Any bright ideas as to how I can curtail this?

[gildalily]

I have an 11 year old Labrador bitch. She's good natured, and well behaved with decent recall. She tolerates other dogs well and we can have friends round with their dogs and she is happy for them to be there. Not aggressive or precious about her space or things at all. She likes to go out in the garden and have a sniff about as most dogs do.

We have relatively new neighbours who have got a chow. He is a nice enough dog, a bit annoying in terms of barking and seems a little highly strung. When my dog goes outside he barks and jumps up at the fence. Sometimes this startles her and it nearly always ends up in a bark-fest. I call my dog away as I don't like the way he hurls himself against the fence and I would be worried if he managed to get over as to what would happen between them, in terms of aggression. My neighbours never call him off when he's doing this. They rarely tell him to stop barking or bring him indoors when he is so I feel as though I need to do something when he starts as it's stopping my dog wanting to go outside, unless we're there.

Has anyone got any good advice for how I can stop this happening? Would squirting a water pistol at him be cruel? Has anybody had a similar situation and found a solution please?

Boring but obvious first question - have you talked with your neighbours about it?

If my neighbours started using a water pistol on my dog without conversation we’d be off to a bad start. So a chat is step one.

I've just taught our Labrador 'quiet' in the garden. On hindsight I should have used 'ignore' which is what I use out on walks, but he understands well enough

He resists retaliating at dogs on the other side now. It was quick and simple, within 2 days

Pick your command and use treats . The dog on the other side won't stop until owners get involved unfortunately

@gardeninggirl68 yes, good point about what the neighbours would think. I see that talking to them would be the right first step. However they've done a couple of things to their house which has had a direct impact on us (we're semi-detached) and when we have asked them about putting things right they've lied quite blatantly about things and so I feel awkward approaching them about this and don't have much trust in them doing anything to help. But that's another story. Was hoping for ideas of noise or smells that might put their dog off from jumping really. But I suppose I'll have to bite the bullet

Sorry that reply was for @NoSquirrels

@gardeninggirl68
'Quiet' is an interesting one, and she responds well to a treat (same as me really) that might at least calm the situation.

Our old terrier used to do this. We simply chucked a few treats straight down everytime the other dog barked. She soon learned to look for treats, rather than worry about barking back. In time, we reduced the treats down so that we only threw them down every once in a while.

@RoastedHazelnutLatte I can't believe I didn't think of that! Thanks that's a great simple solution.

Good luck!

You can desensitise your own dog, as PP have said (which sounds like it will be quite easy to do as she's only reacting back sometimes) but chucking a handful of sausage over at the neighbouring barker may also help desensitise them to the presence of your dog in the garden. I wouldn't usually recommend feeding strangers' dogs but if they really aren't interested in training it then I'd be inclined to prioritise the peaceful enjoyment of my own garden!