Doggie Logic?

[Syreenna]

I like to think I understand animals pretty well.  But this dog....

Near as I can tell he's half German shepherd and half lab.  At first, I was hoping for rottweiler, or great dane, or even dumb ol' coonhound as the second half, but I think it's lab.  I had a lab before, and I swore I would never get another one under two years old.  Even still, he's half shepherd, so that should get him at least some amount of calmness and intelligence, right?  Right???

So...what is the purpose of standing at the fence and bark bark bark bark bark bark barking at the dog tied in the yard across the street?  Does he think if he barks enough, that the other dog will slip his chain and come over and play?

At first, I was worried it would bother the neighbors.  Then I thought...on one side, I have a family that is always yelling outside in their pool all summer long.  Across the street all summer, there are people building sheds or cutting grass or doing other noisy things early in the morning on the weekends.  (Yes, 9:00 is early on weekends!)  Next door opposite the pool people, they use any occasion as an excuse to shoot off guns, fireworks, M-80's, anything that makes lots of noise.  You civilized people don't know what it's like to hear gunshots nearby and think nothing of it, because it's so common.  Unless you live in a really bad city maybe.  Then you might hear gunshots even more, I suppose.

So now I let him bark.  At least if he's barking, I know he's at the fence, rather than chewing up my porch railing some more.  Speaking of the porch rail, I don't hear him barking anymore......

[Yichimet]

Dogs are so cool.

[Kharzak]

reminds me of the dexter's lab episode where he invented a translator for the dog after it kept barking at him and looking at a place in the lab

[Qabian]

Barking at the fence is most likely a little thing called "barrier aggression".  Could be the other dog across the way.  Could just be the fence in and of itself keeping him in and things out, especially if he does it if the other dog's not around.  There are ways to work on things like that, but they're all convoluted and tend to take the time and energy and consistency of some sort of divinity.  Neurotic dogs tend to get a lot of benefit from being physically exhausted on a regular basis.  Get on a bike and make them run until they can't be crazy anymore.

I always assume shots are fireworks.  Then again... living as a kid in places where people were actually shooting each other and I still had to sleep sometime, yeah, probably desensitized me enough to stop noticing.

[ulgrath]

we had a dog that did this put a plexi glass window in the fence and he stopped right away guess he just wanted to see what was going on outside his little world

[Syreenna]

Heh, good idea. Ulgrath (welcome back, by the way!  ), but the fence is already see-throughable.  It's field fence--kinda like chain link, but bigger holes and...welded instead of linked.  Okay, so it's not like chain link, but he can see through it.

I've learned to tune him out when he barks now.  Unless the neighbors complain, I'm just going to let him bark and ignore him.