Bark Bark Bark = Complaint from neighbours

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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 hen they see thire 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! I dont kjnow 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 can keep moving house all the time and i cant afford to live in the middle of no where!
Sorry for long post.
 
Barking dogs can be such an annoyance - and I have two next door to me who can drive me nuts at times. However, there has to be a level of tollerance from our neighbours when we all live so close together. And generally speaking I can't understand why anyone would complain about dogs barking a welcome home to their owners when they return from work. After all it won't go on for long.

What really helped my neighbour and I was to talk about the 'issue'. We have an understanding. She knows it drives me insane to hear the dogs barking, and she tries to ensure that it's kept to a minimum (and on the whole it's improved 100%). In turn I have to be more tollerant (which I try to be) of the dogs when they do bark - which is now not often.
 
I also have a woofy collie, but luckily my 2 neighbours also have woofy dogs! I found one thing that helped a bit was teaching her to bark on command 'speak'. Then 'speak' 'speak' 'sshhhh' so she learnt 'sshhh' was an absence of 'speak'! Doesn't help much when they're really excited though...

I would say if the dogs only bark briefly twice a day then the neighbours are being a bit unreasonable. However, I wouldn't be impressed if it was waking me up early in the morning. My only other suggestion is move to a country town where everyone has a dog!

PS I'm sure pictures of your lovely collies would help people advise...
 
This is the problem we have talked about it an i have been nothing but appologetic but there are other neighbours all around who dont say anything, it is simply that she works nights and so is sleeping at the times in the morning when i take the dogs for a walk, Argh! I would just love to know a way that i can try and stop the dogs from barking and they can just jump around, short of removing their vocal cords lol. I just feel it is unreasonable.
 
One of my chaps barks his head off when it's time for walkies. My neighbour doesn't complain though and actually was grateful when they barked when someone was trying to break into their house and the burglars were scared off. Have you tried putting their leads on when they're in the house so that if they're going to bark with excitement they'll at least do it inside and so they neighbour won't hear it. In my village there's always some dog or other barking at some point. I'd much rather hear barking than cars.
 
If she is trying to sleep I can imagine how annoying she finds it, could you maybe suggest some ear plugs & buy them for her? It sounds like it is just bad timing & she needs to get to sleep, or could you walk them earlier before the lady actually goes to bed?? Maybe discuss her timings with her. Good luck.
 
Are you sure they don't bark in the day when you're out?

I went on holiday and left my 2 dogs at home with a friend house sitting.

Dogs were fine when she was around but as soon as she went off to work, they barked and howled ... they had a dog flap then, so had run of the garden.

Anyway, 3 immediate neighbours were canvassed by a neighbour on an adjoining road
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to make a complaint. They didn't want to, as knew we were away and that was the problem.

Anyway, to cut a long story short. Bloke complained to environmental health and he had to keep a diary for 3 weeks of the dogs barking (I was informed that they had this diary). As we were home, it was no problem, they barked as often as they normally do, which is like yours, when we walk and when I come in from shopping etc.

Unless the dog is barking continuously for hours, the council won't do anything, so you're in the clear that way.

As for appeasing your neighbours, maybe suggest ear plugs
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.
 
As much as i dislike them you could always try muzzling them (before you start your going for walk routine).

i have had to do it with the husky for a while, he makes a horrendous noise!
 
I understand where you are coming from and from your neighbours point of view. We live in the middle of nowhere with just 3 houses around us and unfornately someone with 9 dogs moved into one of those houses and built kennels at the bottom of his garden. He takes his dogs for a walk at 6.15am and the ensuing barking wakes us all up. They then bark everytime they can see me in my garden /with the horses/ our children play in the garden and then start up fairly constantly at around 5pm when they know they are going to get feed/walked again (which often doesnt happen until 9pm).

After such peace and quiet its been a nightmare and the bloke is awful and wont be spoken to about it. I had to go around after the dogs got into the horses fields and also chased all my chickens and he just wasnt bothered, didnt even apologise which just makes me crosser. I must admit I used to try and make sure the children werent that noisy or that OH didnt rev his boys toys too much but now I positively encourage them to make as much noise as possible - neighbour has ruined our peace so I am going to ruin his. (sorry that makes me sound horrible but we are so fed up with it!)

Anyway to help you, it doesnt sound like your dogs are being unreasonable and the council will see it like this too (they dont see the dogs next to us as unreasonable!). So good news for you, not so good for your neighbours. Just try and keep the noise to the minimum, at least it sounds like you care about the problem unlike horrible man near us!
 
I can't offer advise on how to keep them quiet, but from your neighbours ponit of view, I know how annoying it is. I live in the country, but the house about 1/2 a mile away has 4 dogs and they bark non stop. It drives me mad. Worse still is the man is a baker, and leaves for work at 3am ish. The dogs start barking then and can go non stop unitl about 10am! In the summer if you have the windows open at night, it will actually wake us up.

So I can sympathise.
 
Now providing they are not doing the barking when left alone then my answer is - train them!

Yep i watch that It's Me or The Dog and do pick up the odd tip. Ours bark when people come round and sometimes it's a bit OTT and if you shout at them it's like joining in. Victoria Stilwell had one case of a very vocal dog (well actually has had several cases) and she teaches them the "Quiet" command. Quite easy really. What you have to do is teach your dog to "speak" on command and reward - do tis several times. Then ask the dog to speak - no reward and then say "Quiet" and use you hands as a visual aid too (she waved her hands across each other infront of the dog). When dog is quiet - reward with treat. Continue asking for the bark and then saying "Quiet" and giving reward only when dog is quiet. They quickly get the message.

Mine has picked this up quite quickly and now responds to the word "Quiet" pretty well and it did not take long at all - she's collie x so has the collie intelligence.

Once they learn the word and associate with good behaviour (ie reward) it is pretty easy and then don't reward every time, just occasionally. Eventually just praising the dog will be enough.
 
Thanks so much for everyones ideas. One day i will move to a house where they can run all day long and not annoy anyone! But for now i will keep tying to keep the neighbours happy and more importantly my dogs happy but quiet. I like the idea of teaching them to speak and be quiet on demand, they usually love learing new tricks so i will just make it another game maybe? Thanks again
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Normally I wouldn't have any sympathy with the neighbour as barking just twice a day with excitment isn't much to put up with, but I guess working nights means she has probably just got off to sleep and it's sometimes hard to get back to sleep straight away if your sleep pattern is disturbed (my friend's OH does permanent nights and he has huge problems getting back to sleep if he is woken up soon after dropping off).

While you are trying to train them to speak and then be silent, can you put the leads on in a different room perhaps? Mine go mad running and barking round the garden when I get the leads out, so if I need mine to be quiet (usually OH having a lie-in at weekend!) I sneak up and put the leads on quickly before they realise, and then I can stop them barking more easily once I have the lead on and I go out the back door to keep the noise down.
 
Barking twice per day is reasonable and environmental health will tell your neighbour that if she complains. But neighbour aggro is stressful and it might be an idea, for your own sake, to train your dogs to 'Be Quiet'. I have eleven dogs but we live in a fairly remote area and have only one neighbour. They tells us they rarely hear the dogs and that they are glad we have them because they increase security - they do bark if anyone walks past!! I, on the other hand, do my very best to keep barking to a minimum. The first words our parrot spoke were 'Woof, woof, woof BE QUIET'. You can buy special collars that spray the dog with citronella (it is supposed to be calming) if they bark. Might be worth a try but when I put one on our noisiest the only effect was to get the other dogs to bark at her... this set the spray off and it made a pst noise >g< and they thought it was a great toy. The house smelled nice but the barking increased!

When we moved here we spoke to the neighbours before making any final decision so we knew they were dog friendly. If they had been anti we'd have gone elsewhere.
 
I know this is going against the grain but the only time our dogs (4 of them) are ever allowed to bark is when someone comes to the door, and even then they stop the instant they're told. We live in a very built up area with neighbours both sides, at the back and at the front, and 2 sets of neighbours have young children. We teach them the QUIET command as puppies and find they usually stop barking pretty quickly as none of our older dogs bark.

My lurcher puppy was very vocal from a young age so he had to wear a spray collar for a while. He barked constantly when playing with the others which was a problem as we have a dog flap so the neighbours could hear him making a noise outside. It worked really well, although he's now 10 months old and has just started being noisy at the yard. There are tennants that work nights so don't appreciate dogs barking right outside their window (or me bellowing QUIET
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). Just dug out the collar and going to buy a new battery for it later today.
 
A collar that sprays? Very interesting! Wonder if someone will develop one that shocks a horse in some way if it windsucks! Sorry - didnt mean to change topics, but could not resist!
 
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but they only bark when we get home and when we go for a walk.
They have 2 massive walks a day and come to work with me. They are only in the house when i am


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If the above is correct then they can't be home alone very often or very long, and if that is the only time they bark I can't see it being a big issue. Our neighbours leave their dog home alone every day, and he'll bark if someone comes to the door. Ho hum, Tony works nights, its not ideal but hey. If it barked all day I might have a different attitude. I guess what i'm saying is I suggest the dogs are barking more than you realise.
 
Windsucking is a coping strategy that the horse is using to activate the nucleus accummbens and release dopmaine in order to deal with a stressful environment. Physically preventing the horse from windsucking would cause stress similar to witholding cocaine from an addict.

Barking is not a stereotypical behaviour (defined as a behaviour with no obvious goal) as it is usually commumication, attention seeking, excitement etc and therefore no stress is caused by preventing a dog from barking, and the owner will be less stressed about annoying the neighbours!
 
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.
 
i have two dogs of my own who at times if im out in the day sometimes bark for security reasons,but if im going to be out for a longer period than normal,i will live them a number of toys to keep them pre occupied like balls which have treats in or i hide treats around the house,providing your dog is not a digger or a chewer.or do excersises with them like leave the house for 5 mins and go back then 10 mins then 15 mins and so on tideous i know but i have also known this to work as some dogs bark through anxiety of seperation from there owners.i hope some of this helps.
 
I find the fact that you have had two separate neighbours complain about your dogs interesting and feel that quite possibly in that case they may have a point!

Teach your dogs not to bark, end of! I have a good friend who has a collie and it drove me up the pole every day when the dogs were allowed on the yard that she would allow the darn animal to bark incessantly as she tacked up to take them out with her horse - yes the dog was excited at going out, but it was annoying and unpleasant for everyone else.

Interestingly the dog was much more well behaved and quite happy to listen to a "no" command and stop barking when her husband was there and in control, as he wouldn't put up with the barking.

I have a dog myself and whilst he does bark, he also knows that when he's told not to and asked to be quiet, he complies!

You don't see collies working barking incessantly because they are excited - its a training thing, get them trained and you might keep your neighbours on side!
 
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