Any advice is welcome. Here is some background, my new neighbors moved in only about a month & a half ago, have a mid-size dog(mix of maybe pit bull and not sure what else) that barks very aggressively at anyone walking on the sidewalks near the building. The barking generally is followed by growling and snarling(growling while showing teeth) while the dog peers down and follows you on the balcony. I believe this to be aggressive territorial barking, which doesn't stop until the passerby is out of the dogs sight. And being an animal trainer myself, cannot tolerate this intimidation issue as I walk home everyday.
So far I have implemented a 2 part solution, first I do not keep walking if the dog is barking, but instead turn and face the dog until he stops-then i continue on my way. My criteria for the conditioning is: that I stop and face the dog as long as he barks, not breaking eye contact. When the barking stops AND the dog 1lays down not barking or 2turns around not barking, THEN i leave-(but this has its own draw backs, mainly the time on my part to condition the dog not to bark at me, and uncontrollable factors such as other people that are walking by shifting the focus of the dog and heightening the bark response, so essentially i am training and retraining the same thing over and over which only confuses him as other people reinforce the behavior i am trying not to reinforce)
Which leads me to part 2, I introduced myself to my neighbors and offered to work with them on some behaviors, but i doubt they will take me up on it. I hope they do, but they are busy with an infant baby and i am sure time for them, like all of us, is nonexistent.
The only other thing i know to do is report them, but as having an aggressive dog, but i really don't want to punish the dog for the owner's lack of training him.
Has anyone been in this situation/have any suggestions?
So far I have implemented a 2 part solution, first I do not keep walking if the dog is barking, but instead turn and face the dog until he stops-then i continue on my way. My criteria for the conditioning is: that I stop and face the dog as long as he barks, not breaking eye contact. When the barking stops AND the dog 1lays down not barking or 2turns around not barking, THEN i leave-(but this has its own draw backs, mainly the time on my part to condition the dog not to bark at me, and uncontrollable factors such as other people that are walking by shifting the focus of the dog and heightening the bark response, so essentially i am training and retraining the same thing over and over which only confuses him as other people reinforce the behavior i am trying not to reinforce)
Which leads me to part 2, I introduced myself to my neighbors and offered to work with them on some behaviors, but i doubt they will take me up on it. I hope they do, but they are busy with an infant baby and i am sure time for them, like all of us, is nonexistent.
The only other thing i know to do is report them, but as having an aggressive dog, but i really don't want to punish the dog for the owner's lack of training him.
Has anyone been in this situation/have any suggestions?