To buy my neighbours a voucher and put through letterbox?

[tertrisnblox]

My neighbours are attached to us. They are renting and moved in around 3 months ago. They are two males, I've spoken to one briefly who has introduced himself, the other guy is quieter.

I have two chihuahuas, who honest to god, are really well trained except the fucking barking. It's actually a nightmare, I feel constantly on tenterhooks. They are fine as long as no one else is in their garden, but if they are, so help the neighbourhood.

So full disclosure, I can't afford a trainer at the moment, so I have been trying to train them. I find this very difficult when I just want them to shut up quietly so not to upset the neighbours.

One of the men are really friendly and always smile at them and have mentioned coming over to say hello so they're not too scared of him.

I try and only let them out when no one else is in their garden. However, tonight I didn't see the quiet neighbour sitting in his garden. Let the dogs out and they went MENTAL. The neighbour looked visibly annoyed and quite right. Until he seen me then started smiling, I apologised and he smiled and said it's fine but he was on the phone and immediately went inside and slammed the door.

I feel absolutely awful and honestly don't know what to do. I know they may smile at the dogs but in their head they'll be thinking fuck off noisy dogs (and worse I'm sure).

I have tried the spray from pets at home, I have tried positive reinforcement, I have tried distraction tactics etc.

Would I be unreasonable posting a voucher and an apology letter to the guys? Or will they be thinking, fuck the apology, get it sorted.

I hate the thought of rehoming my dogs. I utterly adore them but I honestly hate the thought of upsetting my neighbours.

What if I went over and knocked their door and asked them how much this was upsetting them with a promise to do something about it? Like they could give them sausages when they see them to make them not scared?

Buy a book or borrow from library,on animal communication.
With hard work you will be able to find out why they do it and you will be able to ask them to stop .Many people may not believe this but it does work.
Also,try to be calm,animals pick up very easily when we are tense and you clearly,understandably,are,so they are,so they bark.it's a circle.
Try distraction too,soon as they bark use the clicker,it's excellent.they are about £2/3.
Very easy to use,look at YouTube for help.
Good luck.Please don't give up on your dogs.🐕🐕🌈🌻

I would lose my shit. I would not want a voucher I'd want the dogs sorting out.

My neighbour has a dog that barks and snarls every time I go out in the garden. It means I can never relax in my garden. Its fucking infuriating. They also walk it off lead and have no recall. So it's bounded up to my friends reactive dog and caused issues in the past.

Join this FB group and ask for advice:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/dogtrainingadviceandsupport

This. We had students move in next door, and one of the first things they did was to come around with a bottle of wine and a box of chocolates to apologise in advance for any noise, and for us to tell them to keep it down if we were ever bothered by it. Made me a lot more tolerant to their parties!

I dont think there's any point to the voucher or a financial gift. It doesn't make you any more or less sorry and is essentially a waste if money.

I'd put a note through apologising though, and saying that you feel awful about it and are absolutely trying your best to work on it with training.

I'd immediately limit their time in the garden. If they need to go out there to toilet then I would start enforcing the rule that the garden is for quickly toileting and then going back in - no free exploration or access, immediately back in of there is any territorial behaviour or barking. Reward any instance of quiet behaviour in the garden. Take them out at set times, say toilet or whatever command word you use, reward the elimination and come back in. Our dog only does a no. 2 on his early AM and PM walks and we have always made sure he goes during those walks. They will pick these things up over time if there is consistency and positive motivation.

Even if you can't afford a trainer OP there are some really good youtube accounts and videos or you could look into virtual trainers who can help without the higher cost of coming to the house. As I understand it, having littermates is not usually advisable so might make it harder but there's no reason you won't see a change with consistent strict effort. They won't get it immediately but they will eventually.

I think you're getting a hard time OP, it's a nice gesture and I'd certainly appreciate it.

With the caveat that there should be a wee note with it that explicitly states you are trying to find a way to fix the problem.

Of course she's getting a hard time. Her pets are barking a lot.

She says she has tried to fix the problem, but not explained what she's doing now.

If my yappy dog neighbour gave me a voucher I would think that it was there was of saying "I hope this placates you"

As someone who's suffering a lot with other people's dogs barking at the moment, I would very much appreciate the neighbour in question, speaking to me. Explaining that they are aware of the issue, they're trying to resolve it, and maybe even help me understand what they're doing.

I'm not interested in a voucher or a gift.

At the moment my assumption is the neighbour doesn't give a sh*t about the disturbance they're causing, which makes me angry with the neighbour and quite anxious and stressed at home. A bit of communication would help a lot.

I never said all dogs bark like that I said some dogs are just yappy. And you're wrong from start to finish. You don't have to take kids shouting in the garden inside at all, kids play outside all the time.
The fact is, it's not illegal. Annoying maybe but certainly not enough of a problem for anybody to do anything about. I'd rather be selfish and happy than spend all day worrying about my neighbours who quite frankly I don't give a fat toss about. I'd even buy wind chimes if they complained lol.

She's getting a hard time for a gesture, and deservedly criticised for her dogs being irritating.

The neighbours still have every right to complain, throw it back in her face or say "thats nice, but what are you doing about your fucking annoying dogs?".

I still its a nice idea by way of apology, but she still needs to fix the issue.

Perhaps you shouldn't have dogs that you cant afford.

I don't like yappy little rat dogs

If you cannot afford them, why have two?

This would drive me INSANE

Get on youtube and learn how to train the little bastards

How long have you had the dogs OP?

You say you can't afford a dog behaviourist but can you afford dog training classes? Dogs Trust run ones for adolescent and adult dogs as well as puppies and they may have some helpful advice.

I'm not sure why people believe Chi's are anxious dogs or difficult to train. The opposite tends to be true. They're very confident and intelligent as a rule, of course, this varies from dog to dog. They can however be stubborn and difficult to motivate but once you find a reward that works for them they are quick to learn.

The snappy, aggressive Chihuahuas you see on YouTube/dog training shows are not usually acting from a place of fear. Chi's need extensive socialising as puppies or they tend to "adopt" one family member as their own and can be standoffish with anyone else. If not properly managed this can lead to resource guarding eg. they start to "guard" their person from any perceived threat. That's not a threat as in they think their person is in danger but that another animal is getting too close to their human and they're not willing to share.

Chi's are naturally protective and prone to guarding. My guess would be that these dogs are guarding their territory or the OP.

@tertrisnblox , if you're still reading my Chi has started to guard our garden from the dogs at the back fence. It's a new behaviour and has nothing to do with any previous training she has or has not had. She's young and this is her first summer with unsupervised access to the garden.

I've been dealing with it up to now by bringing her inside and cutting off her access to the garden as soon as she starts barking which has reduced the behaviour but I had planned to spend Saturday in the garden with her actively training this. I haven't decided fully how I am going to train it yet. I have access to a lot of Absolute Dog's material so I might check out the course linked earlier in the thread as my Chi is used to this training style and responds well to it or I might get the clicker out. If you're free Saturday I'm happy to set up a what's App/Faceache/Teams group chat for the day and we can go through it together.

Where should they piss then? Of course I walk them. They still need to piss and shit no? Also I bought them both together (cue the sibling rivalry gang).

Walk them every 3-4 hours, surely young/healthy dogs can last that long between needing to be out.

In this weather, a dog should not be getting walked at all much less every three or four hours. Chis cope better than other breeds in heat owing to originating from Mexico however they can still overheat or burn their pads on the pavement.

What is pretentious about what this poster said? Anyway I wouldn't bother with the voucher but maybe have a word and say you're doing everything in your power to sort the issue (and actually do it)

My dog is a barker! Best thing I’ve found that works is a few coins in an old coke can. When the dog barks rattle it and they’ll soon learn barking means that noise. Worked really well for us.

Ah the crap entitled dog owners have arrived!

I commend OP for being one of the considerate ones and feeling bad and wanting help to deal with this antisocial issue.

I think some wine or chocolates and a nice note apologising and saying you are doing everything you can to work on the barking would be much appreciated if I was your neighbour. You could also ask for advice on a dog training forum (maybe a specific breed forum would be best) then work through the suggestions. I don't think you necessarily need an expensive trainer. I've trained a dog out of separation anxiety howling in the past with tips from the internet - very little ££ outlay!

As long as they aren't staying out there barking for ages though, I don't think it's a huge problem. My neighbours dogs bark intermittently in the garden and it's not an issue.

Yes we can tell. You're a selfish dick, which you seem to be proud of so maybe unpack that.

What do you think of all the advice you have had so far? Some (not all!) people seem really experienced and sensible and have spent time giving you advice. Will you take any of it?

Whilst noise makers like shaking bottles or coke cans aren't as harsh as using sprays or collars it is still punishment-based training. Aside from the fact that punishment-based training can increase fear and aggression, it doesn't work.

Punishments suppress a behaviour as the animal wants to avoid the punishment but it doesn't cause the behaviour to become extinct. As soon as the punishment is removed the behaviour comes back. All it would take is for the dog to startle and bark at something and the coke can not be shaken on time and you're back to square one. Training using positive and negative reinforcement actually causes the behaviour to become extinct without the risk of causing new issues like aggression and fear.

If I were your neighbour I’d want you to sort it. A voucher is great but it doesn’t fix the issue for them and ultimately that’s what they want and need.