Good afternoon. Any advice on getting your dog to ignore your neighbour's dog. Before the arrival of their puppy earlier this year our dog was quite calm in the garden, Usually he is outside when we are in the garden and would only be left on his own for minutes as we have a secure run with a kennel when going out. Situation is that next door's dog is quietly coming up to the fence and our one reacts with barking and jumping up at the fence. We have thought about using the clicker but trying to work out how to best use it - maybe to click when he walks away from the fence. The 2 dogs have not properly met and wonder if that would resolve it as their dog is just inquisitive/bored. The fence is solid so can cope with jumping, it is just our nerves as we are always waiting for our dog to start reacting and we would not want to deny his quiet time sunbathing in the garden by banishing him to the run/garage or house.
It's a difficult one and seems to depend a lot on your dog. My neighbours have two west highland terriers, one of which is very yappy. Tatze has always completely ignored them. Gypsy, on the other hand, always barked back - and would bark herself to get it going! Twiglet goes and sniffs under the fence but has never barked at it. The only thing I could do with Gypsy was to call her in when the shouting matches started, luckily the neighbour did the same with their yapster.
We have a new puppy next door, it seems to spend a lot of time in the garden and barks when I go into my garden with Charlie. I didn't want any stuff starting through the fence so decided only to take Charlie into the garden when I was with him, and all my attention was on him. I just kept him occupied with his attention on me doing bits of training (if this is difficult at first, you could try having him on a lead) and over a few sessions Charlie started to ignore the dog, and now takes no notice of the dog at all and we have returned to normal. Only with a barking dog on the other side of the fence. I don't think you can leave your dog out in the garden alone, even for a few minutes, and train him to ignore the other dog because without you there he is just going to turn his attention back to the fence. Best of luck with it.
thank you, distractions do work such as kong etc but it is when you want to chill out yourself and he is on high alert
