I'm the neighbour with the barking dog

[doglover65]

We recently got a new dog - 2 months ago (she's 7, a rescue). She is absolutely angelic except she is so reactive to noises and other people and barks.

When we are home this is fine, annoying, but we are able to stop her and train her. However, when we leave I am so worried about barking.

We have just gone out and I stupidly forgot to shut a blind, so she is staring out the window and barking if someone comes near. I can hear she was barking, she has stopped now but will continue I'm sure.

I don't know what to do!! Our street has so many dogs and they bark all the time and set off her sometimes. We don't mind though, I can block out the noise. Most our neighbours seem fine too. We do have one neighbour though who is very childish in his reactions.

He bangs on the hallway (our attached part) and this usually is what makes her bark more, he rattles our fences (no idea why) and sets them off, he just walks out his front door, stops and stares at our door, then goes back in about 15 times a day.

I'm unsure if he's provoking them now to maybe get a complaint ready?

What would you want to be done if you were my neighbour?

To make it easy to understand, she will bark loud enough for a neighbour to hear for a joint amount of 10 mins, 1 time a week (we've not yet experienced her when we aren't home because of lockdown.) when we've left in the past for supermarket she hasn't barked as I've shut the blind. But if the post man came I know she would bark.

I'm glad you're thinking of ways to tackle this OP as a dog that barks continually is really very hard to cope with as a neighbour.

We have loads of dogs in our road but only one that allows their dog in and out of the garden at night and it barks incessantly at anything I presume. Periods of 10 mins of barking with a few minutes break and then barking again. This usually happens from 9pm to close to midnight and last night I heard the bloody thing around 3am. All of the street hate that dog. No one has complained yet that I know of but it's a constant topic of conversation with the rest of the neighbours.

Barking dog owners are usually oblivious.

We have one behind us which barks every time I go near the garden boundary and one to the side. The other night the neighbours went out from 7pm until 2am and the dog barked constantly for the entire time. That's how I know they were back at 2am

We considered calling someone but I don't think it's neglect, just unaddressed separation anxiety which I imagine is exacerbated by them having been around far more in recent weeks.

My rescue dog (now dead) used to bark when we were out, and no training anyone (including a behaviourist we paid) suggested worked. So I shut him in a small space so he felt safer.

He was quite happy in there; just curled up and went to sleep. Initially it was a dog gate over a gap in the kitchen cupboards (like where you would put a washing machine etc). Later I got him a crate and put a blanket over it.

@shamoo I know it's not a huge amount but sound travels so much from our house and I'm very nervous of upsetting the neighbour! Thanks x

@vanillahoney I suppose it's not the be all and end all, but the reason it is less I think is because we are here and can stop her.

She thankfully doesn't bark at all at night or early morning.

She HATES the foxes and goes mental. Once we heard the dogs go mental in the kitchen, we ran to them and there was a fox sitting on the fence!

We used to have a constantly barking dog next door. He was reactive, we live in houses that front the pavement and get a lot of pedestrians walking past. He was also under exercised but I'm assuming that's not a problem for you.

Our neighbour did acknowledge it when we first moved in and said he was only a young dog, the implication being that he would grow out of it/they would train him. It never changed as he got older and was horrendous. It had me in tears. They would also put him out in the garden from 5am in the summer with a plastic bottle to chew on, which was also awful. As others have said, the only reason we never went down the noise complaint route is that we want to be able to sell the house.

So if you were my neighbour I would want you to acknowledge the issue but also address it. Because in some ways it was worse that it had been acknowledged without anything being done. The house is currently rented out on Air BnB and we have had some awful people staying next door but it's telling that when the owner brought the dog back to stay overnight a few months ago that was far far worse than even the most inconsiderate people who've stayed.

We have a dog somewhere in the neighbourhood which is put outside every night at around midnight and immediately starts barking, poor thing.
I normally fall asleep quickly but on occasions when I don't, there it is, barking away. I'd go round if I knew where it lived and wonder how the owner's neighbours stand it.
I have woken up at 4am and really hope it isn't the same dog barking. This past week there's either an echo or a second dog is joining in the chorus!

Good luck OP.

My mum had a reactive dog and she used to close the curtains if she needed to pop out and that helped massively .
My neighbours have a yappy cockerpoo thing and I cannot do anything in my garden without it kicking off . Sometimes they just let it into the garden and it’ll bark at nothing including at 11 at night when we’re trying to go to sleep.
I’d like to hear that you were calming the dog straight away or taking them indoors whenever they start barking . Our neighbours don’t do this.
You could find that you have neighbours like me who are quietly seething but don’t know how to approach you about it .

I would love another dog, however I live in a semi and for that reason will not get one incase it turns out to be a barker. Did you think of this?

I love dogs and it breaks my heart I can't have one. Full time worker here so it's not fair.
I don't mind the odd dark bark but incessant barking and yapping from a dog nearby locked inside or outside is awful.

The dog doesn't know, it's lonely, bored, cold, hungry.
It's up to owners to do everything they can to stop it and to expect people to complain. If you think your dog is going to bark all the time it's alone, then don't leave it alone.

Sorry I should clarify, she is ALWAYS barking at SOMETHING

Which is it? 10 mins a week? 4 mins a day? Or always barking?

It’s quite clear that the OP said the dog barks often but when you total up the time it’s about 10 minutes per week , so really not a lot it’s just short annoying bursts. @doglover65 if you think the neighbour will complain what you could do is keep a very honest log of everytime she barks when you are in the house ( time of event and duration) and also note all the times you leave the house . That way if the council do talk to you and the neighbour says the dog barked for 2 hours on Monday morning for example you can show them that you were in all Monday morning and the dog barked twice for 20 secs each time etc . It also shows the council that you are taking the problem seriously .

Firstly, please don't use any so-called "anti-bark" devices. All they do is make the dog associate whatever they're barking at with being punished. They might stop the barking, but you'll be making things worse in the long run. That includes beeping collars, vibrating collars and those awful devices that emit a high pitched noise. They're all negative reinforcers and won't help you.

This is absolutely true but a minor point on terminology (just in case anyone is researching/confused) - they are positive aversives, not negative reinforcers

Negative reinforcement = something is taken away that the dog doesn't like so the dog keeps doing the action to achieve that result

Positive aversive = something is added (a buzz, a beep, a smell) that the dog doesn't like

reinforcers encourage action
aversive discourage it

Not meaning to be picky so sorry if I am

Mo einfo here for anyone nerdy like me: thehappypuppysite.com/negative-reinforcement-in-dog-training/

@GimmeAy

Sorry I should clarify, she is ALWAYS barking at SOMETHING

Which is it? 10 mins a week? 4 mins a day? Or always barking?

Always barking at something means the dog barks at things e.g a car going past rather than randomly.