Yappy Neighbour

[EcoMouse]

My new neighbours have a full on yapper of a dog (unsure of breed, small-medium, clipped, loud).

My DC were playing in our garden and as soon as neighbour opened her back door, yappy dog shot to the fence (waist height wire mesh) and yapped and yapped.

Neighbour stood looking on, did nothing, said nothing (to dog). She was pleasant to the children they all said their 'hello's' but yappy dog continued, at times with nose though wire, at others further away.

I'm hoping yappy dog will learn to accept the existence of the DC (and DC weren't doing anything to wind it up) but if not, how best to deal with this?

We've all got whole summers to get through!

It may just take a while for the dog to get used to you all so try to be a little patient. Your neighbour is probably oblivious to his yapping having heard it so often.

If he persists in barking every time you go out in the garden then you'll have to say something. She'll either be mortified and apologise profusely and try to address the problem or defend him to the end and blame your noisy children for provoking him so be prepared.

If she's at a loss as to what to do to stop the barking then two things that I found to work with a very yappy Yorkshire Terrier I had was a spray can of air that you can buy in pet shops. It's just a blast of air that makes an odd noise that distracts dogs but for more persistant episodes then putting a muzzle on for a minute when the barking starts should help. We got to the point where we just had to pick the muzzle up and the barking stopped.

Hope this is of some help.

Thanks Amandoh, I've not had yapping problems before and don't want to cause upset with new neighbours! I am worried she might be defensive if I do broach it, so far so good today though