Dog show-offs: why dogs bark at each other behind a fence, but as soon as you open it, they immediately calm down (6 photos + 2 videos)
Two dogs bark desperately at each other through the fence. They chatter their teeth, growl, drool fly in all directions - it seems that if they just get there, they will tear each other to shreds! But what is it? The owner opens the door, and the dogs, with their ears back, sniff each other in greeting and wag their tails. How so? 
How colleagues communicate behind the scenes/ How colleagues communicate with each other when meeting.
To make it easier to understand this behavior, let's look at the situation from two sides.
First of all, why do dogs react this way to strangers behind the fence? And secondly, why does this violent reaction stop as soon as the gate is opened?
Well, now the gate will open, I’ll tell you... I won’t do anything!
So, bark behind the fence. Here you need to understand that all of our sofa-pocket bobbies are territorial animals by nature. Patrolling your own piece of land is considered normal. Actually, this became one of the main reasons for the domestication of dogs: it was to the advantage of the ancestors that in any incomprehensible situations the pack would make noise and warn of possible danger. For thousands of years they did this, it goes without saying that the behavior became ingrained.
When I finally found the culprit of all my problems.
But the key here is “making noise.” We are not talking about any serious security. Most dogs bark but don't bite. Dogs learned to detain an intruder and seriously injure him much later, when we developed special breeds and figured out how to train them correctly.
To summarize: it is natural for dogs to bark at strangers behind the fence, this is like a base. It’s just that in some breeds this feature was fixed and strengthened, while in others it was removed altogether.
Guard breeds are not afraid to attack people: Dobermans, Rottweilers, German shepherds. But even these dogs need to be trained.
Now the second side of the story. Why does such natural behavior suddenly stop as soon as the fence is opened? Because dogs are not fools! They understand perfectly well: as long as they are BEHIND the fence, no one will touch them!
In words you are Leo Tolstoy. Who is it really?
It’s like arguing on the Internet, where you can throw nasty things at your opponent as much as you want, and you won’t get anything for it! So the dogs show off in front of each other as long as they feel safe. But as soon as the barrier disappears, all the dog’s arrogance evaporates with it. It’s no longer possible to angrily yell at your opponent’s face - for every extra “woof” you may be asked.
Hey, fence, don’t leave, we haven’t finished yet!
The above scheme almost always works. But there is an exception - “barrier aggression”. This is behavior when an animal redirects all the accumulated negativity to a thing. Emotions can be very different: fear of a dog or a person, anger from the inability to go beyond the fence or break off the chain/leash. Some experts consider it not just a behavioral problem, but a kind of mental disorder.
