Practical suggestions- neighbours yappy dogs

[Lazydomestic]

my neighbour has 2 small breed dogs which have always been reactive / barked a lot when they are in back garden which was irritating but I ignored.
Two things have changed - I got my own puppy at end of last year (still a puppy will bark at squirrels so not perfect but work in progress ). However neighbours dogs have gone into overdrive with snarling/ barking/ jumping at / digging under fence.

I can’t let my dog out in garden - neighbour is a nice person and I have spoken to her. She WFH & employer has complained that dogs are being disruptive when she is in meetings so her solution is to put bedding in garage & they have free range of garden all day. Her suggestion was seeing as I take mine out twice a day he just needs a toilet break at lunchtime so she would bring hers in. I just said flat no - wouldn’t work, am not spending the summer with the doors shut.

She is now upset & saying will have to re-home.

My dog isn’t barking or reacting back so it’s his presence they object to. Suggested a walk but she has to walk them separately 🤷‍♀️ Any practical suggestions on what to do

Put up some sort of screening on your side of the fence so they can't see your dog or get under the fence.

Then carry on as normal, it's a great opportunity to train your dog to ignore other bad mannered dogs.

Perhaps she could shut her dogs in the garage and just let them out for a couple of toilet trips a day. She seems to think that's good enough for your dog, so it's obviously good enough for hers...

I'd suggest she take her dogs to lessons and continues the training herself at home. IF she can't be bothered with that, and is threatening rehoming, then maybe the dogs will be better off.

Is there a house on the other side of her too? I bet they are sick of the noise also. Do you know them?

Continue your training and don't be swayed by her lack of proper training. Many councils have information on nuisance dogs. If things don't change, I'd be tempted to put in an anonymous complaint!

@ItsaMeMummio - it’s a 6ft fence already (my fence) which I will need to repair this week as panel is getting loose.
Get your point on life lesson but I don’t want my boy to be reactive / bark back

If she has to walk her dogs separately she has at least one issue with at least one dog, aside from running the fence line being pains in the arse, digging at the fence, and barking when she's in meetings.

She needs to find herself a decent trainer and do the work. She has a lot to unpick there.

It's always going to be difficult for her with two dogs as one will start and the other will automatically join in and the fact she did not tackle this behaviour right from the start.

She should put deep trough planters or grow thorny shrubs at the points along the fence where her dogs can get up close to in order to prevent the scrabbling at the fence and the digging.

She should only be letting g them out in the garden when she is free to be there and supervise them.

oh dear OP, this sounds shit. We had this situation in our last house. Very similar setup, 2 yappy small breed, untrained and unwalked dogs constantly in the garden, barking at our dog, our kids, anything that moved.

We moved.

These types of people need to buy cats, not dogs.

Completely face off your fence so the nuisance yaps can’t see in, and plant shrubs/hedging along your fence for some added privacy. These types of dogs rarely improve unfortunately.

We had this with a neighbour when our dog was younger! Our dog would be in the garden and do an excited bark at a game or a squirrel and it would set her dogs off. They would then bark for about 30 minutes whilst my dog totally ignored them. She came round to complain so I smiled and explained that he was young and we were training him and took the opportunity to recommend a good local trainer to help with her dogs’ reactivity. I don’t think she liked my answer much, but basically she had a training issue with her dogs.
Your neighbour needs to take a few days off work and train her dogs.

Also, I gave my older kids water guns in the summer, each time the relentless fuckers ran up to the fence barking at my kids, they got soaked. Pavlov’s dogs and all that.

We have a this with neighbour’s dogs. They aren’t there all the time as they belong to the grown up children but the parents look after the dogs from time to time. Two small untrained lockdown dogs who yap and howl at anything and everything. We like our neighbours and get on well and they aren’t there all the time so we just grin and bear it. But I feel your pain. Why the fuck don’t people just train these dogs when they’re puppies??? Total lack of effort has resulted in ingrained behaviour that will probably never change.

No advice except, you can’t change other people. You can only change what you can control, so focus on you and your dog, that’s all you can do.

Entirely your neighbours problem. From day 1 if my dogs barked at a neighbour I told them quiet. If they barked again they were put inside. My neighbours have the right to enjoy their garden without excessive barking. My dogs will give a woof if other neighbours cats come in the garden but it’s not continuous and no one is bothered.
I’m flabbergasted at your neighbours cheek tbh.
Agree neighbour needs troughs of thorny plants. Also agree with a super soaker to dissuade yappers.

Tough shit for your neighbour tbh.

I have four (admittedly bigger) dogs yet I manage to have mine trained not to be complete liabilities or to piss off my neighbours. I know little dogs yap, but I also know a lot of people with smaller dogs (well known for yapping) who have dogs that are silent as the grave.

Her problem is that she never bothered making an effort to deal with their behaviour and instead shoved them off where they wouldn't bother her. She's a cheeky fuck who should have trained her dogs.

Sorry, but no one should be having to lock their dog inside the house all day because the neighbour is too damn lazy to effectively train their dog.

Not to drop feed but the re-home comes from neighbour other side who has also had words as has young GD who too scared to go into garden.
Will suggest idea of shrubs / planters to keep away from fence - don’t mind helping her with that.
I have already banned squeaky toys from my garden and always go out with him but she needs to sort her dogs out 🤷‍♀️

You absolutely shouldn’t have to go out with your dog, though. I would be very careful about setting this precedent. Dogs that are well exercised thrive from lazing about outdoors in the fresh air, lounging in the sun, lying on grass, watching birds overhead, and having more mental stimulation rather than stuck indoors on carpets in stuffy houses. Better for their happiness, more space for zoomies, healthier for their skin. Of course I am not advocating that we walk a dog once a day, then dump it in the garden alone for 12 hours in freezing cold weather- but being outdoors is good for dogs!

Your neighbours dogs are her problem, do everything you can to block their view through your fence, but ultimately their antisocial behaviour is down to her to fix. Let your dog outside as much as he wants.

She can’t leave her dogs outside all day effectively letting them do what they want, they’ve made their own amusement now. She needs to exercise them and train them. Doggy daycare and dog walkers if she can’t be bothered. Having a dog is hard work and it’s a commitment, you have to put the effort in every single day.
It’s a bloody nuisance if they’re outside barking all day long.

My neighbours jack russells go balistic when my dog goes out too but thats their problem. My neighbours dont walk theirs at all. Your neighbour needs to provide for her dogs. Sounds like rehoming might be good for her dogs

No advice but solidarity. My NDN has satans dog that tries to come through the fence every time I use my own garden.

I wish there was something I could do but so far nothings worked. Mine can’t see us, it’s just the noise that sets it off!