Dog barking at neighbours/birds/squirrels/rain in the garden

[mintysmum]

I really need help to calm my dog down in the garden.

First thing in the morning he is chomping at the bit to get outside, he dashes out the door and races to the fence barking. He will bark at any noise from neighbours chatting to the rain dripping in the trees! This has been going on about two weeks and happens first thing in the morning and last thing at night.

Throughout the day it's not as bad - if I'm out he is shut in the kitchen and quiet (our neighbour is home a lot and honest) - if I'm home the back door is open and he spends a lot of his time sleeping inside/outside, pottering and occasionally zooming around barking.

My solution right now is to have him on a lead at 630am when he first goes out and after 9pm if he needs to go outside so he can wee but can't run at fences and no barking.

I can't disturb the neighbours with him barking before 8am and after 9pm but me and DH are getting fed up with needing him on his lead before and after these times.

Any ideas for getting him to relax a bit out there? He used to love the garden and over the winter has spent hours lying sleeping on the grass when I'm home.

moosemama, I wasn't nearly as prepared as you, just had a tissue and poo bags. So I scooped up what I could and announced to the closely watching queue that I'd go home and get some water, fortunately lived close by. When I came back with cleaning supplies, bucket of water etc they were still all there waiting for the bus .
Since then I make sure I'm fully prepared for the worst and carry everything in a small backpack.

milminge I can believe it worked. But not because your dog now "understands it's antisocial barking was not acceptable". It now doesn't bark to avoid having it's mouth strapped shut, which is unpleasant.

Given that OP's dog has barked more outside since inside barking was suppressed with an aversive, it's not a great idea to use an aversive method to train out the garden barking.

The lead achieves that same thing (no yapping) without causing the dog discomfort.

It could just be his age. At 11 months they're losing their puppy fear and starting to show the world/squirrels who's boss.

My 10 month old collie is just starting to growl at other dogs when she's on the lead despite being really well socialised and loving to play when she's off the lead. My trainer has said it's just her age and so long as I avoid letting her do it by giving treats for calm greetings and avoiding other barmy on-lead dogs she should grow out of it.

Could you clip a long lead to her when you let her out and as soon as she starts heading to the fence call her back/pull her back and treat for coming.

Well it worked for me with minimal fuss and my dog doesn't disturb my neighbours. I had to catch it whilst it barked,gave a clear 'no bark' with hand signal popped on the fabric muzzle and left it on for five mins. Had to repeat three or four times at most.

Dog owners can seriously under estimate how anti-social it is leaving your dog to bark.

No to a muzzle

Would love my dogs to actually go in the garden without me

In addition to the suggestions above, I would add in some extra training. I have a really bad back at the minute, so do a short (and slow) 45 minute walk in the morning but then the dogs don't get a walk until evening when DH/DC come in. So, I am clickering like mad. It's actually quite funny watching Ddog1 running through the whole bag of tricks he knows in the background while I try to teach the puppy them!

Also, how interactive is your actual one hour walk, if you don't feel comfortable walking further? DH in particular really makes our two work while they walk. Given they are spaniels, they get a lot of scentwork type stuff, but we also do a lot of making them wait before retreiving, sending them for different, individual toys etc.

As my back is bad, I take them to place with a whole pile of different stimuli, so woods, which open into grassland, which lead to a lake etc This makes them pyhsically and mentally tired.

Hope that helps.

Perhaps the dog understood to 'no bark' command, rather than the muzzle

Tried it without the muzzle first obviously. No, it was the combination that did it. Like having a dog on a leash to physically teach it along side verbal commands......

I used quite a wide one (my dog could if it wanted drink etc) and soft fabric so it could only restrict it's barking.

Just passing on what worked for my dog.

I know what it is to live next to two ,untrained,enormous dogs who bark for England and hurtle themselves against the fence if you so much as walk out in the garden. It's grim.

Fair enough, I haven't ever put mine on leash to teach them anything so no experience there

Agree, living near two cairns who bark and bark and bark and bark when anything passes is hard work at times. Luckily we are rural and live in a cul-de-sac but their owners do nothing at all to manage this and that pisses me off.

wheresthelight four walks a day? Seriously?

My Dalmatians get two walks a day amd that is plenty!
These are dogs that used to run alongside carriages back in the day and are known to be bonkers!

I don't know a single dog walker who walks their dogs four times a day!!

Yes four walks. Dogs need exercise or they get bored and destructive

I have a Patterdale terrier and less than four walks and she is barmy as are my parents border collies

One walk a day is no wear near enough

wheresthelight - surely it depends on what a dog does on the walk. Whenever I go out I see a man with an overweight lab. He says he can't understand why the dog's overweight because it has 3 x 2hr walks a day. But they walk at snails pace, stopping frequently for chats, sniffs etc, so dog not getting proper exercise.
Mine get 2 walks a day (30 mins and approx 1hr) and come home completely shattered after running, swimming and ball chasing. They sleep and mooch around at home. I'm happy they're getting all the exercise they need.

Too much exercise can over stimulate a dog - then you have an adrenalin charged fit crazy dog.

Mental stimulation is much better for all dogs. 2 hours exercise a day and training sessions is the way to go rather than 4 walks a day.

Blimey if I tried to take my retriever out for four walks she'd sit but the park entrance and wait for me to do the walk without her and then pick her up when it was time to go home! She is known for doing a sit in when she's had enough!

Agree with both ender and muttynutty. First off it depends on the length/quality of the walks, for example, four lead walks a day wouldn't be as successful at wearing my dogs out as one really good session offlead which also included a bit of brain/nose work. I have Lurchers who can happily sleep like the dead for hours after a good hour's off-lead walk.

Also, if you are constantly taking them out for walks all day they can start to get fixated on that and not be able to settle in between, due to the adrenaline kick they get from it.

I have had a lot of high energy breeds over the years, including terriers and border collies and none have needed 4 walks a day, two decent walks is usually more than enough, when combined with regular training sessions to wear them out mentally.

MuttDog has 3 walks a day.

One at 0600 for 40-60 minutes, off lead, over fields including recall and seek training
One at 1230 for 40 minutes, off lead through woods chasing rabbits/deer etc
One at 1800 for 60 minutes, off lead, over fields chasing other dogs

Mutt is a barker, but my neighbours don't mind because she is chasing away rats and foxes from the field next door. It's a dusk and last thing at night (2230-2300) issue, but when I spoke to the neighbours and explained they were fine with it (their own dog howls along to police/ambulance sirens so they understand )

My terrier is a Pattie mix and would be bonkers with over stimulation on four walks a day. I'm not disputing that it works for you but it is unusual for a dog to need that much exercise.

It really helps if your neighbours have dogs too and are understanding. Mine have neither kids or pets and are semi retired (early) so usually home pretty much 24/7. I feel for them as there are five of us and two dogs, although mine don't tend to bark (the dogs that is, not the kids - they growl, bark and bite ). I dream of living in the country - or at the very least in a house with no immediate neighbours and a nice big paddock.

In my experience, some dogs will take as much exercise as you can/are willing to give them, especially working breeds, as they are obviously bred to keep going all day. The more you give them the more they need, especially with breeds that tend towards overstimulation, iyswim. That isn't to say they can't be fit, calm and content on less though. Imo, there's a margin/balance somewhere between too much and too little and you do have to work it out for each individual dog, via a bit of trial and error.

Been sitting in my cool living room and didn't realise how hot it is this afternoon, it was quite cool here this morning. Daftly just went to take my two out and had to come home again after 20 minutes. Will have to take them again later when it cools down. I have to admit to not really liking summer - I don't appreciate the hot weather, it interrupts my dog walking plans, much prefer nice long walks in the rain.

Mine get five walks a day feel like a bad person now ;) one 30 minute when they get up, an hour at either lunchtime or five, depending on the day, two half hour school runs and 20 minutes before dinner and sometimes 10 minutes before bed.

They are super chilled though, maybe because the walks are not rigidly fixed in time, ie sometimes they don't come on the school runs for one reason or another, at the weekend they might have a lie in and we might go for a two hour family walk or a six hour one, some days they go running with my oh instead of one of the walks, if the weather is really shitty they won't go out at all ;)

Also I have no garden to speak of just a tiny decked yard, so a 20 minute 'walk' might be to the nearest park (one minute away) for a quick play and a pee, then back home. Whereas those of you with gardens would have dogs able to do that without you thinking of it as exercise.

Don't feel bad Gobbler, you have to do what works for you as a family. I think the point is that no-one should feel bad for not walking their dogs four times a day. As long as your dogs are getting the right amount of exercise for them to be fit, healthy and calm then you're/they're fine.

We have a large, well long, garden and Pip often spends quite a lot of his time charging up and down using it as a racetrack or throwing his toys around, whereas Lazyboy Lurcherboy tends not to bother with the garden and sleeps a lot, but loves his walks. Every dog and every family is different and we all have to work out how best to meet our family's, furry and otherwise, needs.

I would say your 20 minute walks are similar to my two going out in the garden for a wee and a snuffle about and they probably do that a few times a day, so our dogs are actually getting very similar amounts of exercise (excluding the running with your oh - I don't do running ).

We have a long garden too. When our patio is done I'm going to have to switch to that type of routine, throwing in a couple of 20 min toileting mooches.

Hi minty I think you're right - training sessions on the garden sounds like the way to go

Our patio is the bane of my life. Pip does handbrake turns on it and regularly skins his feet and legs. He's also skidded into a heap across it and badly injured his back leg, when there was black ice on it at Christmas - that one required emergency out-of-hours veterinary treatment. Immature, fast dog and no brakes = regular vet trips.

Thank you for all responses. I appreciate people taking the time to offer ideas and thoughts.

We have to stick to our 8am walk and once he is ready/old enough I will add in the 3pm school pick up walk but he is too young now - I've thought about it on a sunny day as I walk myself and it's a quick 30mins by the boring route or beautiful 40-60 mins by woodland route which I often take on my own and miss my dog! But he has no interest in that second walk and vet said I should wait till he's over a year old.

A late evening walk is a good idea just for a 10 minute out and wee and also training in the garden. Like you say Moose a good excuse to sit in the garden!

There is no way I'd allow barking to go on without intervention.

I watched our dog mooch around the garden tonight from the attic window - early enough that I could let him do what he wanted to try and see what's bugging him.

So he was quietly pottering, then started circling as though about to flop out (he used to sleep in garden whenever allowed out), must have heard something because he leapt up, flew to back fence barking, tail up high, really on alert. And there were two squirrels on top of the fence, one looked to have food in mouth, not bothered at all about barky dog!

I suspected squirrels or a cat, they could well have a nest there as other side of fence is a meadows with loads of mature trees.

It's not about his level of exercise or boredom, I think he keeps hearing noises and is on alert. If the squirrels stay they will help me as I could clicker train him to be calm while they are zipping along the fence maybe?

Relations with neighbours make a huge difference - our 'attached' neighbour said early on that a dog barking in the garden was the best protection against burglars - I realise she didn't quite mean 630am on a Saturday or 11pm on a Sunday!

Ours barks whenever next door is in their garden or they open their front door. Seeing as they let their dog bark at ALL hours in the garden I've stopped bringing mine in when they kick off because a) it's shortlived and b) their dog typically goes nuts when I'm putting the miniPPs to bed which annoys me like crazy and they never tell her to be quiet or bring her in.