I've had lots of great advice from this fantastic forum and I'm afraid I'm back for more. A neighbour has complained about Wilson barking ... I apologise for this post being so long but I wanted to give us much information as possible. I'm hoping some of you have been through something similar and have some ideas. Wilson is now nine months old and has developed a quite alarmingly deep, strident bark. People have commented that it's a very loud, fierce-sounding bark for what is still a young puppy. We've always tried very hard to ignore any barking and were largely successful when he was younger as he learned pretty quickly it didn't work. But for the last few weeks he has been very persistent and we are getting despondent about our lack of success in dealing with it, particularly now someone has complained. We've always had a problem first thing in the morning. He knows we get up at 7am when the boiler kicks in to heat the water because we always ignore any (rare) noise from him before then. The second the boiler starts up he starts whining and/or barking. We wait until he's quiet and then get out of bed. Unfortunately our bedroom is right above the kitchen where he sleeps and the floor creaks terribly. As soon as he hears us he barks until we get out on to the landing and then he's quiet until we get downstairs. If we take the time to put something else on or go to the loo first, he just barks. He also barks very demandingly for more food after each meal and although we ignore it, he sometimes doesn't stop until we either let him out into the garden or distract him, and that only works for a while. Finally, he barks when he's out in the garden. Our house fronts on to a single track lane at the edge of our village. There is very little front garden - a strip of about three feet - before a picket fence and then the lane. We also have a side garden bordered by a tall leylandii hedge separating it from the lane, then a driveway with a five-bar gate set back a little from the road. There is also a back garden and all are connected so he has access to all. It's quite a quiet lane so he barks when people walk or cycle by and at horses, cats, the postman, the binmen and the odd vehicle although there seems to be no logic to which ones he barks at and which he doesn't. A neighbour diagonally across the lane came over on the weekend to say they were trying to enjoy a peaceful afternoon and the dog was preventing them from doing this. They said they'd put up with it for a few weeks but what were we going to do about it. We were mortified because although we were conscious of it and are trying to deal with it, it is only short bursts of barking and most of the time it is still very peaceful here. The problem is it has now made us a bit panicky and when Wilson barks outside we instinctively rush over to him talking to him to stop him which I know flies in the face of a lot of the advice to ignore barking. We're pretty sure most of his barking outside is attention seeking. He wants people to come over and pet him. He's fine when they do but he starts barking again when they stop, particularly if we are talking to them or while they are still in sight. So what are we trying: We're getting a gate and fence panel to section off the front garden so he can no longer run up the front garden strip and bark at things over the fence. That will at least keep him further away from the neighbour who complained and prevent him from seeing the lane although he can still see it through the hedge and the five-bar gate. (We have been over to the neighbour to explain what we're doing and that we'll be trying our best to reduce the barking.) Trying to supervise him more when he's outside rather than letting him mooch around on his own. He always used to ask to go into the garden when we were eating meals which was brilliant when he was quiet, but now that he has started barking we don't feel that's an option all the time so we keep him in and then he barks at us to go out. Giving him an antler bone, himalayan yak thing or something frozen will always distract him but I'm a bit concerned about always giving him something to eat because I think that's encouraging him to bark demandingly for food all the time. He gets part of his meals in a kong wobbler and another thing he has to roll around to get the food out and I've started doing some of that in the side garden in the hope that he will be so focused on his food that he will start to become desensitized to some of the activity around. We've tried 'Look at this' to try to distract him and while he will come towards us he continues barking. Same with a treat if we bring him back into the house he takes the treat then barks to be let out again. Sometimes he goes out but the minute we close the door he barks to come back in again. Aaargh. I could go on but I'm very grateful if you'd made it this far! It wouldn't be so bad if it wasn't such a harsh bark but it goes right through you and it's hard to stay calm and patient. I should say he gets regular off-lead exercise, a little bit of on-lead and a mix of ball retrieving in the garden, sniffing for treats, and the challenge of working to release most of his main meals, and a couple of short training sessions so I don't think he's bored. Or, and my goodness I've just had this thought, are we doing too much perhaps? I know sometimes he barks when he's tired and if we shut him away with his bed he will go to sleep. Any help most gratefully received and thank you again for taking the time to read this post.
Hi, it sounds like the barking has become a habit with him... one that he shares with many dogs. Firstly, you have done the most obvious and sensible thing - block off the front garden, so he can't bark at passers by so much, nor annoy the neighbours as much. Secondly, I wouldn't leave him on his own outside for long, as he may bark partly to entertain himself. Thirdly, both my dogs would bark at dogs and people going by, and I found the most effective way of training them out of this (not completely effective, I might add, but much better than it used to be), is to spend time outside with them, and when someone goes by, to praise them for NOT barking.
To add to Karen's advice, I'd be tempted to have him in your bedroom at night for a while to break the habit of morning barking. It can be very frustrating to the dog to hear you up and about without him seeing you, so by having him in your bedroom (even if in a crate) will stop that and he will likely grow out of the habit. Don't worry about him not being able to readjust - in the summers, my dogs sleep in our bedroom for the most part and in the winters, they're not allowed (different properties). They don't have an issue with this at all. Ignoring barking often doesn't work because when it's a form of communication - be that alert barking, attention seeking, frustration or whatever - they feel the need to make themselves heard. If it's a habit, it's self rewarding and they're not interested in your attention anyway, so depriving them of that makes no difference. For habits, you need to break that habit by changing the set-up. If you feel it's a habit that he barks after finishing a meal, well, I probably wouldn't feed meals at all and would just use all the food in training calmness. Or, you could feed him half his meal and, immediately he finishes, start rewarding for calm behaviour. Lots of "reward nothing" training. This can also help with frustration barking - training a nice settle on a mat will help your dog learn to be calm. Feeling frustrated isn't nice, so teaching him to be calm will improve his mental wellbeing - and that of your neighbours! This has to be done incrementally, of course, so rewarding just a second or two at first. Look up Boundary Games by Absolute Dogs (you can join their Facebook page for an eBook which details some of the techniques - https://www.facebook.com/groups/610566119052717/). For alert barking, then a combination of management and emotional adjustment is ideal - management would include what you're doing with putting up a visual barrier and not allowing him into the garden alone. Emotional adjustment can be done through making the association between seeing a person and receiving a treat, so that, rather than feeling a bit anxious or put out that someone is walking along his fence line, he will associate it with good things. I treat attention barking a little like toilet training. Ignoring it doesn't work because your dog still wants that attention! Just like when a puppy goes to the toilet inside you sigh and realise you made a mistake expecting him to hold it too long, so with attention - if he's attention barking, it's because the puppy has gone too long without attention. Just like toileting, of course your dog does need to learn to go longer periods without your attention, but that doesn't happen overnight and for a dog with a low frustration tolerance (I sympathise, I have one!), it means building up the time slowly. I hope that helps a little. Good luck
My 17 month old alert barks. Noises outside generally make her bark. If I hear the noise a split second before she does, I say ‘listen to that, that’s a ......’. As this is similar to me saying ‘look at that’, she looks at me and it stops the bark. I have been using this technique for months now and in the main it works. What you are dealing with is obviously much more complex but as one of your strategies you could try to get the ‘listen to that’ in before Wilson starts to bark - probably not easy but worth a try.
If you can't then scatter feeding is a good technique that will bring the arousal down in the moment and over time. You're not reinforcing the barking, you're changing the dog's response from "AGH! AN INTRUDER! MUST SCARE THEM AWAY!!!" to "Oh! A Person! That means food on the floor!".
Thank you Karen, that's really helpful. We're spending more time with him when he's outside and working on praising him when he falls silent (for a second or two anyway!). Thanks for taking the time to read and reply!
Fiona, thank you so much. I feel like I have a better understanding now of why Wilson is barking and what it means. Those are all great suggestions/advice that we will try. I really appreciate your taking the time to post so much helpful info. The scatter feeding you mention later on is a good one too. A big thank you.
Thanks very much for your reply (and for reading my long post!). We have just started trying 'look at this' with limited success so far but we'll persevere. It's good to know you've had a good level of success with it. Much appreciated.
I cannot add any more advice but know how you feel when a neighbour complains. We had the most dreadful anonymous letter from a neighbour addressed to 'Noisy dog Owner" and threatened to call the RSPCA because we were obviously neglecting our "nuisance dog" and never took him for a walk. I wonder what she thought we were doing with him all day when there was no noise from him. Homer barks when we open the back door to our small garden, after 5 or 6 woofs we send him back inside. I do have to admit that Hubby did used to let him out at 6:15am!
Our adjoining neighbour made passive aggressive comments when Stanley was a pup about him crying at night, we’d only just moved in so I was really upset and didn’t want to upset our neighbours. But I wonder if anything would have been said if I’d just had a baby that cried all night.. I doubt it!
Oh how awful! An anonymous letter would be terrible. We're still battling the barking but I'm feeling a bit more positive after posting this thread!
Good point! A couple of other neighbours have said it's no problem because it's so sporadic so I think we need to bear that in mind and not panic as much when he does bark. We're trying various things depending on whether he's inside or outside but I'm starting to suspect a lot of it is habit so it's about breaking that now.
Finn almost never barks, about 4 times a year! When he does it scares the living daylights out of me, lol. A dog trainer we went to pointed out 2 bald spots on his throat, which he thinks may have been caused by an electronic collar, so maybe in his previous home, (he's a rescue) that's what they used to stop the bark. Absolutely horrific and I can't think how horrible it must have been for him not to be able to speak. Good luck with yours.
Oh my goodness! That's horrendous. It's brought me to tears for poor Finn. So glad he has a loving home now.
I wish you were my neighbour. You are concerned. It doesn't matter how many times mine is told the dog barks, it's never her fault and it never gets dealt with. I've also told her the dog gets out, he'll be hit on the road, that isn't dealt with either. Oh, he bounces on the gate and the latch moves open? FIX it then, you stupid ##@**&^%*&*&%. Sorry, bit of a rant.
That's just terrible! Poor Finn. He's lucky he has a new home with you, bless him. I'm feeling a lot calmer about it now, particularly as other neighbours have been very supportive/tolerant, and I feel we have a plan of action. My big thing now will be to remain patient and know it's not going to be solved overnight.
That must be awful. I couldn't imagine not doing anything after a neighbour had complained the first time. I was mortified ours had to say something before we had managed to solve it but I know it's not something that will happen overnight. I feel for you though - Wilson's bark drives me nuts and he's my dog so I can imagine what it's like for someone else. I really hope it improves for you.
It doesn’t get solved overnight but at least you are trying to do something about it which a lot of people don’t. My neighbor often leaves her dog outside for ages howling and whining to come in and gets ignored. Harley does bark occasionally in the garden, it’s usually if she sees something or someone over the fence. I go to look in the direction she is facing and say ‘it’s ok, all gone’ and she stops. We have 6ft tall fences but next door have built a high decking in their garden so when they are on it Harley can see them and their kids sit there calling Harley then complain when she barks! Unfortunately not all neighbours are nice.
