Better Or Worse?

Everyone who has ever been to our house, and been in the backyard has met our pleasant next door neighbor K-9s, Dexter and Baxter. We all know I love animals, John in particular loves dogs. These two monsters are the most scary creatures I've ever been in contact with. Barking, snarling, growling, chomping, everytime we come and go. We've tried everything, dog bones given to us by their owner, dog bones off our grill...we've tried ignoring them, we've tried shushing them, we've tried petting them, all to no avail. Last Saturday we had Helen and Phil over for a BBQ before we went to Fair St. Louis to see the Black Eyed Peas. While I was inside, somehow, Helen started petting the nasties. Then John was petting them, Phil too, and then me. I petted them. It blew my mind. We've lived here 20 months, and Helen comes over 1 day and solves it? Not really. Herein lies the problem. The next day we tried to pet them without Helen. They were back to the usual scare tactics, which work very well. Then the owner comes over to the fence, and we are now expected to try to pet them again. We give them our fist to smell through the fence, they hop their front legs on top of the fence, and snap and bark like they want to rip my throat out. I hate it. It's been a week now, and they still hate me. I don't want to try to pet them anymore. I don't want to be barked at anymore.