Instead of fenceline running on your walk, try this instead:
Take another route! Cross the street. Avoid this interaction.
Go quickly by. Happy talk and pick up the pace before you get to the trouble zone. Reward your dog after your run together past this fence. If you do this routinely, your dog will start to look forward to this game at this part of your walk and readily join you.
There are also some good training games you can do with your dog in this situation. Book an initial consulting to get started training with me.
This question comes up a lot at Shel Graves Animal Consulting:
You are taking your daily walk and there’s a dog who is always in their yard behind a fence. As you pass by, your dog erupts into a burst of barking, lunging, running raucousness and so does the dog behind the fence.
They are super excited! Woo hoo! They look like they are having a BLAST! What’s this all about and should you continue making this part of your daily walk? This question came up when I worked in rescue too. We had chain link fences between the dogs' yards so that the dogs could see each other, but not get to each other.
When I started working there we brought in a few pitbull-shepherd mix puppies who I was absolutely in love with, particularly one we named Autumn.
As they got bigger, we wanted to move the puppies to a yard with more space, but the only available space was next to a large dog who barked and ran at them through the fence causing the puppies to do the same.
I was concerned about this, worried that it would scare the puppies and/or cause them to do this behavior of barking, running, and lunging at other dogs more.
My co-worker argued that they were, “Having a lot of fun!”
Sure enough though, after Autumn’s brothers were adopted we had a “reactive,” barky puppy on our hands who was hard to introduce to potential adopters’ dogs (more on that in another post).
This was one of the instances that led me to double-down on learning more about dog behavior and earning recognized and well-respected credentials. My instincts said this was not a great situation, but at the time I did not have the expertise to say why and more strongly advocate for the dogs. The other reality, of course, is that the puppies did need more space and there really weren’t many options (the reality of sheltering work).
The short answer is that, no, fenceline running is not a good behavior to continue on your daily walk. At the end of this post, I’ll give you three alternative strategies for your walk. But there are nuances to this answer.
First of all, is your barking, lunging, pulling at the end of the lead dog having fun? They could be. They could be quite excited. They could also be upset.
Absolutely, I think we have to add that they are experiencing some bit of frustration here as well. Dogs like to sniff each other and circle around to greet, noses to ears, noses to bums, for a good sniff and they don’t do this head on, face-to-face, eye-to-eye as they are forced to do when a leash or a fence constrains them.
The Ice Cream Analogy
I like to use my ice cream analogy to explain why I don’t think encouraging this behavior is a good idea.
Let’s say a new vegan ice cream shop opens in my town. Let’s say Frankie & Jo’s wants to open up a shop in Everett, I would be really excited!
I’m super excited to try this new ice cream! I go to the store to try it, but it’s closed. I can’t have any ice cream.
OK, no big deal, it’s too bad, but I am still excited to try this ice cream. Yum! I go to the new store again. It’s closed. No ice cream for me. Humph. I’m disappointed, but so be it.
Hmm, am I going to try again? OK, sure. I really, really, want to try this ice cream shop. Nope. Closed. Thwarted again. Now, I am frustrated.
If I try again…I check the website to make sure I’ve got the hours straight and are supposedly open etc. etc. make my way to the shop and they are still closed. Argh! Now I am upset.
I may even get angry. This stupid, always closed ice cream store and its stupid probably really yucky anyway ice cream. I may even be mad enough to leave a bad review and tell my friends this place is terrible.
And, you know what, even if I walk by that ice cream store now and it IS open, I may not go in. I may get irritated and angry just passing by the place THAT WAS NEVER OPEN before.
What’s happened here? I have developed a negative association with that store that disappointed and frustrated me so often in the past. My emotional state and feelings about this store went from really excited, to disappointed, to frustrated, to upset, to ACTUALLY ANGRY.
Emotional State About the Always Closed New Vegan Ice Cream Shop
Super excited! Very yay!
Disappointed but still excited! OK.
Frustrated, and not excited.
Upset and irritated. Stronger feelings of not yay.
Angry. Intense feelings, boo! Boo!
The same thing can happen to your dog when they are repeatedly thwarted by a leash or fence from greeting another dog who they may be very excited to meet. They can go from excited, to frustrated, to upset, to “Well, actually, I think I probably HATE that guy anyway.” They develop a negative association with that experience and that dog. If you pair this frustration with something else negative like a leash jerk and a stern and punitive "leave it!", you are likely increasing the progression from Yay! to Boo!.
Now, there are some dogs who can do relaxed sniffs through a fence or on a lead with other dogs. There are some dogs who might do a rollicking, rocking, bouncing run along the fence with a neighbor dog and then wander off to go sniff some other things in his yard and call it a day.
But if your dog, the dog in question, erupts into a barking, lunging, straining at the end of the leash, can’t stop, won’t stop running along the fence kind of a deal every time you pass by that fenced in dog: then the ice cream analogy comes into play. I think it's a good idea to have some compassion for that other dog, too, who is perhaps upset and frustrated in their yard.
Instead of fenceline running on your walk, try this instead:
Take another route! Cross the street. Avoid this interaction.
Go quickly by. Happy talk and pick up the pace before you get to the trouble zone. Reward your dog after your run together past this fence. If you do this routinely, your dog will start to look forward to this game at this part of your walk and readily join you.
There are also some good training games you can do with your dog in this situation. Book an initial consulting to get started training with me.
Keep in mind that this kind of emotionally-charged FUN excitement when it looks like barking, lunging, hyper-focus, can’t be distracted body language, can be very hard to differentiate visually from UPSET, I will probably snap or bite given the chance, behavior. The only way to tell for sure is to let the two dogs off leash where they can properly greet each other with lots of space. Just like, the only way I can tell if I’m going to like the new ice cream shop is to let me in and give me a taste.
It's preferable to bring the "reactive" excitement down a notch or two or three before doing this…I have another analogy for this my rollercoaster analogy. We’ll save that for another post.
Shel, this is a fantastic explanation-thanks for the tips!