Our elderly neighbours got themselves a golden retriever puppy last November, on the 11th to be exact and she’s called Poppy, which is rather apt. She’s lovely and now must be approaching a year old.

In the last few months, she has found her bark and rather likes the sound of it, especially when she is left on her own when they occasionally go out. It often becomes incessant, until they return.

I love dogs, would have another in an instant and will do at the first opportunity, however, I’ve never had to deal with constant barking dogs and when I have come across them, such as village dogs in Bulgaria, it’s made me want to go out and shoot them and poison them at the same time. I find constant barking upsetting for me and the dog.

So, this evening, the neighbours have gone out and asked slack jr to go round and feed her and take her out for a walk, which he dutifully and lovingly did. However, Poppy started her barking almost as soon as the neighbours left the house. They have left the back door open so she has the run of their small back yard. Apart from when the boy slack went over to walk and feed her, she has not stopped barking. It’s driving me and the other immediate neighbours nuts (the other neighbours have mentioned it to me before, so I’m not being all assumptive – apparently she barks a lot during the day, while I’m out, so why no one has mentioned this to them is beyond me, but we are English I suppose)

The bark sounds like a nervous one to me, especially as I’ve just sent the boy back next door to sit with her in the garden. He was bribed easily by the offer of unlimited Nintendo DS time while he literally dog sat. The moment he showed up, poppy stopped barking.

Thing is, I like the company of le garçon slack and would much prefer him to be with us this evening, rather than sitting next door with a young and insecure dog.

Clearly I will be speaking with our neighbours at the first opportunity, but in the meantime, what would be regarded as effective ways to get the dog to shut the **** up please?

Dog barks, gets attention, continues to bark as it knows it’ll get fuss. No?

Have you told the neighbours? They’re probably oblivious.

Put it in your garden see how they like it.

The neighbors’ dog will not stop barking.
He is barking the same high, rhythmic bark
that he barks every time they leave the house.
They must switch him on on their way out.

The neighbors’ dog will not stop barking.
I close all the windows in the house
and put on a Beethoven symphony full blast
but I can still hear him muffled under the music,
barking, barking, barking,

and now I can see him sitting in the orchestra,
his head raised confidently as if Beethoven
had included a part for barking dog.

When the record finally ends he is still barking,
sitting there in the oboe section barking,
his eyes fixed on the conductor who is
entreating him with his baton

while the other musicians listen in respectful
silence to the famous barking dog solo,
that endless coda that first established
Beethoven as an innovative genius.

Why I Don’t Keep a Gun in the House by Billy Collins

speak to council about noise – last resort as it can get messy

speak to RSPCA if you think it’s being neglected – doesnt sound like this is the case.

Or you or get someone official to suggest they attend training classes to train the dog and them – best option.

😀 excellent replies, thank you for lightening my spirits!

The boy got bored and in the end I went round to comfort her for a while. Poor thing was very tense and upset. So whilst I don’t condone rewarding such behaviour, she is still really a pup/young dog, so after a while she’s calmed down and I’ve left her inside their house and she is barking less.

Mrs slack informs me they’re back at half nine, so I’ll be popping my head round their door and let them know how she was and take it from there.

Now I’m going back to watching the TdF highlights 😀

They think it’s good leaving the door open for the dog.

If I leave mine open my dog goes outside and then proceeds to howl the whole Street down!

If I leave him in he sleeps on his bed as quiet as you like!

Need to get the dog to settle down and to not be as stressed out by the sound of it.

yeah, tempted to leave the door open for mine on the ( rare ) occasions i can’t take her to work, but she’d be gobbing off at all and sundry. anti bark collars ( noise activated ) are easily bought, the ones stocked by pets at home are bought for ~ half price fairly easily. just a spray of citrus puts mine right off. has worked very well in the office.
TBH though it is just separation anxiety.
they need to leave a treat when they go out, then not greet when they get back. ignore the dog for 10 mins at least.

Dog barks -> someone goes over -> dog stops barking -> positive reinforcement. Dog gets result. Continue to bark for attention.

Dog barks -> tell dog off with a stern voice but not yelling -> negative reinforcement. Dog gets result. Stop barking.

Dog barks -> barking but also backing off or very frighten -> dog sees things in the house. Dog needs backup so barks for reinforcement.

How old are the elderly couples? Healthy? Very old with poor Health? If the latter then someone is going to die soon.

😉

find yourself one of these

release into neighbour’s garden

let nature run it’s course 😉

Slap the dog.

Result: dog barks and gets slapped. Dog stops barking.

Can’t see that a nervous bark is going to be rectified by punishment, or rewarded by going round. They probably need to get some advice and also start leaving the dog for much shorter periods, I expect its learnt that when it is left, its going to be for several hours and not just 15 minutes whilst they get their daily paper.

Also, why send the son round to dog sit, can’t you just bring the dog round yours? Perhaps get them to only leave the dog short periods and avoid any long periods by leaving with you or another neighbour, when it can deal with a short absence without barking they can gradually increase the length of time.

Dogs left alone will bark because they are bored or frightened. You really need to face up to the neighbours – why not suggest they leave then sneak into your house to listen – or even just invite them round for a glass of wine or a cuppa?

If you’re nervous about bringing it up, most local authorities publish a leaflet along the lines of “Why is my dog barking?” which you can get from Environmental health and drop through their letter box.

Morning update and thanks for your replies. I took PePPer’s suggestion and took her inside to her bed, settled her down and quietly left. She barked once or twice thereafter but was then quiet and presumably happier.

The poor thing. I also phoned them to let them know what I’d done and why and they were very apologetic and grateful. I’ll be at work today, so will pop over when I get home to have a word 🙂

Are they training the dog?

What they need to do is separate the dog from them. Start with short periods, as someone said above. Start with five minutes in a different room with food, gradually make the time periods longer.

The dog will hopefully start to lose its nervousness quite quickly.

We had this with former next door neighbours.

I’m getting slightly prickly just remembering it now…bloody dog barking incessantly all day long when they weren’t around. It used a cat-flap to get in and out. I don’t think it was an attention seeking bark, but occasionally, another dog (or dogs) in the neighbourhood would hear it, then it would break out into a chorus. Everybody was driven to distraction.

It didn’t stop until they decided they were moving to rent somewhere where they could get their son into a better school and the landlord/lady wouldn’t let them have a dog there. So, off to the Dogs’ Trust it went. 🙁 Nice.

I feel your pain OP…all you can do is let them know and ask that the dog is kept inside when they go out. It should be getting plenty of exercise with it’s two walks a day anyway. If it’s not getting this, then maybe slack junior could offer to do it sometimes? If it’s destroying their house when left inside, then it’ll most likely be separation anxiety and they need to train the dog to be ok without them for a while. Although, at nearly a year, training separation anxiety out of it is not going to be easy now.

Best of luck.

We had this a few years back. Neighbours left a young Labrador inside when they went to work;he’d howl until they came home at lunchtime.
When we realised this was a permanent arrangement I popped round and had a word. They were mortified that their dog was unhappy when they weren’t there, so from then on he went to work too!

Neilwheel +1
The dog’s got separation issues which can be sorted with some training. The result will be a quiet, happier dog, happier owners and happier you!

We had a similar issue with our new puppy at about 8 month old he was a very “barky” kind of dog and would wake up at 4-5am and bark the house down waking up my 2 young kids, drove me and the wife to the brink.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/PetSafe-Anti-Bark-Spray-Collar-Citronella/dp/B00EAPCD92

Bought one of these which seems a bit expensive, but literally fixed the issue over a couple of nights and we now get peace and quiet in the morning or if we have to shut him in another room during meal times etc.

Worth.Every.Penny.

Give it loads of baking chocolate.

Our dog barks, lots and at most things.

He’s 8 now and has been a barker for quite some time, probably started about 4 years ago, before that he was a chewer.
he barks at neighbours, cars, dogs, cats, foxes, squirrels. anything that comes near the house. Me if i leave.

he’ll sleep during the day, it’s mostly when were in that he’ll bark. We tend to move him to another room away from us if he barks = barking stops.

we’ve tried:

training, various types, stuff ourselves, and trainers
dogTV (not as ridiculous as you think)
spray collar (barked, got a surprise, then barked some more)
thundershirt (works well, but doesn’t totally stop it)
water sprayers
shouting at him
being nice to him
being silent with him
barking with him
distracting him with play
dog cages
sedatives.

failing to care less about the neighbours as our only option is to get rid of him because they can’t deal with him barking a bit through the night.

he’s quite a nervous dog, he’s a rescue dog so who knows what happened to him before, I know he gets very anxious, so much so that he managed to nervously chew on stones until his canines wore all the way down, not great.

As he’s got older he’s got very nervous around other dogs, so much so that we have to restrain him when other dogs are near as he has a tendency to be aggressive toward them. he has some sensitivity to his hind area, but can snap at us if we try to investigate, so we do think he’s in pain a lot. We’ve tried him on painkillers, but it’s difficult to tell whether there was any difference.

it’s a shame really, he’s a generally good tempered dog around humans, so we manage him as best we can during the day and give him herbal sedatives in the night, which calms him mostly.

Some dogs just bark.

Ours bark at all things that move that are not related to our family … non-stop until they go away. 😮