Hello, I'm new to the forum but I'm hoping to get some help and/or advice. We've recently been made aware by our neighbours that our Labrador barks...a lot! As both me and my partner work full time mon-fri, Millie (our lab) and our lurched cross Max are left by themselves for between 6-8 hours during the week. We live in a detached house but we have a shared driveway with our neighbours, our gardens are separated with a fence and our garages are attached. As the only access between our to garden from the house is French window doors, when we're at work the dogs are left in the garden and we have a dog flap between the garden and the garage so they have a place undercover, dry and warm (as we put a heater on during cold days) to go to. The neighbours have made us aware that Millie barks at pretty much most noise. When they or there kids are in garden either playing or if the mom is hanging washing out, if she goes into the garage to put their washing machine on etc Millie barks. I know she has sesnstive ears to noise as she barks at other dogs or passers by even when we're in the house at night or on weekends/holidays. We leave toys, they have the radio on but the neighbours decided they needed to tell us as school holidays in uk are approaching and warm weather so the family will be spending more time in the garden and don't want to be dealing with our dog barking all the time. She tells me that it takes Millie a while to settle after they go back in the house, she still barks for some time. They said it's not max but Millie that is barking (as we had a problem with him howling when we left but we got Millie to keep him company) both are rescue dogs but Millie had been in a home since she was a pup with another bitch from the same litter. I want to try and help with this problem as I don't want it escalating to the point where a noise complaint is put into the local council. Can anybody help or suggest ways in which I can try and help stop the barking when we're not home. Neither of us have the option of working from home so I need to find ways of training/stopping the barking when noise externally is made.
Hi and welcome from Hattie 9 years and our rescue boy Charlie 6 years. 6-8 hours 5 days a week is far too long for your dogs to be left on their own. Can you arrange for someone, maybe a dog walker to come to your home to walk, play and stay with them? They sound bored to me, dogs are social animals and need to be with their humans. I have a rule that I NEVER leave my dogs for more than 4 hours at a time, if for any reason I am going to be delayed due to traffic etc. my neighbour has a key to go and see to their needs. You won't be able to stop a dog barking when you're not home to train it on the spot. I think you really need to rethink your dog care before a complaint is submitted to your local council.
I understand this is a long period of time but this is something they are used to since we've had them. Unfortunately we are not in a financial position to be able to afford a dog walker/sitter to come into our home 5 days a week. Our famies don't live near by and all work full time. We don't have a relationship with our neighbours to ask them of this as they have their own lives, children and dog of their own. We've adjusted our working hours as much as possible with me working earlier and my partner later. I'm asking for advise or tips on how to try and manage the barking whilst we're not home and not to be questioned on how I care for my dogs. They are in better positions than they were in a rescue home, they are loved, played with, walked and fed when were at home and they very rarely get left on their own on evenings and weekends.
I'm really sorry if you think I have been rude, I certainly didn't mean to be. You have set out your dogs daily routine and I simply commented on that arrangement. I really am not sure how you can train a dog to stop barking if you are not there to train it as it happens. Sorry Maybe someone else will have some ideas for you.
Ideally I'd love not to leave them that long of course unfortunately due to our work circumstances that's how it has to be. I've read about training your dogs to bark on que to help stop them barking at other times but just wanted to see if anyone else has other ideas or suggestions to help
Hi, welcome to the forum. I would agree with Helen, your dogs are left alone for too long if they are not happy and express that by barking. Many of our forum members are working dog "parents" (me included) and some go to quite extreme lengths you might think to make sure their dogs are happy and settled. This ranges from monitoring with iPads and cameras, to dog walkers and doggy daycare. If your dogs are settled and happy at home with your current arrangements, then your long hours are not a problem. Clearly that isn't the case though. You can't really manage a problem that occurs when you are absent. It's difficult to get around this problem without having someone actually there. I think Helen's response was quite appropriate, and she was not being rude. I quite agree your dogs are probably better off than in a rescue home, but dogs, labradors in particular, are very social animals, and some of them don't thrive at all without human company. Have you thought about setting up a video camera to see what they do whilst you are absent? Just a thought.
Do you take them for a walk in the morning before you go to work so that they are tired? Could you leave them with a filled Kong to chew so that they would feel tired after that and settle down? Obviously Millie is on high alert and barks at every sound, could they be kept in the house so that they don't hear the neighbours so much? Could the neighbour tell Millie to be quiet? You could try and train while you are at home, but I guess they don't bark like they do when you are working? I read that when the dog barks, after a couple of barks, say 'thank you' (for alerting) and then drop a treat on the floor? It may make a habit that Millie would only give a quick bark and then be quiet.
You might find some of the information in this article on the main website of use. http://www.thelabradorsite.com/labrador-barking/ Is Millie crate trained? Creating a safe place for her, her den, might be worth a thought if you haven't already done this.
Hi there, and welcome to the forum I have kennelled many dogs outdoor, so I understand your dilemma. Unfortunately, how you care for your dogs does have a bearing on their behaviour when you are not there. And I think it would probably be a little unreasonable to ask forum members to ignore that We quite often have people asking questions on the forum about problems that are caused by the way they care for and manage their dogs. Many of these questions are about dogs whose behaviour while they are absent causes problems. It can be challenging, if not impossible, to manage a barking issue that occurs while you are absent. Changing a dog’s behaviour can only be achieved in a few ways. One of those ways is to punish undesirable behaviour - we don’t recommend punishment on this forum because there are a range of side effects (including aggression) that can arise. The better alternative is to reinforce, with some kind of reward, the behaviour that you want. It is very hard to do this while you are in a totally different location from your dog. Stacia’s suggestion of leaving your dog with some filled kongs is something you could try. Another solution that can work in some situations is to eliminate visual triggers for the barking. So for example, many dogs - I have one of these - will bark if they see passers by through a fence or hedge - when they are in the kennel. If you can blank off access to that visual trigger, sometimes the problem can be resolved However, if your dog is barking from sheer loneliness, then the only solution is to eliminate the loneliness. And do what many working couples do and pay for someone to come in each day and walk or play with, their dog. Being able to offer this kind of care for a dog while you work is in many people’s view, part and parcel of the cost of owning a dog. I appreciate that may be hard to hear But it is the truth
My DH and I also work full days without an option for flexibility. What we did when we first brought Harley home was to take turns to come home at lunch to spend some time with her and feed her a midday meal. Then DH designed a timed dispenser for her that is programmed to released stuffed classic Kongs at timed intervals during the day. We started using that about two weeks ago. I tried to take a photo of it but it just looks like a tube, you can't see the mechanism properly and it is controlled by a programmed pc board (I think). But I realise that is not a possibility for everyone, I just happened to be married to a hot Inspector Gadget. Before we managed to get the dispenser working we were given a great tip by our trainer - we froze part of her lunch meal in a litre of water and gave her lunch as part normal so she wouldn't be too hungry and then tip out the frozen portion for her to work at and it works fantastically. Granted we are in the middle of a warm summer. But we get about an hour of occupied puppy from one frozen portion. We only keep it for weekday lunches. I must mention that we have a CCTV system so we can review her activity too. We also have a fenced off the backyard from the front so she doesn't have the temptation of barking at passing strangers, dogs or vehicles. We are lucky to have a very large backyard so she has plenty of space and because she is still so young we were concerned about her running out of the gate when we come home. Now that is not a possibility. Good luck, I hope something from all the suggestions can work for you.
Thank for those who made suggestions. Both my dogs get walked twice a day but during the winter months, when it's dark on the morning and when we get home from work, we have to lead walk. My partner takes them out on 3 mornings for off lead walks in the morning throughout the winter and goes into work later. However now the nights are lighter, we are able to get home from work and take them out for off lead walks every night, soon enough it will be every morning as well as we did last year during summer months. Maybe I should of been clearer in my first post but Millie barks a lot in general. Even when one of us is in the house (in bed, getting ready for work, in bath/shower) she will bark if somebody walks past or bins are collected on bin day, post man delivers post or door bell rings etc. Our garden is surrounded by brick wall and fence with next door so she can't see passers by but she barks because she can hear them. When In the house we keep blinds shut but it's the same. It's just that it's been pointed out by the neighbour that she barks also when we're not home at work and as we are at work we wouldn't know, hence the reason they told us. Regarding coming home from work at lunch, this is not possible due to distances from home to work as is getting somebody in to walk/visit during the day as we don't live near family nor can we afford such an expense as it would cost £13.50 per day x5 days would cost approx. £270 a month. We also have to monitor her food intakes as she was overweight when we got her from dogs home and try's to eat anything in sight. We've managed to get her to loose 4kg since August but kong toys would only last 5 minutes but the idea about freezing some food for her to lick during the day is good so thank you Hayley.
