I agree with John Savage. It seems to me the dog is only protecting it's
territory, if you do anything mean you're only going to teach it was
justified in thinking you're a threat.

Be nice to it, become it's friend!!


"John Savage" wrote in message
om...
" writes:
The problem is that the damn thing runs up the fence and barks at me
everytime I enter my gardens. He does the same thing to anyone that
moves actually. He barks at people 2 houses down, if he sees them!

The neighbours are nice enough and tell it to shut up, but they are
often out of the house.

Is it likely that the dog will cease once he get used to me

The dog will NEVER get used to you in this situation. You are going to
have to make friends with it, so that it welcomes your appearance in the
backyard and greets you with tail wagging instead of warning you off by
barking.

Buy a box of dried dog food, and slip a few tidbits to it every time you
venture into the backyard for the first few days, then ease off to just
occasionally. See whether you can catch its owner out in the yard and go
over to the fence and have a friendly chat to the owner, explain what you
are wanting to do and make sure it's okay with him to give his dog a few
crumbs of dog food, and start making friends with it there and then while
the owner is present. You will be surprised just how easy it is to win a
dog over.

Only where the owner doesn't want you to give even tiny morsels to his
dog do things get tricky--then you have to do it surreptitiously while
the owner is not watching!

Resist the temptation to hose the dog or scare it in any way, you will
just undo all your good work up till then. Do the owners take the dog
for a walk outside their yard? If so, that is a good place to meet them
as it's on neutral ground. Just happen to run into them down the street
and you could walk alongside and talk to the owner, and the dog will
start getting used to you that way.
--
John Savage (my news address is not valid for email)