with these dogs.
Both dogs often laid outside the house and when they saw me come by, they’d race to the gate. Both would bark, but it was Bear who showed more aggression.
Duchess is on the left and Bear is on the right. Bear was always more aggressive than Duchess. Sadly, Duchess died at a younger age. Bear kept up his reign of terror for twelve years, the dog was a year old when he moved to the property, so he made it to thirteen years old when he died. Even when he was fairly feeble, he was still aggressive and would chase cars that came by. Any time Bear saw people go by, dogs and people go by, and horses go by, he was relentless when it came to barking and showing aggression. My understanding was that these two dogs were not related. I found it good information to see how the same breed of dog, with different breeding genetics, reacted differently to the same situation.
These dogs persisted to follow the fence line once I was discovered. The dogs used barking and Bear would also lunge at the fence to try and drive me away from their property. Duchess seemed to feel after she’d alerted to my presence, that her job was done. Making Bear all the more terrifying to either dogs I was walking or a horse I was riding, was that he could pop in and out of bush and scrub oak when he was launching his attempts to keep me away from his property.
There were several areas where Bear could pop out of bush and scrub oak. This would increase the angst in any dog I was walking or could spook a horse I was riding.
The only thing that stopped Bear’s harassment was the end of the fenced property. There was another property I had to go by before turning again and walking the final 1/8 of a mile to the trail. Sometimes these dogs were out on that five-acre property, and they did have access to running up to the road. This set of dogs were occasionally out, and would rush up to the fence. However, these two dogs were not that threatening. Unfortunately, these two dogs didn’t need to be very threatening to worry a dog on the leash who was already upset about Bear’s activities. Adding yet another set of barking dogs running up to the fence worked to create more frequency of this kind of fear evoking encounter, as well as extended the duration.
This is a picture of Bear and Duchess at the far end of their property. Note that Bear looks aggressive and Duchess does not.
Duchess had gotten out once and I encountered her on the road. She was amiable towards me. Bear also got out once, but was intent on attacking me. At the time I had begun carrying pepper spray because I had a dog attacked and almost killed on the hiking trail by a loose dog.
The time Bear wanted to attack me, he’d slipped out of his gate. Bear was marching right up to me with a stare that is hard to describe. Ironically, a week before I had interviewed a twelve-year-old kid that was attacked by a dog at his friend’s home. The kid had said the attacking dog was staring at him in a strange way, then the next thing the kid knew he’d awoken in a hospital, a result of a dog attack.
When I saw the look in Bear’s eyes as he approached, I felt I knew what kind of look the twelve-year-old kid had seen. I pointed at Bear and commanded him to “go home.” This didn’t deter the dog at all. Although I hated using the pepper spray on the dog, I found it saved me. A few days later Bear again slipped out of the gate right after I walked by. When he began his attack approach, I held out the pepper spray. He stopped, then turned towards Aspen, my dog, who was off leash. Bear lunged towards her, but fortunately, she was quick to jump out of his way. After I marched towards Bear with pepper spray in my extended hand to drive him away from my dog, Bear turned and went back through this gate.
This is a picture of Aspen who was trained to stay with me for off leash walks, and who Bear tried to redirect his aggression towards.
Some of what I learned from Bear and Duchess was that although both were the same breed, and both were under the same conditions for building up their aggression in regard to attacking me, Bear was the one who escalated his aggression while Duchess appeared to de-escalate hers. Although at times, Duchess would bark and run to the fence to defend her property, over time, she didn’t display increased aggression like Bear did in the same circumstances. Duchess actually tried to block Bear a couple of times in an attempt to calm him. Of course Bear worked around her efforts and persisted in his. I’ve seen another time that a dog seemed to try to calm another dog who was worked up when someone came by a fence, but part of that attempt to calm was because the worked up dog was trying to redirect the aggression towards the other dog.
I never saw Bear redirect his aggression towards Duchess. I have seen this in other dogs. On a property at the end of my driveway, another corner lot, the neighbors fenced in their five acres and had two Great Pyrenees-Saint Bernard mix puppies. One was a male and one a female. When these two littermates grew up, they began to take on similar issues that Bear had when it came to fence boundaries. However, these two did escalate their aggression towards each other.
The Great Pyrenees- Saint Bernard mix would come over when they saw me walking by. This is not the kind of look you want to see directed towards you from a dog.
Both would race the fence. I believe this racing the fence ramped up the dogs’ aggression.
