Dog barks at neighbours going in & out - drives me mad!

[ohnelly]

Hi we have a 3 year old Jack russell bitch who is lovely with DS1 and everyone else she meets. There are no problems apart from we live in a bungalow, so our bedroom in next to the kitchen (where she is at night in her bed). She barks & growls when next door go in and out of their door or shut the car door etc. This is very annoying as she sometimes wakes me up at night (next door is a taxi driver so sometimes late home!) I usually just shout at her through the wall but as I am pregnant with DC2, I wont be able to do this with a newborn and dont want her waking him/her up. DC1 sleeps through it as his room is at the front. What can I do?

Our dog was getting very bad at barking at the door; we are having some success with an anti-bark collar (from Pets at Home) which just sprays a little water when the dog barks. It doesn't hurt, just suprises it. This is reinforced with praise if the dog then stops barking.

Might be worth trying?

The problem with most of the conventional anti-barking training methods I've read is that they seem to depend on you being right there with your dog at all times, I don't know how anyone could make them work in practice!

I was going to suggest the collar too.