What is reasonable?

[Dentistlakes]

My neighbour has recently got a puppy. Not sure if it’s relevant or not, but it looks like a collie.

Each morning, very early between 5-6am it’s being taken out for the toilet. No problem with that of course. The issue is that it’s barking and waking us all up. Short term I can put up with that as it’s learning, but longer term I don’t want it to be an issue.

I run very early 4 days and each time it barks at me (understandably) but the problem is the owner is just standing there on his phone and does nothing to discourage it. He doesn’t seem to care his dog is disturbing the whole neighbourhood. My worry is that the puppy isn’t being taught not to bark and in time it will become a habit which they won’t be able to stop. I foresee years of being woken by this dog barking because it knows no better.

My question is, what is reasonable? Should the puppy be getting taught not to bark now or will it just stop of it’s own accord as it grows? Is this something i should raise with them now (kindly of course) to avoid issues down the line or is it unlikely to become a problem?

This is a difficult one.

Dogs bark - it's what they do. The owner should obviously be doing everything in his power to stop the barking - standing there and ignoring it won't be helping anyone.

But it's pretty impossible to stop some breeds barking completely. I have a beagle and he barks. He knows the "quiet" command but if he catches a scent or similar, he will bay. It's what he's been bred to do for thousands of years

I never leave him in the garden to bark and he gets brought in immediately, but I don't really know that it's possible to train him out of, say, barking at cats or birds.

Collies are herding dogs so I do wonder, if he's on a lead, whether he's barking out of frustration because he wants to herd you up and can't!

Maybe he is ignoring it so it learns that barking doesn't achieve anything and stops barking in the long run - so short term pain long term gain. We did that with our puppy and warned our neighbours it would be loud for a bit but it was with the goal of making sure they weren't disrupted later on. This went hand in hand with other training methods. Hopefully it is something like that - you will find out in time. If my dog didn't learn i wouldn't think it was reasonable to have continuous barking so early in the morning - think you will have to wait a while and see how it plays out

He can not reinforce it while also re-direct. Or even shout out ‘sorry about this we are ignoring the behaviour for now’. Some people don’t seem to care about how their dogs barking/shitting/jumping up at effects other people.
Our old neighbours 3 collies were regularly let out into the garden for a bark. It drove me absolutely potty.

I'd strike up a friendly conversation about the pup. My mother is doing a training program with her new dog and the advice is to ignore all barking. He may be doing something simillar. If not then that would be the time to address concerns about the future.

Thanks for all the advice, it’s really useful. It’s been so long since I’ve had a dog (not since childhood) it makes sense the training methods have changed. When it barks at me when I go for a run I ignore it completely as I don’t want to encourage it with attention. I guess this is the right thing to do? I’ll leave it for now and see what happens. It’s just so early to be woken up, so hopefully when it grows it won’t need to be let out so early. We shall see.

I’m really hoping they are taking things seriously as if it is a collie I’ve read it will need a ton of exercise. The last thing I need is a bored dog next door. Fingers crossed!

My pup got up at 5ish when she was tiny, as she's got bigger she doesn't need to pee so early (bladder is larger) and she sleeps til 7 or 8 most days (she's 6 months old now). I'm in mortal fear of her barks bothring the neighbours and have never allowed them if it's late or early, I'd go and fetch her in!

It's likely to grow out of it but if it becomes a 'thing' that it's allowed to do then it might become a habit.

HTH

@ArabellaScott

My pup got up at 5ish when she was tiny, as she's got bigger she doesn't need to pee so early (bladder is larger) and she sleeps til 7 or 8 most days (she's 6 months old now). I'm in mortal fear of her barks bothring the neighbours and have never allowed them if it's late or early, I'd go and fetch her in!

It's likely to grow out of it but if it becomes a 'thing' that it's allowed to do then it might become a habit.

HTH

That’s what I’m afraid of...I suppose time will tell.

It’s also worrying they have gone for a collie when they aren’t a particularly active family. Maybe they are planning to take up hill walking or something. I hope so or the dog will be jumping out of its skin in the not too distance future.

collies and intelligent dogs need mental stimulatiuon as much as exercise. Why I'm just about to take mine into the pissing rain for her training session ...