Trini

Hi all. It's been a while since I posted which is good in a way, means training has been paying off! However we think there is a new dog in the neighbourhood. We haven't heard it before Prior to Friday night. It has been yapping at night. It sounds like it a few houses/ streets away so it's not enough to annoy us but we can hear it in the distance and Trinity has taken to barking back at it. I can't understand that if we can hear it then the owners must be able to, surely they can't be getting sleep either! We have dogs all around us and a few of those are barkers and criers and they range from Lab's and border collies to maltese and spaniels. Never before has she barked in return to any of them. She has only barked at our neighbours back light when it comes on and shines into our yard or when noisy people walk past. So now this dog has yapped all through the night and in turn Trinity has barked all night. I have been using positive re-inforcement with keywords like enough and quiet which she stops barking until the other one starts again. Hence in all of this we are getting very little sleep and are neighbours are really good...but their patience can only last so long! If it is a new dog will she settle once it has been in the area and just becomes one of the "other" dogs? Any tips on how to help prevent or deal with this will be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

Thanks everyone for your input. Sorry I didn't mean to cause issues between any of you! Akita owner (btw they are a beautiful dog!) we have the same, big double glass sliding door so she can see us everytime we walk past. Sometimes she is happy to just watch us as we go past, others she will whine and cry. But when she stays quiet I will usually go over and let her in or go out to her. Hubby and I were talking on the way home from work and looks like we came up with a middle of the road of all your advice. What we decided to do is change out of our work clothes, greet the cats (this is normal routine) then go to her at the door and tell her to sit and quiet before going out/ letting her in. We tried it last night and it was good, she curled up on my lap outside and was happy to be patted. When I went inside again she started crying but it was only for a couple of minutes then she started to play with her toys so hopefully this is a good sign! We will try this for the next week or so and see how she goes, if this doesn't work we will try a different approach. It's been 13 years since my old girl was a puppy and then I was only 12 so I'm having to remember a lot of things! Plus my other dog was a digger and didn't whine, this time it's the other way round! My other dog lives with my parents, she had someone home and didn't think it was fair to bring her to our home where she wouldn't be used to no one here. Maybe once we have Trini trained and under control I might be able to convince hubby to get her a friend ( I don't think we could train 2 at once!) I know I'm biased but yeah she is pretty gorgeous! Thanks again all your help made it clearer for me to think and see all aspects so hopefully this will work!

We did that for the first couple of days but then from what I had been reading it said not to or it will encourage her. believe me, if it means I can go straight out there I will, I just thought that it would be encouraging bad behaviour. If you guys think it's ok then that is great for both of us! Then after writing this I put her outside last night for a bit and she didn't come to the door once. Perhaps she read my post! Thanks

No not at all. She will happily play with her toys while we are around, either inside or out. The worst I have found is that she sometimes bites at our ankles and pulls on our clothes. When she does we tell her to sit, which she does around 80% of the time or she keeps on doing it so then we turn around and ignore her, then she usually sits. Only a couple of times she hasn't stopped and we have said no and put her outside or we have gone inside, but generally she is pretty good with that sort of thing. At night once she is settled and not crying we usually take her for a min 30 min walk and then do some training when we come home (working on come and stay atm) Perhaps it could be because we do do these things with her after work she knows it's coming? Perhaps I'm looking at it wrong, perhaps it's more of an excited cry than a stressful one? I don't know, I just want her to be happy! We will be going to obedience training. It starts in 2 weeks time and I was going to ask them about it but I'm worried that it is causing unnecessary anxiety for her so thought I would ask everyone here to try and find a solution before then. We feed her around half an hour before we leave for work and we watch her after she has eaten and she runs around with her toys or plays with her Kong and she doesn't come to the door then, only when we get home. Not sure if I have answered your question SAS but that is a typical day in our household!

Hi all First time poster here, reading everyone else's post it's been great, thanks for all your help! We have a 13 week old border collie x kelpie x schipperke. We have had her for 2 and a half weeks and everything else is going great. She sits and drops no problem. She goes on her bed when asked and understands no when she is biting. She has the most beautiful nature and we love her to bits! The hardest thing I am finding is that she cries and whines when we get home. She is fine with us leaving her but as soon as we walk in the door she cries and whines. The neighbours have said she is fine during the day. We have been ignoring her, we have tried leaving and coming back as suggested. She now jumps at the door, scratching and yelping. Once she is calm we go outside and play with her and take her for a walk but it seems to go on for at least half hour. Then when we come back inside she starts all over again. She comes inside at night after tea for a little while. Should we stop this? I understand she wants to see us and have pats and walks and play but i would have thought she would be getting better by now not worse. Can anyone tell me how long I can expect this and any hints on how to help ease this on both her and us? Thanks