# A little self-congratulatory pat-on-the-back for handling reaction to neighbor's dogs...



## SoCalEngr (Apr 11, 2020)

Now that we have turf in our backyard, and have removed the oleanders, we let Kona out there for some supervised zoomies and play time.

But...

Our neighbors have two smaller dogs, and whenever they're out they come up to the fence (there's a small gap between the bottom of the fence and the ground) and everyone goes nuts. They run back and forth, yapping under the fence and sticking their nose in, and Kona goes nutso (I think just wanting to play). When this happens, Kona has been somewhat uncontrollable and that's "end of play time in the backyard".

Realizing that (a) this is not really fair to Kona, and (b) we cannot continue to bring a hyped-up 50+ lb golden into our house, we decided to "change it up" today. So, when everyone started barking and going nuts, we took it as a training opportunity. Out came the uber treat (we use Costco rotisserie chicken, skinned and shredded into small'ish chunks), and it was training time.

We walked Kona, on a 6' lead, up to the edge of the turf (about 3'-to-4' from the fence) and gave her a "sit". With the chicken as an incentive, Kona completely ignored the other dogs, even though they were still barking and running along the fence. We were even able to get Kona to do a "down" from a distance, again ignoring the distraction of the barking dogs.

We're now almost, almost, hoping that the neighbor's dogs are out and barking, as it will give us more opportunities to help Kona learn to maintain her composure when her fellow canines are losing it. Best of all, it has turned a dreaded situation into one that we can look at as a positive. And, Kona comes back into the house in a much better emotional state than when we were just cutting everything short.


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## jdavisryan (Jan 28, 2018)

Good job to Kona, and to her smart humans who turned a negative into a positive. So much better if she learns self-control rather than being controlled by other means. It’s always better to train through a problem when possible rather than just avoid it. Congratulations.


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