Dog barking all day - how do I tell owner?

[Prunnhilda]

My downstairs neighbour is a lovely woman who lives alone with her dog, which she's had for about a year and a half. He barks at the postman or delivery people - quite viciously - but he's always calmed down.

Recently he's been barking all day while she's working. Seriously, all day. There's nothing different in the street, and the only thing I can think of is that we've had windy weather lately.

I try to work from home and apart from the personal annoyance to me, I worry about a dog that's alone inside all day and getting stressed.

What's the best way to approach this?

It sounds like the dog is suffering from separation anxiety. Is the dog home alone all day, every day? Poor thing.

Do you get on well with her? I would have a word, say that you are worried the dog is upset while she is out. Stress that you are worried about the dog, not bothered about the noise. (Although that must be a pain too).

I would want to know if my dog was unhappy.

i would approach it in a non-judgy way as you will probably get the best response. she is very wrong to leave the dog all day though but it will probably be a more productive chat if you approach it from the angle of you are worried about her dog and thought she would want to know that dog is upset

not sure if you would want to do this (and onus is on her to ensure her dog's wellbeing and not on you) but you could offer to let dog out for a toilet during the day? or short walk?

mmeLindt - x post. great minds think alike

I did think of offering to take him out. I wouldn't mind at all, he's lovely.
It's just the recent change in him that is worrying me (and what if it's permanent? It's really intrusive). I do get on with the neighbour so that's not a problem but I'm a wuss.

I think he's indoors 3 days a week, only until about 5 - no question of neglect, he's her surrogate son!

He is probably lonely. You could ask her if he was spooked by anything recently. Our dog was a bit unsettled when our house alarm went off unexpectedly recently and was a bit nervous for a day or two.

Chick's idea is good, if you want to tie yourself down to doing a walk with him. Or you do an day and she gets a dog walker for the other days.

Even if only till 5pm, it is still a long time for the pooch to be alone.

What kind of dog is it?

Thanks for the reassurance. He's a medium-sized and very good-looking mongrel. Needs a lot of exercise but definitely gets it.
Could it be the wind? I know it's meant to unsettle schoolchildren!

I have just moved into a flat with my 3.5 yr old cocker. My downstairs neighbours accosted me on the stairs and had a really good yell at me as the dog had been barking when I went out the odd time.

I was/am very sympathetic to the fact that they have been disturbed by my dog but rather narked at the fact that they were really angry with me about it. I had never spoken to them before they really had a go at me.

So I would say, approach them at a time when they are not likely to be in the middle of making dinner or trying to get out of the door for work, tell them that you have heard the dog barking during the day and that you are just letting them know. If you can offer help, then great but I would be a little wary of signing myself up for regular walks...

As I say, I definitely needed to know that the dog was barking, because I don't want my neighbours to be upset with me and I don't want my dog to be agitated either. I changed his routine immediately and he started going to doggy daycare when I knew I wouldn't be around enough for him, which he loved.

I'm very glad my neighbours mentioned the barking and there's no point in suffering in silence; just be polite! (which I'm sure you will be)

oh and I'm pretty sure everything's alright now as the old bat actually smiled at me the other day

Could be the wind... mine doesn't bark much (apart from the postman, and anyone trying to take our parking space outside the house) but he drove me nuts with the wind stirring things up last week - mainly as it knocked wheelie bins down in the back gardens and the like because I guess it sounded like an intruder to him.

My neighbours have just bought a jack russell pup for their nine year old son. He's only about 12 weeks old and is already being left alone for a good 10 hours a day. I was off yesterday as I wasn't well so was in bed most of the day and the dog was literally barking non-stop all day. My two dogs are left alone while I'm at work so I feel I can't really preach to them but they are much older and have each other for company (they're also incredibly lazy!)

Feel really sorry for the poor little thing but like OP not sure what I can do.