Stopping our dogs reacting to next door's dog's barking

[Lougle]

We have a 10yr old Westie, and a 6 month old Staff x (well supposedly pure staff, but doesn't look like he is, tbh). Next door has 3 dogs. We moved in to this house over 3 months ago now, and one of the dogs next door is still finding it hard to adjust, it seems.

Our Westie is generally quiet, but will bark if a big lorry or a bus passes, for example. The staff x doesn't tend to bark at all, except for when he is trying to get the Westie to play and he's ignoring him.

Every time our dogs are out in the garden, if the JRT next door is out, he runs to the fence and barks incessantly until our dogs respond. As soon as I hear our dogs barking, I go to the side of the house and call them in.

Next door neighbours have said that their JRT is deliberately barking at our dogs until they respond - he does it to the dog in the house the other side of them too.

I can't change their JRT, and I feel awful that we've given them another set of dogs to contend with. However, it feels a bit unfair that on these nice sunny days, I am only allowing our dogs out for 10 minutes at a time, because the JRT comes out and barks at them until they bark back.

Does anyone have any tips on how I can train my dogs not to respond to him?

Why on earth don't the JRT owners train their dog

Could you suggest that you work together with the help of a behavourist to sort it out as it sounds like a nightmare if their dog is going to be barking most of the time...

Tbh, Random, I don't know, but figure that really all I can do is try to manage my dogs. I'm not sure I know them well enough to suggest a behaviourist! Also, the JRT isn't reacting to our dogs specifically, I think, just the fact that we have dogs.

We've already reinforced the bottom end of the garden boundary to stop the JRT getting through, and vice versa (that was done as soon as we moved in). We need to block the area more though, because if my puppy approaches the trellis for a look, it winds him up even more. Also, between them, they have found a balding area in the hedge, where they can see each other through the wire fencing in between.

Hopeful bump

Please, anybody?

I would suggest to the neighbours they they keep their dog in at times so yours can go out unless they want them all barking at each other. What would happen if you just ignored your dogs barking? Would they bring the JR in or just let him bark too?

Maybe they all just want to be friends? I know when our nieghbour dog sits his son's dog it was a bit like this until we let the dogs meet out in the front gardens, now they just sniff over at the fence when out together. The breeds here were poodles and a schnauzer, may be different with a JRT.

Lougle, instead of calling the dogs in, have you tried calling them over to do something else while still in the garden? As a distraction, as it were (sit, take a bow, any commands you fancy, or playing a game). And also rewarding them with praise, attention or a treat for the moments of quiet before they respond to the other dogs? I agree it's completely unfair if your dogs can't go in the garden because of your neighbours'.

I have a similar problem in that my next door neighbour has some small yappy dogs that bark every time we're in the garden. Luckily one of my dogs doesn't bark but he just ignores them anyway. It's been difficult with Dog2. We have got him so that he ignores them if they are barking at us now, but if they are barking at someone walking down the street he sometimes barks a lot. I'm trying to teach him to go and look what they are barking at first and then make his own decision about whether to bark (because of course if it's someone coming in to our garden then he should bark, but not if they are just walking down the street). It's a work in progress. With Dog2, because he is sometimes frightened when he barks, I've found that if I don't go and look at what he is barking at first, then he just barks even more because he's scared. It's a work in progress at the moment but we are getting somewhere.

The thing that annoyed me most was that our other neighbour assumed that it was my dogs doing all that yapping (even though my dogs are big and you can tell it is small dogs barking!). So you are right to do something about it because you don't want to be blamed for your neighbour's dogs. I think you can ask your neighbour to do something about it too, though, because they shouldn't subject you to continuous barking.

I would use clicker training for this.

When the neighbours dog barks click and treat your dogs _ you could give them all their meals this way for a day or two.

Every time your dogs hear the other dog bark they will come to you for a treat rather than respond to the other dog. It will take a little while for this to be the default behaviour but it is very effective.

When your dogs constantly ignore the other dog it should fingers crossed give up barking. However if it does not there are things you can do to distract it but to be honest I would work on training your dogs.

Great ideas, thank you. I'd definitely prefer to work on my dogs rather than theirs!

The westie has started to run to the side door when the other dog barks (that's where I call them in from) but only after responding first. It's a start!