[Jessneff5]

I have recently adopted a 1-year-old female American Bully named Athena.
Background: In her previous home she lived with 5 other dogs, 4 of them being intact males and the 5th being her mother. Her mother attacked her over a toy. Her previous owner explained to me that after that attack she didn't show any aggression, but instead she would tuck her tail and shiver in fear every time her mother was in the same room as her. She still got along perfectly fine with all the other dogs just like before.

I'm having trouble deciphering this behavior so I came here to ask for help. I have a fenced in yard, and every time our neighbors dog is outside and near the fence she perks up, ears and tail erect with hackles up, and she runs back and forth from one end of the fence to the other, jumps up on her hind legs to see over the fence, and barks and whines. It's sort of the same on walks, same body language, she will pull towards the other dog and whine, occasionally she will bark high pitched and pace around.

I'm just kind of confused. Is this barrier frustration? Is this aggression? Can anyone give me any hints on how to train her not to do this?

 

[BZOO]

Can you find a dog friendly dog and let them meet, with a chain link fence between them?
That would safely give you a better idea as to aggression or if she's missing having other dogs to interact with.
Those body signals are what Conner does when he's trying to get someone to play.
If aggression, I'd suggest you look into a professional trainer
Good luck and hope to see pics.

 

[Jessneff5]

Can you find a dog friendly dog and let them meet, with a chain link fence between them?
That would safely give you a better idea as to aggression or if she's missing having other dogs to interact with.
Those body signals are what Conner does when he's trying to get someone to play.
If aggression, I'd suggest you look into a professional trainer
Good luck and hope to see pics.

Good idea, I will try to arrange for a friendly dog to meet with her through the fence. These are pictures I just took of her when she saw my neighbors dogs (excuse the mess in the background, today is a cleanup day for me 😂). This is generally what she looks like body language wise. She'll have her hackles up at first but they go down after a moment or two and she proceeds to run around whining.

 

[BZOO]

The first pic, turn it on it's side and the white mark looks like a skunk!😁 Skunks are awesome and give great hugs.
She's a beautiful dog.

 

[Jessneff5]

The first pic, turn it on it's side and the white mark looks like a skunk!😁 Skunks are awesome and give great hugs.
She's a beautiful dog.

Just wanted to say I took your suggestion and arranged for a friend to bring her dog by to meet Athena and she did wonderfully ☺ definitely no aggression, she's just overexcited and wants to play and gets frustrated when she's prevented from it. I so appreciate your advice!

 

[BZOO]

Awesome! Hopefully she'll get plenty of play dates with this dog...
Or, maybe you can adopt another! 😁