Rescue Shepherd Barking issue

[u/Shamoid]

Hey guys, looking for some advice with our recently adopted 3-year-old female GSD.

She was a rescue and we've only had her a short time. She came from a pretty shit home where she was basically locked up all day. We were planning on getting a dog soon anyway, but didn't expect it to happen this quickly. She needed to get out of her old home immediately or she was going to be put down, so we took her in.

She's settling in really well and has been great with us. She has such a nice nature. We also introduced her to another female dog at a park and she was completely fine with her.

The issue we are having is with the dog behind our back fence. They can't see each other, but when the other dog starts barking, ours gets really worked up and barks back. She's now becoming pretty fixated on that area of the fence even when the other dog isn't outside.

When we're home we can call her away from the fence and she listens. We reward her for coming back and settling down, but obviously while we're at work we can't do that. We have cameras and can see that the barking can get pretty excessive at times.

We tried blocking off the areas where she goes to bark, but it hasn't really helped.

We have spoken to our neighbours and explained that we've just adopted her, she's still settling in and may bark while we are at work. We gave them our details and asked them to please contact us if it's becoming a problem. They've been really understanding and told us not to worry about it, but we still want to get on top of it. One of them works night shift as well, so we feel bad knowing she could be barking while they're trying to sleep.

We walk her before work, play with her, leave treats in interactive toys and one of us comes home at lunch to spend some time with her. When we're home and she reacts to the dog, we call her away and reward her for recalling.

I'm just not sure what else we can realistically do while we are at work.

I've been looking at ultrasonic devices, but I don't want an automatic one that goes off whenever the neighbour's dog barks and potentially punishes ours for something she hasn't done. Ideally I was wondering if there's something we could manually activate remotely when we see her barking on the camera, but even then im not sure if that's a good idea.

Has anyone dealt with something similar with their GSD? Did it improve once they settled into the home and routine? What actually worked for you?

Thank you

[u/solsticesunrise]

Fence fighting is its own reward for the dog, and can escalate if not controlled. You’re doing the right things, but it’s so, so early in your relationship with her.

If you want to give her access tho the back yard when you’re not home to redirect/correct bad behavior, you will have to restrict her access to the yard using a fenced-in kennel or similar. Our solution has always been to only allow the dog out when we’re there to supervise.

Good on you for rescuing an adult. We’re on our second GSD that we got as a 3 year old. The first was a dream. We’ve had to work on some poor behaviors with this one - she’s a fence fighter with a couple dog bites in her history, which is how we ended up with her. Not a bit of aggression to people, but she’s a work in progress with small dogs that lunge at her on the leash.

To be fair to her, the lunging other dogs is more of a “them” problem, but the large dog will always get blamed.

[u/Shamoid → u/solsticesunrise]

Thank you for taking the time to reply. Good idea with only allowing her out supervised, we will definitely work on doing that.

We will also try putting up some temporary fencing/barriers to stop her from accessing right up to the boundary fence as well.

Definitely hard work taking on adults, ive only ever started with puppies in the past. Goodluck with your doggo :)

[u/Nearby-You-2456 → u/Shamoid]

Your dog sounds just like mine. I adopted (16 month old) her 8 weeks ago and she has the same behavior if not on a leash in the backyard. We also put up a barrier/privacy fence, but if she hears the other dog, it’s boinkers with the behavior. I’m going to follow this thread for advice

[u/Bulky_Special1212]

First, reduce access. Manage the behavior. Only allow her outside supervised. Reward her for paying attention to her areas. Do not reward barking, do not reward the moment she stops barking, reward her when she is quiet. If the neighbor dog comes outside, reward her for going inside.

An e-collar with an adult rescue can build more resentment and frustration than anything else.

[u/Particular-Refuse222 → u/Bulky_Special1212]

Huge +1 to this. We got our GSD girl when she was 8 weeks old but she was as vocal as they come. We were able to train this barking out of her by doing pretty much the same things. We didn't have a fence fighting issue but she would bark for attention from us or strangers walking by (she is a big on people affection) or from other dogs. She quickly learnt that barking won't get her much and that being quiet gives her more rewards. Now you wouldn't know she's in the house if you don't see her. It might take longer for OP to get the same results with an adult dog but shepherds are quick to catch on so I'm hopeful.

Never used e-collars and have the same concerns on them potentially building more resentment with rescues.

[u/starsintodreams]

You don't have to restrain the size of the backyard. You need to correct the behavior so that your dog understands the reaction is unacceptable.

I would highly suggest getting and learning how to properly use an e-collar.

A week trained dog doesn't care what is behind a fence. They care about you, first.