My Pit Bull Hates My Neighbor's Dog

by Karla
(Goodletsville, Tenn)

Princess does not like Brandy. I think because she gets in my backyard. She is chained up next to my fenced in backyard. I can not let Princess out she will jump my fence and kill her what can I do to help this problem.

Gale's Reply:

Hi Karla,

If I'm understanding the situation correctly, your neighbor's dog--Brandy is chained next to your backyard fence. Your dog Princess has shown aggression towards Brandy and you are concerned that if you let Princess out in the back yard that she will jump the fence and harm Brandy.

The bottom line is that if Princess is a fence jumper, it is your responsibiity to see to it that she does not escape your back yard--whether it's to go after the neighbor's dog. Or whether it's simply to escape the confines of the back yard and roam at large.

In that regard you have basically two choices. One is what you are apparently already doing which is to only allow her in the back yard under your close supervision. You may even need to have her on a leash.

The other is to address the issue from the containment standpoint. This would mean either putting in a fence that Princess cannot jump or scale. Or you could set up a dog run area within your fenced back yard. Again, it would need to be virtually escape-proof to be effective.

As for your neighbor's dog Brandy, a dog that is left chained in the back yard day and day out has a pretty miserable existence. Such dogs are often bored, lonely and under socialized. Do your neighbors ever bring her indoors? If they do, perhaps you could work out a schedule to rotate outdoor times for your dogs so that they won't be confronted with each other.

If they leave her chained constantly, I recommend you check out this article, Twenty Ways to Help a Chained Dog. Reaching out to her owners may help not only Brandy, but yourself and Princess as well.

Good luck. Feel free to post back here and let us know how things are going.

For more information on obedience training, visit our Pit Bull Training page.

For help with behavioral problems, check out our Dog Behavior Training page.