Our Border Terrier is getting on a bit (nearly 11), and our neighbour informed me last night that he’s taken to barking constantly every time we have to leave him.

When we have to leave him he doesn’t get left for too long (2 – 3hrs) and the vast majority of the time he comes to work with me every day. And we leave the radio on at a decent volume. So he’s never left all day, and when we are in the house he’s pretty much silent.

His hearing is going a bit and we think he hears things that aren’t there.

So – any tips!

Apart from telling my neighbours to suck it up as it can only affect them for a few hours a week! And I didn’t complain at all to them during the last five years he’s been doing his house up.

Apart from telling my neighbours to suck it up as it can only affect them for a few hours a week!

A “few hours a week” is actually quite a long time… I’d put the range of acceptable barking at minutes a day, if that.

Barking dogs are really ******* annoying, way more so than DIY.

Really difficult when you’re not there, especially with an old dog. Have you tried leaving things to keep him occupied? Like food embedded inside one of those rubber things or a hollowed out bone. Something really difficult for him to get at the actual food so he spends his time doing that instead of barking at your poor innocent neighbours 😉

Barking dogs Unhelpful posts are really ******* annoying, way more so than DIY. 😀

We moved house to escape from a neighbour who had barking dogs and wouldn’t sort them out. Now our neightbour has bought a new dog, which barks…..

May be your neighbours are just lying for no reason?)

Get a second dog?  That will either cure it or make it twice as bad 😉 Not a fan of lone dogs really.

We’ve just ordered one of those Kong toys, so will give that a try.

I think half the problem is that he’s ripped all the old plaster of the walls (Victorian semi) and added new dot and dab plasterboard – therefore any sound from our side is being amplified in the cavity behind his plaster.

He moaned about noise from our TV the other month – it’s been in the same place for 20yrs and we don’t use a big surround system just the built in speakers.

I think half the problem is that he’s ripped all the old plaster of the walls (Victorian semi) and added new dot and dab plasterboard

How’d you train him to do that? Best mine can do is sit and give a paw.

some dogs don’t know how to do it even…

I’ve not had to use one, but you can get bark activated collars that spray citronella, for those short periods when he is home alone.  Idea is dog barks, gets sprayed with citronella, which he finds mildly unpleasant (but is harmless), and learns not to bark when he has the collar on.  I don’t like the idea of them much, but could be an option if you only need to use it for a few hours occasionally.

bark collar. simple.

our dog used to go mental at the neighbours. especially when they put their bins out. jeez. we even took the dog round and got her used to them – they would call over the fence to try and settle her. didnt work. bark collar worked a treat

dogs that bark dont get stressed by it, they just do it and probably theres a dog in the distance calling back. it stresses humans out to hear but they could (and do) do it all day / night.

We purchased any Anti Bark collar from Amazon, was about £30. Worked for our Choc Lab who is a fairly nervous dog and barks at his own shadow.

It doesn’t hurt the dog, just vibrates, like a phone going off.

Similar to the below….

https://www.amazon.co.uk/LumoLeaf-Vibration-Correction-Rechargeable-Recommended/dp/B07BBFNB4L/ref=sr_1_2_sspa?ie=UTF8&qid=1533120977&sr=8-2-spons&keywords=anti+dog+bark+collar&psc=1

Have him put down. The neighbour that is.

Sounds like separation anxiety, which is common in older dogs especially if they are going deaf or blind. DAP might help.

dogs that bark dont get stressed by it

It’s often a sign that they’re stressed already.

Sounds like separation anxiety, which is common in older dogs especially if they are going deaf or blind. DAP might help.

This. We have this with our dog, and it’s getting worse as he gets older (he is very old though, he’s 17). If his hearing is going he’s likely got higher anxiety levels as he doesn’t understand what’s going on, exactly the same happened with ours. We too got the odd complaint from a neighbour.

Try Adaptil plug-ins, and hemp oil, both of which have really helped to calm ours

Anti bark collars are a positive punishment form of operant conditioning I wouldn’t go down that route.  Try and treat the cause not the effect.

Try and treat the cause not the effect.

how do they know the cause if they’re not there?

The cause is very probably anxiety, because they’re not there.

OP – I’m a dog lover but sadly not a dog owner as I work away too much. My neighbour often goes out for the whole day leaving her terrier in the garden barking the whole day long. It’s really annoying when I’m working at home, it’s like a bundle of mobile tinnitus wafting thru the double glazing every day.
Don’t dismiss that this could be really annoying for your neighbours. I hope you find a solution soon as does your neighbour

Apart from telling my neighbours to suck it up as it can only affect them for a few hours a week!

I would seriously contemplate poisoning your dog if you told me that! 😆 Either that or I’d play the ben johnson string quartet with the speaker pointing directly, at full pelt and on repeat, at your wall every time I went out! I’d be upgrading my sound system with you in mind regardless, the music may vary! 😆

And we leave the radio on at a decent volume

What radio station? I tend to bark if I have to listen to Jeremy Vine…

If it’s occasional – how about a dog walker? We have a very good dog walker who takes ours out at a days notice. They seem to really like going out with the dog walking pack.

our dog used to go mental at the neighbours. especially when they put their bins out. jeez. we even took the dog round and got her used to them – they would call over the fence to try and settle her. didnt work. bark collar worked a treat

Reactive dogs are coming from a place of stress or fear.  Something about your neighbour putting the bins out is causing her to react.  By controlloing the effect with a bark collar (positive punishment) your dog is probably now in a state of learned helplessness.  Probably still hates the neighbour putting the bin out.

I’ve got a super reactive rescue dog he would go mental at runners, cyclists, other dogs, jeeps, lorrys, cars with trailers, you name it.  Months of very consistant counter conditioning are starting to make a massive difference to him. He’s now like “Oh a car with a trailer I’m not scared of them”.  If I’d just tried to control his barking at things with a collar he’d still be panicing inside but be in state of learned helplessness because of fearing the punishing effect of the collar. He’s my best mate, I want to help him not just control him. He’s a work in progress but having a reactive dog has taught me more in a year than 25 years of having quite laid back dogs.

Google BF Skinner, operant conditioning, classical conditioning and counter conditioning

seosamh77 – I am taking it seriously, which is why I’m asking for advice. And thanks everyone.

Part of me hates his hypocrisy and really wants to go round and tell him to get stuffed. We’ve had 5yrs of him drilling, grinding, banging at all hours and building materials blocking our shared path and said nothing. And he still isn’t finished.

He’s definitely the monkey to the organ grinder who never ventures out of the house! We don’t moan about their blinding arguments either as they are entertaining! 🙂

Apart from telling my neighbours to suck it up as it can only affect them for a few hours a week!

Absolutely no sympathy if that’s your attitude.

If you were my neighbour I’d be filing a complaint with the Council for Noise Disturbance and the RSPCA would then get involved.

Suck it up yourself..

Or do this:

We’ve had 5yrs of him drilling, grinding, banging at all hours and building materials blocking our shared path and said nothing. And he still isn’t finished.

Its almost likeyou aren’t reading the thread.

A barking dog is worse. So much worse.

And i bloody love dogs.

A barking dog is worse. So much worse.

And i bloody love dogs.

To be fair it’s probably worse for those of us that do love dogs…

Dogs in general bark for loads of reasons …. anxiety is one but they are also just doing a job as they see it and communicating with other dogs to some extent.

My mum’s dog barks at everything… my mum barks back… (raises her voice)… the whole thing is self feeding because dog barks and then my mum barks… so dog thinks it’s a everyone bark situation.

When I’m there the dog barely barks and when it does I can just let her know I have the barking covered thanks…

Of course that’s when we are in the house… but in general the point is I let the dog know it’s not her job to bark when the postman or bin men come or someone walks past the house.

Getting them to not bark when you aren’t there … at least starts IMHO with teaching them it’s not their job in general…

To be fair it’s probably worse for those of us that do love dogs…

I agree! A few weeks back I was getting woken up at 5am (THE WORST TIME!) by some yappy dog out in a neighbours garden. It was impossible to tell where it was so one moring I got up and shouted “SHUT UP!!!” out of the window. It hasn’t done it since.. not sure if coincidence. But I was quite prepared to poison it. And I bloomin love dogs.

typical selfish dog owner attitude – it barks so deal with it – not my problem – massive thread fail, you are an arse with that attitude

there is nothing worse than a barking dog – it drives you insane – piercing, loud cant concentrate, if its every day for a few hours then I can totally sympathise with them

doing up his house or having a argument isn’t remotely comparable, and if you have issues with that – go and moan at him just like he has done to you

typical selfish dog owner attitude – it barks so deal with it – not my problem – massive thread fail, you are an arse with that attitude

Eh? Is that why he started this thread??

Yeah – neighbour from hell I am – you’ve all missed the bit about ‘part of me wants too’ – not ‘will’.

I’ll try and find a solution, and it’s the first time it’s been brought to our attention.

And DIY not annoying? Try relaxing on a Sunday evening with a ruddy SDS drill going for hours.

We’ve been massively accommodating to them – and helped him on many occasions with his DIY and filling skips.

95% of the time the dog is with someone – a couple of hours a week he isn’t. There are times when then only option is to leave the dog for a short while.

dezb – when his first post is “Apart from telling my neighbours to suck it up as it can only affect them for a few hours a week!”

then whats the point in starting the thread for advice when your mindset is that of a selfish dog owner

in similar vain to ‘my dogs walking here please slow down’ , or ‘my dogs just decided to eat your leg, but its your fault sir’, or ‘my dogs just done a huge shit on your garden but its your fault for having grass type attitude’……

muffin man – if you feel that way then chat to them, you have clearly pent up anger about the diy – why not go round and say something instead of letting it fester for 5 years, id have probably said something too, yes it would be annoying at certain points of the day I get that especially first thing – but its part of life renovating a house as is arguing

leaving your dog into yap for hours on end isn’t, the responses on this thread can tell you just how annoying people find it

then whats the point in starting the thread for advice when your mindset is that of a selfish dog owner blah blah blah i hate dogs/dog owners and have a right bee in my bonnet about it

Nah, you’re reading into that what isn’t there. Thread was obviously started to get advice on how to stop the barking. A semi-joking aside at the end isn’t really what you should be focusing on.

I’m just waiting for this thread to descend into “how to stop next door’s demonic children from making noise”…….

To be honest Oscillate – my anger isn’t directed to the fella next door – it’s his wife!

I know he’s being sent to do her dirty work – as he’s said he knows there are times when there will be noise issues between neighbours in semi-detached houses.

And hours on end? In the last two weeks he was on his own for 3 hours – and that was yesterday morning. Hardly the same as having a pack of Alsatians in the back garden going at it 24/7.

I’m just waiting for this thread to descend into “how to stop next door’s demonic children from making noise”…….

I’ll invite my sister-in-laws kids over for the summer – they are feral!

dezb – or was it to get the answer he wanted to hear? id partly suspect that, but the grain went against him 🙂

I hope you can sort it, perhaps if you’d have said something earlier about the noise, they would have not bothered coming around, given you feel violated by the noise they make, but you’ve let them make the first move, thus winding you up……. neighbours can be shite, noise from dogs, noise from music or generally anything… my only advise for anyone is just buy a detached house if at all possible!

Set him free. He’s not got long left at 11 and the poor thing should have a last blast at pogging a fit dog before he barks his last! Plus keeping animals as pets for your own gratification is a bit 70’s.

You could try something like a thundershirt with relaxing scents.

If it is only just started happening then something may have changed to confuse/upset the dog.