Bark Bark Bark = Complaint from neighbour!

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wizzlewoo

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I have a 2 year old Collie who grew up on my livery yard with my other collie. She has always been a little vocal and mad but last March i had to give up running the yard (rent put up to stupid amount) and so we moved to a small house which is all i could afford with a good garden and everything was fine. Untill nosey neighbour complained that when they see their leads to go out for a walk in the morning and the evening they bark. We had lots of problems with said neighbour and when the lease was up we moved out. We have been in the new house for 1 1/2 months now and the new neighbour complained first on Christmas eve and then just after new year (apparently she works nights so cant cope with noise through the day)! I dont know what to do they are such well behaved dogs but you cant expect them to be quite all the time, i would understand if the dogs barked all day long but they only bark when we get home and when we go for a walk.
Any ideas on how to shut up the dogs in a humane way as shouting at them would have no effect they wouldnt understand what they have done wrong. Also are the neighbours being un reasonalble or am i for keeping dogs in an estate? They have 2 massive walks a day and come to work with me. They are only in the house when i am, i cant keep moving house all the time and i cant afford to live in the middle of no where!
Sorry for long post.
 
Dogs bark .

Tough luck for neighbour, They are not barking all day and only bark when like you say you come home or when you go for a walk .

Chuck a pair of ear plugs into your neighbour
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Col x
 
I think the neighbour is being a tad unreasonable. When you live in a semi-detached house/terrace house the walls tend to be thin and I think you have to accept noise from your neighbour - whether dogs barking occasionly, doors slamming, clocks chimimg etc. - don't fret too much, if she starts to be a pain keep a record of noise your hear coming from her place!

If my dogs kick off when I return home I completely ignore them, no eye contact, no speaking. After a while they soon learn they aren't going to get any attention!
 
I really wouldnt pay too much notice of your neighbours, its not as though they are barking all day and night. I have two collies the one is really quiet but the other will bark at birds, the moon you name it and he has barked at it.

We had a neighbour complain about Zak's barking and i didnt take much notice. He has to go outside to do his business and he does bark but he isnt out there much more than 5-10 minutes before he comes in. He is most noisy when he is going out for a walk as he barks out of excitement all the way down the street to the park but no one really says anything any more.

As long as they arent barking all day or night there isnt really any reason for your neighbour to complain.
 
One way of training a dog not to bark is to have the 'bark' on command and the 'stop bark' on command.

So you could do this by saying a word eg. 'speak' just as they start barking - then praising them for carrying on barking. Keep doing this until when you say the word - the dog barks (expecting praise or a treat).

Then start introducing a word as soon as they stop barking eg 'quiet' or 'no-bark' and again give treats and praise for the silence.

I find this easier to do with a clicker - but you don't nescessarily need one.

That way you have your 'off switch'

If the word you pick stops working - you may need to retrain with a new word...

Don't shout - that is like joining in with them. And if they are barking to tell you about something (eg. cat in garden) go up to them touch the side of their fasce and say 'thank you' - so they know you have listened to their alert and it is ok. But the barking you are talking about doesn't sound like that kind of barking? Is more in excitement?

Am sure others will have other solutions - but that is how I would do it!
 
Look like happy dogs
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I would also ignore them for a few minutes when you come home, try not to have them in a place where they can see you arrive, no eye contact, as BS says, then when YOU are ready, say hi, I'm home.
That barking and leaping when you come home is them demanding attention - give it when you are ready.

And as said on the other thread, don't reward barking with taking them out immediately - they will think - we bark, we go out!

(Not that mine are mute, I have to say
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If they only bark as u say when u arrive home or when u walk them(excitement) then there is nothing anyone can do.....if the noiseabbaitment/environmental health are called they will hear nothing, they usually sit outside in a car, so if like u say they dont bark throughout the day, then nothing will be done.

With the dog walking then u need to work out settling them down, so when u get their leads and they begin/put the leads away and sit down, u will need to keep doing this until they settle and only when they do then allow them to get their lead on to go out, or leave the leads on some times and then sit back down so they do not assosiate the lead with always going somewhere.
When u come home as suggested no greeting them, or eye contact, do not even contemplait any contact until they are settled, leave them in a room they cannot see or hear u arrive, go in the back some days and the front others and leave the radio on low, mix things up a little so they cannot predict your exact routine.....let them straight out to the garden without a word.
There is also a plug in u can get that emmits a sonic noise which only they can hear when they bark I have it it works for some and not for theirs.

A rented house with a garage may help next move....my garage is now a doggy room, so if I go out for a long period my dogs are in there, basically looks like a big kitchen, and the back has a false wall to muffle any outside noise between that and the actual main garage door, I leave the radio on and have the dogs on the opposite side the the only attached house.

Must admit im a night shifter and I hate noise
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I have 9 dogs and they do not make a noise, 4 are in a kennel and the rest are in the house......next dor with is now empty used to let her dog out in the garden when I was in bed and it barked non stop for about half an hour, if I had a gun I would have shot her and rehomed the dog
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You might like to try a spray collar? Our pointer developed a habit of barking at night for no discernible reason. After 2 weeks of being woken up 3 times a night and a trip to the vet to establish there was nothing physically wrong, we resorted to the spray collar.

After 1 night she just needed to wear it to be quiet (not switched on), and now we've broken the cycle she doesn't need it anymore and is quiet all night. Still don't know what it was all about, but the collar DID work....

There's no real point in saying that the neighour is being unreasonable, that dogs just bark etc etc. Not everyone likes dogs, and why should they put up with barking when it can be controlled, anymore than they should have to put up with dog mess on their lawn for example?
 
I don't know how you can stop them barking, but i just wanted to say i can see things from your neighbours perspective. There's a couple of dogs on my street who bark all the time they're in the garden and it really does drive you up the wall
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So i'd try and keep your patience with the neighbour and understand why she's been driven to complain. Good luck stopping them.
 
My neighbours are the same. We have a Lurcher who I agree as a pup howled when we left him. He is much better now and is rarely left (part of the problem!) but if he does bark or howl, my neighbour texts me to let me know. What annoys me is they have a yappy dog that barks every time someone walks past the house, at the crack of dawn when they let it out and often howls when they leave it. We say nothing because I feel Im playing tic for tat. Im waiting for the opportunity to say something without it sounding like Im saying 'well yours does it too'. We get on well with our neighbours and I dont want to fall out over dogs.
 
[ QUOTE ]
Hell hath no fury like a nightworker woken up during the day
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[/ QUOTE ]

oh yes - my postman is well aware!! I do have a sign on my apartment door that says "On nights - DO NOT DISTURB"
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It's worse when friends go "But you won't be asleep all day will you?" I've taken to replying "Do you sleep ALL night?!"
 
QR
We have had complaints from day one of living here (Been here over 11 years!) from one twisty neighbour.
He complains that our guard dog (the pathetic rhodesian) barks...... we have a decent amount of land, we want her to bark if she sees anyone she doesnt know
Before we got her he complained that the terrier made too much noise.... haha
Apparently my dogs are dangerous.
This one is my favourite...... When the snow was terrible here and we couldnt get cars out I walked 2 miles to get more canned dog food.... when I got back my neighbour was stood at the top of my drive (dogs were barking because he was there) and he told me that he was going to report me to the RSPCA for cruelty to my dogs!!!
Apparently putting dogs in a kennel is cruel
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I almost whacked him round the head with the canned food.

Some people have nothing better to do than whinge.

We have managed to shush our eighbour slightly.... I found his sodding cat asleep in my dogs kennel. Seconds before my two were going in there. I grabbed the cat and marched over to his house to return the cat, pointing out that my dogs might bark alot because all of his sodding animals that decide to mooch round my garden at all hours!
 
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