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How to help neighbour with barking dog?

Elfasi — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 09:06:43 -0800

New neighbour, new dog. Dog was home alone today(indoors), barking and howling, for the first time. Doesn't bother me one bit but I caught another neighbour outside, on the phone to the RSPCA (which seems an insane overreaction), to report this situation. What to do? How to help both neighbours and the dog be happy? Some background:

I live in the UK, own my house and have been there a few months. I'm getting my own dog very soon, you may find a question from me some months ago on that whole process.

My house and 3 others all join up back to back in a big block. New neighbour with dog is beside mine so we share a common wall. Neighbour with complaint is behind neighbour with dog and so shares a common wall with them. I just share a corner with complaint neighbour.

The new neighbour is renting and has permission for pets. She has a 2 year old male lab. They've been there just 3 days, no noise or barking till today, dog wasn't left alone till today.

Now there's plenty of advice around for stopping barking but I'm going to give benefit of the doubt for now and assume doggy needs time to adjust to the new place and will improve. But if a neighbour is calling the RSPCA after just 3 hrs, then suddenly I am quite concerned.

I like this new neighbour. I like her dog. I've already offered to walk and dogsit whenever I can. I want to help. But more than that, I want to foster a mutually beneficial relationship. I get my own dog next month. How wonderful to have a dog owner right next door, so we can help each other out! But, being a renter, just moved in, and already with phonecalls to the RSPCA, I can't help but think her position is suddenly very precarious.

I dont want to see her go, I see a very fruitful future together. But more than that, this could affect me in more direct ways. I get my dog next month. I don't intend to have a dog home alone, howling and barking all day, but what if I'm next on the RSPCA hit list? I'd love to try and fix this and reach an understanding first.

So, what to do? I'm going to give her the heads-up on the situation at least, and impress upon her that I'm home nearly every single lunchtime and I'm more than happy to check in on the guy, maybe even give him a walk. I'll suggest she makes nice with the neighbour if she can. I'll suggest she investigates methods to reduce separation anxiety if this continues beyond the settling in period from moving house. I want to help as much as I can.

Should I call the RSPCA and put my side? Should lady with dog? Should I chat to neighbour who complained? What to say? Assure her I'll be doing a lot to help reduce the noise problem? What do MeFites suggest?

OUR BARKING DOGS vs. My SANITY

mickeefynn — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 05:58:15 -0800

What other things can we do to stop Our relentlessly Barking Big Dogs from yapping constantly! HELP! I'm losing it here. I hate having to yell at our barking dogs all the time! We've tried EVERYthing! NOTHING works! collars of all sorts... doggie-speak techniques...a fake bird house that emits high pitched sounds when they bark... they're even bad inside this week... I am so bummed. We have a 3 yr old Great Pyrenees neutered male and a 2 yr old neutered Newfoundland female. All of these things have helped for a while but then these two just get used to them and carry on as if nothing had been done. These dogs can be and are sweethearts but the barking is making me very irritable and tense.

Sticky dog barking wicket

HotToddy — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 09:56:34 -0800

Sticky dog barking situation. The house next door to ours is a rental duplex, both units of which were recently rented to people whose dogs bark and/or howl unrelentingly all day long. I work from home and am losing my mind. Complication: I also have a very barky dog whose barkiness was able to be controlled until these other dogs moved in. Now he, too, is a problem, and I feel that I am in no position to complain about others' dogs. And yet, something must be done. We live in a charming historic neighborhood in university town, which means that the houses are right on top of one another and crappy tenements are interspersed with owner-occupied homes. Our house and the rental are literally 12 feet away from each other. The rental is managed by a management company, if that matters. Pets are allowed in the house, but for 18 years hardly anyone ever had them, and life was grand.

A month ago the downstairs unit was rented to people with a Beagle who has begun spending half his day howling pitifully inside the house and the other half trotting quietly along our fenceline, inciting my little Sheltie to hysterical barking. My dog is definitely the problem in the fence situation, their dog is definitely the problem in the howling situation. I really don't see how I can complain about the howling when there is so much barking from my dog every time theirs sets foot outside. (I'm always with my dog, either inside or outside the house, so I'm able to shush him or bring him inside, but I can't stop the initial eruption of alarm barking.)

Then last week the upstairs was rented to people who promptly erected a very fancy cedar fence enclosure on the other side of the house, which I knew meant they were planning to leave their dog outside all day. And sure enough, it's a big, incredibly LOUD dog who is out there barking and howling incessantly all day long. It is driving me out of my mind. I spend all day trying to keep my dog calm and quiet and if you've ever met a certain kind of Sheltie, you know what I'm facing. He's nowhere near the nuisance that this big dog is--mostly he erupts in alarm barking and then quiets down when shushed. But this happens a lot ever since these other dogs arrived, so I feel that any complaints from me will be met with "You've got a lot of gall to complain about our noisy dog," etc.

Nevertheless, the situation is untenable. Our poor dogless neighbors must be at wit's end. What can I possibly do?

Is there any way I can play white noise through my computer speakers, to soothe my vigilant doggies from barking at every sound they hear outside?

newfers — Sun, 01 Feb 2009 17:45:31 -0800

Is there a free program that lets me broadcast "white noise" through my computer speakers? My dogs are vigilant. They bark at noises outside the house, at all hours of the night. We have a "White Noise" machine in our bedroom, and it seems to block the sounds of the outside world quite well, but... our dogs sleep downstairs, and we sleep upstairs, and...we like the white noise machine for ourselves. I was wondering if there were any sort of software that I could run on my downstairs PC, that would play similar white noise, to distract the pups, since my computer is in the room where they tend to sleep. We'll probably buy another white noise machine, but in the meantime, can anyone help? Free software would be preferred! (Or perhaps a website that plays white noise?)

YO IT'S LIKE EVERY DOG IN THE NEIGHBORHOOD IS BARKING AT THE SAME TIME

defmute — Sun, 28 Dec 2008 01:59:46 -0800

It's 3:48 AM on December 28th 2008 in suburban California (Fullerton). I can hear the sound of about 11 dogs barking simultaneously from around a 1/2 mile away. What is happening? Is this what suburban dogs do at night? I don't know a lot about animal behavior. I am in a so mystified like.

P.S. This question is to be taken literally.

How do you build trust with a dog that is scared of you?

bwilms — Tue, 16 Dec 2008 06:58:41 -0800

DogFilter: How do you build trust with a dog that is scared of you? History: Greta is a ~13 month old Italian Greyhound rescue. She was picked up as a stray and fostered for three weeks by a regional rescue originization. When we picked her up we were told by her foster family that she wasn't comfortable around men, but would most likely warm-up. Beyond that, they didn't know anything, so there very well could be something in this dog's past that has scarred it.

I am comfortable with the fact that I will have to work for her to trust me. I am prepared to put in the time and effort required to make it happen. If patience is the only real answer, then so be it. What I would like to know is if any of you have had similar experiences with your dogs and if there were any steps you took to help them begin to trust you? Everyday feels like Bill Murray's Groundhog Day - it seems like we make progress and then the next day she forgets who I am. I am afraid I'll never gain her trust. Read on for more.

My SO and I have had Greta for 1 month now. My SO is home all day and has been working on basic training for Greta (Positive Reinforcement). She is generally very receptive to my SO, and will "Come" and "Sit" on command. Greta follows her around most of the time. Here are some scenarios with which we are having difficulty:

We share our bed with Greta. When it's time for bed, she runs in the room and hides behind the bed. As I'm brushing my teeth in the attached bath she'll bark at me. If I poke my head out, she hides behind the bed again. It's not until I am in bed, under the covers that she comes up and curls right up next to me under the covers (regrdless of whether or not my SO is in bed with me).

We attempt to correct her behavior by consistently using a swift "Shhh" sound when she is doing something we disapprove of. This is fairly effective in other areas, but doesn't seem to help the barking. Sometimes redirecting her attention to a "Sit" seems to help with the barking, but it isn't a consistent behavior as of yet.

When I wake up (generally 5:30AM), I sneak downstairs for breakfast. I quietly return upstairs to brush my teeth and she barks the whole time, waking my SO. On my way out the door, I put food in her bowl. She races downstairs and barks some more, as long as she is aware that I am around.

When I come home, it is more barking and she runs away. She does not appear to be aggressive. She seems to be more frightened than anything. I do not approach her directly, but if I walk into the room, she hides in the corner. Once I sit down she stops barking. As long as I am calmly seated and ignore her she becomes interested in me and will slowly begin to sniff and approach me, eventually having a seat next to me allowing me to pet her (at which point I provided positive reinforcement). But a sudden move will make her bolt. If I have a blanket on my lap she can sneak under, this process is expedited.

We have determined that I would feed her, so that she makes the connection between food and me, hopefully putting me in a positive light. However, whenever I put food in her bowl she barks at me, like "get away from that!", but she doesn't defend it. I carry treats so that when she comes to me on her own she is rewarded. However, when she takes them she adds distance between us and keeps her eye on me while she eats it. Sometimes she won't take it from my hand at all and scurry away.

She'll play with me on the floor - mostly tug toys. However, I need to lay fully on my side. The moment I move to a seated position on the floor, she bolts. I try changing my position slowly through the course of play time, but it never fails to spook her once I reach a certain stage of uprightness.

On a positive note, she will walk with me, but I have never done this alone - only with my SO present. I would like to walk her alone, but I would have to hold her to put her lead on and carry her out the door. This would require me to have her on my lap so that she was in a position where I could actually hold her without her running from me. With my SO, she will come to her and allow her to put her lead on while seated calmly. I'm realizing now that I should really try to build a walking routine with just her an I.

At this point, the only "quality time" Greta and I have are: when she sits on my lap (on the couch, under a blanket) and when we're playing on the floor. Otherwise, she doesn't positively interact with me much. I've grown up with dogs and am used to having them excited to be around me. I guess I'm just having a tough time with Greta and want to hear that things will eventually get better. Additionaly, I am trying to figure out how to approach barking in the morning when she "hears seomthing" (me) downstairs. I want her alert and to bark if something catches her ear, but I don't want her to bark at me. On a side-note, we are also planning to take her to classes so we can begin working on socialization.

How do we keep our dog from making a big fuss in the morning?

geeky — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 09:02:22 -0800

DogTrainingFilter: How do we keep our dog from making a big fuss in the morning? We adopted an 8 month old border collie / beagle mix last weekend. We were told she was crate trained and she does seem to be. For now, she sleeps in her crate in our bedroom. (She was sick when we got her and we wanted to keep a close eye on her. She's doing better now.)

While she isn't overly eager to go in her crate at night, she goes in with a little guidance and no shoving at all. We reward her with a treat. She's quiet or mostly quiet when we're going to sleep, and sleeps through the night without any fussing. However, twice this week my husband has had to get up early (4:45am) to go to work. He wakes up and leaves the room. A few minutes after he leaves the room, the dog starts whining, which eventually elevates to full on barking.

What is the appropriate response in this situation? My husband and I often wake at different times, so we'd like her to stay quiet even if one of us gets up and leaves. I'll admit I made the mistake of taking her out of the crate the first morning she cried, but only because I was afraid she had to pee. The second time I used a different tactic and tried silently waiting out the whining and barking. No comforting words, no yelling at her, no acknowledgment of her whatsoever. My husband did re-enter the room a few times, but also (mostly) ignored her. She barked and whined until 5:30am (45 mins) when my alarm went off, at which time I turned on a light, used the bathroom, and after making sure she wasn't making any noise, let her out of the crate.

Is this the right thing to do, or should we be doing something else? 45 mins is an awful lot of barking to endure at that hour of the morning. Should I try telling her "quiet", or should we move her crate out of the bedroom? Oddly enough, she's fine if we leave her in the crate during the day, and if only one of us is around, she doesn't mind being left alone in a room. She does, however, cry and scratch at doors if both of us are home and one of us goes into a room with a closed door (for example, the bathroom). In those cases, we can usually distract her with a toy or something.

Dog Experts, I Need You. So Much.

taz — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 08:26:14 -0800

I need advice from people who are great at understanding canine behavior and solving related issues for what is a rather thorny (and potentially tragic, dog-health-wise) situation for this inexperienced dog owner. I'll make it brief, then tell the (much, much) longer story inside. We have a new rescue dog (our first dog; female, a little under 2 years old) who is just now beginning to feel really at ease and at home after being with us for a month, and all our efforts towards house training have finally paid off, and she is doing beautifully... But, we are going to have to take care of a friend's un-neutered young male dog for two-four weeks in our small apartment, and there are very many things that worry me a great deal, and I really need good advice. Nearly full explanation follows, and it's very long - so sorry! - but it's important stuff to me. Bear with, if at all possible. I'll begin by saying that it really isn't an option to refuse this favor, for reasons that I won't get into simply because it will make the way-too-long-post twice as long without offering any information that will help you help me.

Here are all the relevant facts:

Our dog is a female rescue mixed breed of around one and a half years old that was spayed (and had a pregnancy termination) six weeks ago. She's been with us for about five weeks. She weighs a little under 30 pounds (12 kilos), and is about 17 inches tall (42 centimeters). She's at risk for an immune disease that could result in her death, but the more healthy and stress-free her life is, the better her chances are - and she can possibly go from borderline to what is considered "negative" we are told, with a great, healthy home life and a little luck.

The dog that will be staying with us for 2 to 4 weeks is about nine months old, a miniature poodle mix (probably), un-neutered, adult, who weighs... I don't know... 15 pounds (7 kilos) and is (again, a guess) about maybe 11-12 inches (28-30 centimeters) tall. Before we got our dog, he stayed with us before, for two weeks, and then again for a week, but as a puppy, which was a totally different kettle of fish.

Our dog was very submissive - way overly submissive - and depressed when we got her, and it was a struggle to house train her because she was terrified to pee in front of us... so she would hold it for ridiculous lengths of time, then pee when she couldn't hold it any more, only when we weren't looking, usually in the house. All of those problems are solved, but just recently. She's become happy, jaunty, much, much more confident, relaxed, and pees like a hero on our walks. She never goes in the house any more, and has been on a totally regular peeing/pooing schedule for a solid two weeks. Great, great, great. We've been so happy about all this. She is still extremely anxious about any possibility of separation from us, and that will be our next hurdle - but not the immediate problem.

The immediate problems related to the doggy-visitor-to-be are these:

The male sprays/marks and pees anywhere where there are other dogs; he will have anxiety from being separated from his owner, and being here - which is now the obvious territory of a different dog, though he once stayed here alone. From these facts, and stories about why he now can't stay at other places, I expect all the spraying/marking/peeing behavior to be super bad. Super. Bad.

He was here for less than an hour last night, sprayed, maybe peed... and our dog who has been perfect for two weeks peed on the floor right in front of me about ten minutes after he left. I can't let my house become a dog latrine!

He tries to hump her, non-stop. NON-STOP. srsly. I am not going to be able to let them be together except for extremely limited, supervised periods, it seems to me, because she will eventually either bite him if she feels up to it, or he will shred her to ribbons with his sharp little claws grabbing onto her (usually right around her shaved belly with incision) and turn her into a drooling lunatic with this incessant assault.

Our dog is at risk, health-wise. She has an exposure to an illness that most of you won't be familiar with because it almost doesn't exist in the U.S. and U.K., but is very common in the Mediterranean basin. The best way to imagine it is like HIV vs. AIDs; she is healthy and asymptomatic, but it is important for her immune system to be strong, and her stress level low. She does not test positive for the disease, but she does not test negative - she's on the cusp. We have been told that her levels can improve with a healthy and less stressful life, which is exactly what we've been trying to establish.

The male dog barks and growls at everyone who passes our door. We are on the bottom floor (everyone passes our door, in other words) and have four neighbors in the building (plus whoever visits them, visits us, delivers pizza, etc.), and this means a lot of barking, at all hours. It's a really, really, quiet neighborhood, and the barking sounds like suddenly turning your stereo up to max for a minute or two, over and over. And over. (When he was a puppy and stayed with us, he didn't do this until the last three days he was with us... and it was nerve wracking. Our neighbors were not amused.)

I am not going to be able to provide the exercise he needs. He will be here in July - the hottest month in Greece (it was 103F here today, and it's still June). I am going to have to walk them separately, because there is no way I can handle the two on the same walk, and I'm not planning on taking him very far afield at all, because he challenges other male dogs (and he's tiny), and there are lots of dogs around here... lots of dogs on leashes (which will just be embarassing) but also lots of loose dogs (which could be tragic). My female is okay, but I'm not going to feel safe taking him much further than up and down our street. Even if I could, I don't know how much more walking I can take in the extreme temperatures. I plan to let him out in our extremely limited outside space when the temperature isn't ridiculous... but I can't do this at sunrise or sunset when the mosquitoes are bad, because they are a vector for the disease I mentioned above (my girl is actually probably less a risk as an agent than other loose dogs around the area). I'm a little hogtied in this. I can't let them play together for extended periods in the house, unless his behavior towards her becomes far, far less aggressive.

I am terrified that there will be a bitch in heat somewhere in the neighborhood, and he will go insane. Dogs can be in heat for two to four weeks, and this makes me tremble. He lives at the top of an apartment building where there are no other dogs, and he's in perpetual frenzied lust... I don't think our friend realizes what this difference in setting and location is actually going to mean now that he's an adult, but it's not possible to talk rationally with her right now.

He smells bad, a lot. Not from not being washed (for sure), and *probably* not even from anal glands... I don't know. Something to do with being so horny, I think - and it makes me feel ill. It's not all the time, but it's a lot - and when it is happening, I can barely stand it. In fact, I can't get it out of my nose. I don't even know when/if it's stopped, and just lingering. The idea of living with this smell for at least two weeks, and maybe a month, is making feel sick right now.

VERY IMPORTANT: I live in Greece... We are incredibly backwards in terms of products that could help with a lot of this stuff. Think "super basic". I'm not going to be able to get the nice mama-dog-lactose-smell thingy that calms dogs down, or anything above the level of a society that still pretty much views having a dog in the house as bizarre behavior. We have some things... we have almost no sophisticated canine/feline products.
______________________________________

Okay! There's your stimulating challenge! Help me if you can, suckers! My puny plans so far are these: Try to get a sturdy toddler playpen (nope, can't get a pet playpen here) so that I can separate him from my dog, without closing either one away from the rest of the "pack" (we can move the playpen wherever everybody is, living room, bedroom, whatever); To make a "Belly Band" (nope, can't buy here) for when I let him play in the house out of the pen, to keep him from marking/peeing everywhere; To give him as much time outside on our tiny deck as possible, with play, given the ridiculous weather; I bought totally disgusting some-animal's-feet-or-something kind of things (at rather great expense) for him to chew on to involve/distract him; I have other toys for him, and will be picking up and putting down toys, chewies, etc. as separation allows, since my girl is possessive of her own stuff; I'm going to try the coins-rattling-in-the-can thing for the barking, or squirt him with a water pistol when he does the guard-barking. (hate to do it, but it's going to be intolerable.)

He is only acting naturally, and I want the visit period to be as good and anxiety-free as possible for him. But I can't let him spray/pee all over my house (and I think even with the precautions I've come up with, my dog's super-nice current house training is going to be fucked), and I can't let him harass my dog into life-threatening illness. I'd rather not have all our neighbors totally hate us, and, preferably, I won't spend two-to-four weeks in miserable, miserable July feeling like puking up my guts because of that weird, awful smell thing (but that's really last on my list).

I really do need help here.

and for what it's worth, I did advise our friend to have her dog neutered when he was a puppy... and she acted like I suggested having his head removed to make dog ownership easier. She's actually at an even less rational level at the moment, and it's crazy, but, just... we can't say "no".

Quiet, please!

sandraregina — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 06:56:39 -0800

I would like advice on how to deal with a dog who barks every time I enter or leave my apartment. Should I talk to him? Ignore him? He doesn't bark at any other time, and when I meet him outside he's friendly, if a bit energetic. The dog is allowed, as per the lease. I have no issues with my neighbours or with them having a dog. They do make an effort to try and get him to quiet down if they're home.
Due to our work schedules, however, they might not be home when I come in. Other times, I'm coming in or leaving late at night, and they're asleep. I actually feel bad for them, because their dog will wake up, run down the stairs, and start barking, quite possibly waking them up.
The dog only barks when I come in or leave the apartment, and am in the little foyer I share with my upstairs neighbour. There is a door between us. Is there anything I can do?

I need a little dog advice, and a lot of roommate advice. Help me get a good night's sleep!

veryhappyheidi — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 21:33:27 -0800

Can I train my roommate's dog if she's not doing it? Can I live without a full night's sleep for 5 more months? Last October, with permission of all roommates and landlords my roommate adopted a "small dog." This 25 pound male jack russell/ corgy mix is the most energetic two year-old dog ever. The first problem (peeing everywhere) was solved by going to obedience school.

All was going well until about six weeks ago... when the dog decided he didn't want to listen anymore. He no longer sits or stays, but jumps ALL over the living room to burn off energy. He's nipping at people, and sometimes full out bites my roommate. It's annoying, but not worth a fight. Here's what I can't take anymore: the early morning barking. As soon as the dog wakes up, he starts to bark for attention. Rather than taking him out for a walk, my roommate moves to the living room. She goes back to sleep on the couch and lets him run all over the room. Once he's settled down a bit, he'll curl up with her for a bit, but then the whole barking/ running process will start over again. He really is a good dog, but is SO full of energy. He's kept in the kennel all day and only has two walks a day-- late morning and night.

I don't have to be at work until 10, and work subsequently later hours. In a perfect world, I wouldn't wake up until 8, but the barking has foiled that plan. I have my door closed, and keep a white-noise fan RIGHT next to my head. Ear-plugs are out because I won't hear the alarm clock. My roommate knows that he wakes me up every single day, and hasn't done anything to change. I've tried talking to her, but she's extremely defensive. Even after-work napping is out-- he barks all through it. Today, when I asked if she would take him back to obedience school, she rolled her eyes and said she was "doing the best she can."

There's five months left on the lease, and then she and the dog are moving out. The landlords don't like dog after the whole peeing thing, but don't feel as if they can do anything because the dog was approved on the lease. The other roommate is moving out soon for other reasons, and doesn't want to get involved. Just today, the dog lunged at a pedestrian turning a corner and tore his jeans-- she offered to pay, but later laughed it off like it was no big deal when she told me about it. How can I make her see that learning to shake should not be this dog's priority? Can I try the pennies in the can training trick even though it's her dog and I only see it in her presence? Please help... Thanks.

How can I sleep with a yelping dog?

btkuhn — Sat, 15 Dec 2007 10:59:32 -0800

I recently moved in to a small manhattan apartment which I share with a small dog that decides to bark in his high-pitched yelp during the middle of the night 2-3 days a week. I'm not a particularly light sleeper, but for whatever reason it wakes me up every time he barks (it's quite loud, even though I close my door during the night). I wear earplugs to bed, but they don't solve the problem. What can I do to help myself sleep through the night? The earplugs are the foam kind that go in the ear, and block most noise - perhaps it's the high pitch of the bark that makes it worse. Are there better forms of noise protection? Other ways to reduce the impact of the noise (aside from murdering the dog)? Please help me get a decent night's sleep!

Can you recommend an anti-bark collar that works for high pitched barks?

clarahamster — Thu, 08 Nov 2007 21:30:47 -0800

Can you recommend an anti-bark collar that works for a dog with high pitched barks? I have a small dog with a barking problem. I bought an anti-bark collar, but the next time she barked, she didn't react to it at all. Trying it out on my own neck, I discovered that it only shocked me when I made a low-pitched barking noise, but not when I made one that approximated the pitch of my dog's barks.

So, I have to return the one I bought, but can you guys recommend a model that might work for a dog with a higher-pitched bark? The one I tried was the "Deluxe little dog bark control" collar made by PetSafe.

can you save my roomies puppy from being strangled?

krautland — Wed, 31 Oct 2007 22:29:12 -0800

can you save my roomies puppy from being strangled? hivemind, I need your help. I'm positively becoming homicidal thanks to my roomies new pup.

the roomie works the early shift and locks the puppy in his room when he leaves the house at six a.m. not ten minutes later the puppy will begin to bark, yelp, whine and begin tearing the place up. he does not like to be alone.

I tried letting him into the garden, I tried letting him run around the house, nothing helped. he wants to be around people. but this is not my dog and I don't want to snuggle with it in the early morning hours. (besides ... he isn't completely house-trained, even though the roomie can't believe his dog created the nuclear waste site below the coffee table). the pup does not calm down. not after one hour, not after three.

this is your chance to save this cute little puppie from a very violent death. how do I calm him down? how do I get him to relax?

anyone suggesting earplugs clearly underestimates the vocal chords of the dog in question.

How do you say "quiet please!!" in dog?

bunnycup — Mon, 24 Sep 2007 09:51:56 -0800

One of my dogs won't shut up. He was fairly quiet when we adopted him about 8 months ago after prior owners surrendered him, but several months of apartment living have encouraged him to bark every time someone walks outside, above, near, in, or around our apartment. He has such a high pitched, loud, piercingly painful bark, that I can't believe our neighbors haven't shot him, had him taken away, or even complained to us. Sometimes I can hear him barking from almost a block away, but I DON'T have reason to suspect he sits and barks all day when home alone. He's about 3 years old, an oversized miniature pinscher (more like a medium pinscher), unaltered (for now; we have unexcusably procrastinated despite firm committment to the health and propriety of spay/neuter). He's VERY high strung.

I am at a loss as to how to train a dog not to bark - I am adamantly opposed to both shock and citronella bark collars. Advice available online seems focused on selling a particular dog training dvd, method or trainer. I've had success training him at basic commands (sit, stay, heel, lie down, etc.), although he is remarkably stubborn. While he's barking, if I tell him to shut up ("no bark!"), he will, but I'm more interested in overall lowering his bark trigger, so that he doesn't START barking. But, the triggers that set him barking are more often than not inaudible to me (so I can't soothe or shush him before he starts to bark).

We have another, very much smaller but dominant, dog in the house. She does not frequently bark, and tends to use an "inside voice" when she barks to communicate her needs ("help me up on the couch!" or "feed me now please!" etc.).

Mexican Hairless dog aggression problems?

flyingcowofdoom — Fri, 10 Aug 2007 08:01:29 -0800

Our 3.5 year old Mexican Hairless has started becoming aggressive and I need suggestions for dealing with it. We have a 3.5 year old Mexican Hairless (named Kelsi) that we rescued from an awful woman on June 1 of this year. After we had her for two weeks, we found out she was pregnant (she's had two litters before this one). She gave birth to four puppies 6 weeks ago. In the past two weeks, she has started having some aggression problems. When we first got her 2.5 months ago, she did not have any aggression problems. I could take treats from her mouth without any resistance. My wife and I live with her parents, and she seemed to be scared of my father-in-law, but didn't show any aggression toward him. As her pregnancy progressed, she started growling and barking at my father-in-law and any strangers that would come into our "family room", where she and my wife spend 95% of our time. My wife is sick and stays home all day every day with Kelsi. After having puppies (the puppies stay in our family room all the time in a wire enclosure), the growling and barking is getting steadily worse. She won't growl at anyone if she is downstairs, away from the room with the puppies. If a stranger comes in our room, she will growl and bark as they approach the room, and stop usually 30-90 seconds after they come in. Then, she'll generally start wagging her tail and seem normal (except with my father-in-law).

Last weekend, my sister-in-law and her husband were visiting, and while she usually would be fine with them, she did not seem to want the husband in our room. She kept growling at him, and when he went to hug my wife, Kelsi "bit" him. It didn't hurt or break the skin or leave any mark. He said it didn't seem like she was trying to injure him, just let him know that she meant business.

Yesterday, she started growling at my mother-in-law (whom Kelsi normally adores). She has also started growling at me if I put my hand near her when she has a rawhide bone. This morning, my mother-in-law went in to feed the puppies and noticed that Kelsi was only half under her blanket, so she went to cover her up and Kelsi snapped at her. Again, it didn't seem to have the intent to harm.

I should mention that we do not tolerate any of this behavior and we tell her NO sternly and loudly. We have also tried "nipping" at her neck with our fingers at the same time. I'm very upset about this decline in her behavior. At first, I thought it was normal for her to act a little weird about strangers in the room because of the puppies, but this recent aggression toward my mother-in-law and towards me when she has a treat is very unacceptable.

Does anyone have any recommendations, or should I really be consulting a professional at this point? I'd rather not have to spend hundreds on a dog behavior specialist, but it's not acceptable to me to have a dog with aggression issues.

TIA!

--FCOD

Save My Dog!

Gregamell — Tue, 24 Jul 2007 17:07:12 -0800

Save My Dog! I'm 3,000 miles away and my dad is gonna put her down because she's old and barks constantly when in the back yard and its pissing off the neighbors. He bought an 'anti-barking collar' (whatever that is) and if that doesn't work... any ideas?

My new dog can't be left alone.

team lowkey — Sun, 20 May 2007 01:47:44 -0800

I just adopted a dog which apparently has separation anxiety issues (and we have cats). We had planned to initially leave him crated during the day. What can I do to help him through this transition? My girlfriend and I went to the SPCA this afternoon and found a 1 and 1/2 year old Australian shepherd which we fell in love with (Cody). Apparently his previous owner got pregnant and couldn't devote the time to keep up with him anymore. He is a super sweet and smart dog, and seemed like a great match, since my girlfriend wants a dog to run with, and he is full of energy and eager to please.

So we played with him all day, decided to adopt him, and took him home. We introduced him to the house and then took him for a long walk to make sure he was good and tired.

He had settled in on the couch with us for a couple of hours, and around 11 PM, we decided it was time for bed. Every adoption place in the area had insisted on crate training for the first month and a half, so we bought a crate and were hoping he would take to it. We filled it with toys, and he had been in and out of it all evening without any problems.

DRAMA! As soon as I left the room, he started whining and then barking. Continuously. The SPCA had recommended that if we could put up with it to just leave him alone so we didn't reward the behavior. My girlfriend sided with this advice, so we left him for about 1/2 an hour. But we have a joint-wall tenant I was worried about keeping up all night. And I was concerned that he would develop bad associations with his crate, which is supposed to be his safe place.

I went to the room with the crate and let him out. I started training him by holding treats in the crate and saying "Go to bed". He has no fear of the crate at all. He eventually got tired, crawled inside and went to sleep. I closed the door and put a sheet over the crate. He slept soundly.

Then I made the mistake of going to the bathroom. I wasn't gone 2 minutes, and he started barking. I came back into the room, and he went right back to sleep. He's beside me in the crate now, calm as a Hindu cow.

So here's where the real issue comes into play. It appears the crate isn't a problem; he just can't be left alone. We have two cats, who sleep with us. We were told (and we agree) that the cats should have a room where they are safe that the dog can't go. We have have a one bedroom unit, and the bedroom is where the cats spend most of their time. So it would be very difficult (nay impossible) to allow the dog to sleep in the room with us, even in the crate. Plus, we had thought we could leave the dog at home during the day (we are going to walk him in the morning and evening, and hire a walker for the middle of the day), but if he can't take five minutes, I can't imagine he can handle five hours alone.

So... help? I think I'm going to camp out with him tonight, since I can't think of anything else to do, and it's gotta be stressful enough for him being in a new home. But what do we do Monday? Will he get better as he learns to trust us more? My googling says that dogs with separation anxiety problems shouldn't be crated. We can lock up the back two rooms of the house (where he is sleeping) and give him access to the backyard, but the folks at the SPCA said this could lead him to develop boundary issues trying to protect the back yard all day. That doesn't mean just barking, but high stress and possibly trying to escape. They said keeping him crated will make him feel safer and more protected. But really, it seems the problem is just that we can't leave him alone at all. We will start on training immediately, but that might not be soon enough. Anything we can do to make him feel comfortable quickly?

Do barking silencers really work?

KathyK — Thu, 03 May 2007 13:23:24 -0800

Has anyone ever set up a dog silencer in their backyard? (Like this one.) Do they work? Spring is here which is the time of year that we enjoy opening windows and puttering around in the garden. It's also the time that our neighbours start letting their dogs, who love to bark, outside. We're surrounded on all four sides by dogs: four behind us, one on each side and two across the street. The two little dogs in the house behind ours get their panties in a bunch if we even stand outside our patio door. That starts a chain reaction for all the other dogs to pipe up. In the past we've tried talking to the owners, calling the township, no change.

Any other suggestions are welcome.

Thanks!

Dogs are ruining my life

AMP583 — Fri, 13 Apr 2007 11:26:43 -0800

Loud ass barking dogs. My girlfriend recently moved into a new apartment in Chicago. Her bedroom window faces the neighbors yard which is home to 3 big ass barking dogs. Her problem is, the dogs bark all night long with no avail until the owner brings them indoors. Most of the time, they sleep in a big dog house and come out and bark as they please. She's confronted the neighbor in writing and in person. She also called the police and was told that i was a public disturbance that the person could be fined for - she was instructed to phone the police next time it happens and someone would come out.
It so happens the neighbor is a retired Chicago police woman. During the last confrontation, my girlfriend was rudely told calling the police wont do anything and if she has a problem "[she] can move". What are her options?
If only we knew a Newman.

Is there a mac solution to discover if our dog barks during the day?

tonylord — Thu, 01 Feb 2007 17:02:50 -0800

Help me record my dog whining during the day with a mac book pro. So we have a gorgeous, wonderful 3 year old beagle, who apparently whines and barks during the day when we're out. One of our neighbours has mentioned that she sometimes whines when he walks past our apartment in the middle of the day.

We're trying to address this by various methods: leaving her stuffed kong toys and interesting food dispensing balls each morning, not making our leaving or return exciting events etc and we hope they're working. I'm not looking for further advice on how to deal with this at the moment.

The problem is, we don't know if what we're doing is working, because we didn't know the issue was there in the first place, if you see what I mean.

So how can we check if she is barking during the day? Is there a mac compatible programme that will allow us to record for 8 or 9 hours and play the resulting file back at a high speed, but a regular pitch?
Or maybe a programme that will only activate recording when a loud noise, like Ginger barking, is heard by the macbookpro's mike? Or perhaps a motion sensitive webcam programme?
Or are my suggestions entirely too complicated?

Help me out here guys!

My freaky, lunging, barking beagle

printchick — Thu, 08 Jun 2006 13:36:45 -0800

How to keep my dog from freaking out and barking and lunging at other dogs when we go on walks? We adopted our beagle mix, Harvey, from the city shelter about a year ago. He's about 4-5 years old now. He's a great dog, great around strangers, have to watch him a bit around little kids, very easygoing. He is our only pet. We take him on walks in the morning and in the evening, and when we do, we have to always keep an eye out for other dogs because he simply FREAKS OUT when he sees them. Barks, lunges towards them, whines, etc. Most of the time, the other dogs don't respond.

We've tried to ignore it, tried to correct him by saying "no," simply try avoiding other dogs by crossing the street or lingering behind cars so he doesn't see them walking.

We've had a friend's dog visit and they're usually pretty good together, as long as they're outside. We've tried taking him to the dog park but he can get pretty agressive with those dogs there, too.

It's becoming a huge embarrassment, and I end up trying to reason with him: "Harv, those 100 pound dogs can easily bite you in half, and THEY aren't barking at you." Yeah, so now I'm trying to reason with the guy. Do I just have a little Napoleon on my hands? Is he just "protecting" us? How can I get him to chill?

YAP YAP YAP SCHNORK YAP YAP

gwenzel — Sun, 07 Aug 2005 09:23:51 -0800

How do I stop my 14-month-old pug from barking? My wife and I love our pug to bits, but lately she's been barking at anything that moves (the pug, not my wife). It seems that it's protective-barking, as she's mostly doing it whenever somebody unknown walks past our house. She's not that loud, but it's annoying to want to play with her and have her run to the back door and bark at something or other. We've tried some of the usual training methods (shaking a noisemaker when she barks, praising her when she's quiet etc), but because we've also got a 6-month-old baby in the house, it's really hard to consistently correct the behaviour, and obviously we can't correct her when we're not home. What methods have worked for other mefites? Do the bark-control collars work well? We don't want anything that'll hurt our little princess, but we do want to get her to stop making noise.

Transitioning from a Citronella Collar

duck — Sun, 13 Mar 2005 19:09:14 -0800

I have a dog who loves to bark at one household member. Nobody knows why. I bought her a citronella collar and this has helped greatly. But now she barks to her hearts content any time she's not wearing it. How do I train her to not bark even when she's not wearing the collar? So the backstory: Starting about 5 minutes after we first brought her into the house, after adopting her at the humane society, she barked at one member of the household. She has barked at him ever since. If he's sitting still, that's fine, but anytime he walks from one room to another, she runs behind him barking.

The fur along her spine stands straight up. She always seems to want him to pet her -- she sidles up to him when he's sitting for him to pet her. But if he turns his head and look at her, she hides.

Since this began the instant she came into the house, it was not caused by his doing anything to her. He has tried bribing her, betting her, etc. etc. and she's just not interested in being his friend.

Fine, they don't have to be best friends, but the barking everytime he moves was driving us all bonkers and attemts at standard behavious modification techniques had no effect at all. So I bought her a citronella collar. This actually worked quite well.

However, now a few months later, she knows that it's the collar that sprays her. So when she's not wearing the collar she barks everytime he moves. When she is wearing the collar, and he moves, she seems to do a little calculus and decide that a few barks are worth the spray. So she barks a couple of times, clearly knowing she'll be sprayed. It's barking at him particulary that's worth it -- if someone rings the doorbell while she's wearing the collar, she doesn't bark.

So my questions are 2: First how do I train her to not bark even when she's not wearing the collar. I was thinking something like a clicker whenever the collar sprays, but since she barks loudly, she wouldn't even hear it. Any other ideas.

2) I would like to refill the collar with water instead of citronella. (she hates water, and the smell of citronella irritates the rest of us). Can I do this? How?

How to deal with neighbors' barking dogs?

MrMoonPie — Mon, 18 Oct 2004 13:08:03 -0800

We just moved into a new place, and the neighbors' incessantly-barking Jack Russells are driving us crazy. The neighbors are friendly, but they’re deaf, so they can’t hear the barking. They’re considerate types, and don’t leave the dogs out all night, but the constant yapping is annoying, especially when we’re out in the yard.

On a plane this weekend, I saw a cool-looking anti-barking device in the Sky Mall catalog. Does anyone have experience with this or other anti-barking techniques?

Dog Training

Espoo2 — Sat, 25 Sep 2004 12:10:54 -0800

How do train a small little yippy dog to not bark so much while in the backyard? She's a Shelty, really sweet and attentive, so probably easily trainable. She annoys me when she is outside, barking at neighbors, passing dogs, cars, bugs, and mailmen, so I am sure she annoys the neighbors. She is an indoor dog most of the time.