training husky

Question
i adopted my husky molly about a month ago shes a little over a year old. i don't have too many complaints i knew what i was in for before i got her, but we have a 6ft privacy fence and our neighbors have a small dog and when i let her outside to use the bathroom she will pace the fence and peak through and almost stalk the other dog when i try to call her back in she will look at me and continue what she was doing. i don't know how to get her attention back or get her to listen to me when shes doing that.  she doesn't do that when i take her for walks sometimes she gets excited when other dogs are around and i have to make her stop walking and sit till she calms down and that works most of the time, but when shes in the back yard its a whole different story.

Answer
This is not an uncommon trait . . . the backyard is "home turf" and the dog will protect it, or at least be more vigilant about watching what is going on around.  Ignoring you is a sign that the backyard is actually her turf more than yours.

In order to really help this out, there are a few things that you need to do.

First - get started in obedience training, and a lot of it.  The more you establish yourself in control, the better.  The dog should be taught to listen and obey your commands at all times.

Next, once you have a solid base of obedience down, keep practicing it.  Also, move the practice to that backyard so the dog learns to listen to you in that environment.

After you have the basic obedience down, start working on challenging situations, and then move back to the backyard and see if the dog will listen when wanting to stalk or protect the fenceline.

I would suggest non-treat based training.  Siberians are high drive dogs that often will ignore food rewards if they feel there is a better reward in disobedience.  Talk to trainers and they should be able to help you out in "reaching" your dog.

In the meantime, the other thing I would do is try to limit the dog's alone time in the backyard.  Limiting that should help reduce the sense of ownership that it sounds like she is expressing in her backyard.