<p>Onward, that is hilarious. </p>
<p>Our other dog is a Golden Doodle, and he is very social. He goes to a day play camp twice a week and the employees tell me that there are many “cliques,” but that my dog mingles with all of them. He’s the Ferris Bueller of the doggy day camp! You remember that quote from Ferris Bueller:</p>
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<p>That’s my Golden Doodle!</p>
<p>I would recommend the book Control Unleashed by Leslie McDevitt. She provides many exercises you can do with your dog to help your dog learn self-control, even in difficult situations.</p>
<p>I am currently working on the “look at that!” game with my dog, who hangs out at the window and goes nuts when she sees the cat who lives across the street. Barking earns her a trip to her crate (which she loves), but sitting calmly and looking at me gets her a treat and instruction to “look at that!” Then she looks back at me for a treat… and so on. It’s slowly working. Besides the cat issue, she also barks at other dogs (although we have a fully fenced yard so no issues with attacking other dogs). “Look at that!” is working for that too. She now watches quietly–as long as they’re on the other side of the street, not on ours.</p>
<p>If Sid’s owner will cooperate, I would suggest you figure out what distance your dog is calm. Reward for calmness, then take one step closer. If your dog barks or lunges, you got too close. Back up. Keep rewarding as long as your dog is calm, then walk away, then repeat the exercise another day. Gradually your dog will learn that Sid’s presence predicts treats, not a problem.</p>
<p>I have to say, as well, that I’m worried about the health of a 125 pound golden retriever. If he’s overweight–which seems likely to me at that weight–he could have sore hips and elbows, and that may be making him grumpy as well. Can you easily feel his ribs?</p>
<p>Interestingly enough, he is only very slightly overweight. He is just very, very big. He is shaved down for the summer and he doesn’t look heavy at all- just large. He’s not obese by any means. His hips and legs are fine, although he has had 2 torn ACLs, but that isn’t uncommon. He loves food- any food (and spoiled). Everyone is amazed at his size and think he is part St. Bernard, but he is pure Golden. He’s gorgeous.</p>
<p>MOWC – my point is that legally, you are on the hook. Right now its only Sid. Maybe some other dog moves into the neighborhood, and your dog takes a dislike to Buddy instead. </p>
<p>If your dog gets loose and attacks Buddy, Animal Control may come and take your dog away. You may get charged with a criminal offense (depending on local ordinances) and my have a hard time getting your dog back. If Buddy is seriously hurt, or if Buddy’s owner or the 9 year old kid who happens to be walking Buddy at the time gets bitten — then your dog will probably be euthenized and you will be looking at a lawsuit, and maybe more serious criminal charges. </p>
<p>Basically, because of that report, your dog can now be classified as dangerous or vicious. See [DOG</a> BITE LAW - Dangerous and Vicious Dogs](<a href=“Vicious Dogs”>Vicious Dogs) That may be why the neighbors reported it – you see them as being petty, they may see themselves as good citizens making sure that proper authorities are alerted, before your dog harms someone else. After all, they waited for the second incident before reporting it, right?</p>
<p>Maybe you can just assume that your dog will be fine once Sid is gone and hope that nothing like that ever happens again. I’m just telling you that legally… you are likely to lose your dog, face fines or other penalties, and possibly get sued the next time around. </p>
<p>Bottom line, its your legal responsibility to make sure that your dog can’t get loose. Seems to me that you have a situation of “usually won’t.” If I had a yard that I felt was too large to fence, then I’d build a smaller, fenced dog run for any time that I wanted the dog to be outside without being leashed.</p>
<p>You might try a "canny’ collar for your walks. Google it and read the reviews. It appears the biggest problems people encounter are buying one too big and/or the dog just really hating it.</p>
<p>It goes around the neck and over the top of the snout and when the dog pulls the lead it pulls his nose towards his chest.</p>
<p>This would at least allow you to safely walk him away in case ol’ Sid shows up unexpectedly.</p>
<p>Absolutely love the “Dog Whisperer”. I wonder if he has separate dvd’s for individual problems like yours. Might be worth a look. I have seen him address your exact problem on his show but you’d have to see it.</p>
<h1>1 priority is for your dog not to be put down by the warden.</h1>
<p>Personally I would drive him to the park to walk him until Sid moves and keep him in the backyard for brief outings.</p>
<p>Good luck.</p>
<p>My friends owned a gigantic golden male. He had the biggest head on a dog I’d ever seen. The coolest looking dog ever.</p>
<p>I have two female goldens. One weighs around 70 lbs the other about 108 lbs. The bigger dog is just that…bigger, not fat.</p>
<p>Calmom- I get it. I’m a lawyer, too. I understand how Sid’s parents feel. I don’t think they are being petty. That wasn’t the point of my post at all. My dog did not BITE. The animal control guy was very nice and indicated that we had obeyed all regulations. Our dog was leashed. He is allowed out in his yard. He doesn’t need a dog run. He goes outside to pee and poop. He’s the darling of the neighborhood. He wants to meet other dogs. He never barks at them. I hope this is an isolated situation, but, obviously, we will be watching him carefully. Once again, Calmom, you are going all bizzar-o on me!</p>
<p>Wow! I’m having trouble imagining a golden retriever that’s tall enough to support that weight. I believe you when you say he’s not overweight, but that’s huge!</p>
<p>Please check out the Control Unleashed book. It’s SO helpful with teaching a dog self-control in the face of something he doesn’t like.</p>
<p>My dog is a golden retriever, golden lab mix. He too is very loving and firmly believes that anyone coming near our yard must be there to see him. The invisible fence collar that came with the fence did not keep him in. He wasn’t trying to run away, but would be chasing bunnies and fly through. Once through he did not want to feel the pain walking back in. He now has the Petsafe Stubborn Dog Collar. That seems to have done the trick. The bunnies graze right outside of his reach and torment him, but he doesn’t go through.</p>
<p>Not a big electric fence fan. Other dogs can come into your yard to attack your dog and your dog can’t get away. If he does cross the barrier he is not likely to want to reenter (as BU points out). What really bothered me though was reading the advertisements for the collars. They were bragging about which collar had the least amt of “random” shocks. What?</p>
<p>We got the electric fence when we moved in 4 years ago because our neighborhood yards are really open and we liked that. Some people have low fences, but most do not. Our dog is never out unattended, and there are no dogs roaming around. It’s a good neighborhood and the dogs are nice (well, except for my vicious Golden Retriever). He is really very laid back and likes to hang out in the yard if we are on the deck and roll in the grass. He never stays outside by himself for more than a few minutes and has never left the back yard except for the few occasions he has followed me to a neighbor’s yard.</p>
<p>I hear you about the fence sax. I’m not fond of him getting shocked. At first he wasn’t feeling the shock at all, but now that he has the stronger collar he won’t go near the edge. We also added the surge protector at the transmitter end to be sure he doesn’t get any surprise shocks. We, like Momof, are always home when he is outside. Too many pop up thunderstorms here in the summer and he was outside for a couple that scared him, so when we leave the house we bring him in.</p>
<p>Some dogs seem to just evoke weird reactions from normal dogs. Mine is one of them. She’s had quite a few dogs try to attack her - perfectly friendly Labs and Goldens that never otherwise display aggression. My guess is that its due to her appearance - she’s 3 lbs, mostly white, has a bob tail and pointy ears, maybe they think she’s a rabbit…so maybe your dog is picking up on something unusual about the dog? Has he been around other black dogs? Maybe he’s not used to seeing dogs that color? Who knows, it could just be a weird tick.</p>
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<p>The dog doesn’t have to have bitten. It got loose, twice, and was behaved aggressively to another dog. I’m just looking at the situation through my lawyer eyes. </p>
<p>I don’t know what the laws are in your jurisdiction. In California, a dog which has twice gotten loose and attacked another dog qualifies as “potentially dangerous” – the standard is whether there have been 2 incidents within a 36 month period and engages in any unprovoked behavior requiring a “defensive action”. There doesn’t need to be any sort of bite or even a threat of a bite – just a scared person on the other end.</p>
<p>MOWC-
Our late, sweet Cavalier King Charles Spaniel would occasionally get out of the invisible fence. Turns out the first time, the battery in his collar died. The second time happened when he lost his hearing. He couldn’t hear the “clicking” that warns them they are getting close to the edge of the fence. The bigger concern we had was not that he would get out of the yard, but that other dogs would come into the yard when he was out doing his “business”. </p>
<p>In older dogs (not yours, he’s only 7 and this is unlikely), behavioral changes like confusion or increased aggression (its not just “crankiness”) can be a sign of doggie dementia. This is treated (well, maybe “managed” is a better word, since there is no treatment) with Anipryl.</p>
<p>We also have the electric fence. Our yard is fenced but our garage is inside our property and we have a gate. Our dogs also got good at digging under the fence and finding ways to escape. Our golden always came home,but our old brown lab would get comfortable at whatever neighbor would feed her and we would have to go pick her up. Our dogs don’t like getting shocked. With the golden he would sometimes bolt and we found it was best to shave or cut his hair down where the probe touched his skin. We also bought a collar with longer prongs. With our dogs we don’t leave the collar on them. They have learned they don’t like the sound of the warning. We have to put the collar back on when we see them getting to close to the edge of the driveway.
We sometimes take our golden to the beach and in winter let him run. It is allowed certain times of the year. We have been doing this was 10 yrs and we usually put him back on the leash if we see another dog approaching. I guess we are bad owners. But to see the pure joy of our dog running down the beach at full force and body surfing the waves is priceless. He is like a puppy again.</p>
<p>I have a crazy Australian Shepherd. He loves people (almost too much) but he is terrified of other dogs. He was scared even back in Puppy Training class. He tries to drag me to a passing dog and will lay down submissively, but then he will decide it’s enough and go crazy attacking the other dog. He doesn’t actually BITE, but he sounds SO mean and scary…people can’t get away soon enough.</p>
<p>Soooo embarrasing these dogs…why do we love them?</p>
<p>^^^That’s my yellow lab. Looks like your typical sweet lab, people say, “oh can my dog say hi to your cute Lab?” I start to say "no, no, she’s not nice while she’s on leash, but they don’t hear me, and all of a sudden, my sweet Lab turns into Cujo, snarling, lunging, etc., but she has NEVER bitten another living soul, animal or human. It’s quite embarrassing nevertheless.</p>
<p>My standard poodle doesn’t like some dogs at the end of the street, and one time did get away from us and go after them. Honestly, we have a strict policy that the dog can be left unattended only in the dog run; if he’s in the back yard, one of us has to be with him. My son likes to sit outside and read, but if he does, he’ll keep the dog on a super-long leash tied to a tree so that he can still get around (our yard is unfenced) but he can’t run after someone. We learned the hard way after our previous dog went all Cujo on us.</p>
<p>If he barks at the sight of the other dog, you need to correct that behavior, and fast.
Good luck!</p>
<p>Hi MOWC … no great words of advice … we have the world’s most gentle female dobie who absolutely hates poddles … and we have no idea why. I’m not a big fan of the advice about admonishing or training your dog about Sid since this seems to be some irrational illogical thing your great dog does. If it were me I’d consider going over and having a visit with Sid’s family and talking about the situation and explain what your family is doing about the situation and asking them to call you if they have any issues.</p>
<p>Have you considered calling a dog trainer and getting advice / opinions?</p>