Barking All Of A Sudden

[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!

[BrunoBella]

Trini, just realised your post got missed. What's happening with the barking? Are you still having this problem?

My neighbours who have a barking bully breed (can't figure out what type) have added another dog to keep the first one company. The new dog barks 20 times worse than the original one and Bella was joining in for a while. Now she is pretty much settled again but I had to move their beds to the back deck to be further away from the new dog.

Unfortunately, the neighbours do not lock their dogs up at night and they have a low, see through fence so the dogs bark at everything!! They are only 20 metres from my front fence.

[andoria2007]

The problem you have described is the same problem that i am having. At Nightime my dog will bark if another dog is barking. The neigbours completely ignore their dogs barking, but complain about my dogs barking (because he has a loud bark). But it doesn't occur to them that i hear their dogs barking every night for hours on end, and they are the high pitched yappy dogs that whine, bark day and night.

I try to give a stern NO command or enough. Or take the dog inside like the laundry (as a quiet place, time out to let dog calm down) till the other dog/ dogs shuts up and quietly let the dog back out in the yard again. Most of the time, my dog is quiet after that for an hour or so. Until another dog goes bezerk and then i do it again.

Its a temporary solution for me.

I would like to hear other opinions too

[Miranda]

All my dogs are crated inside at night, we have possums and under no circumstances would I allow them to roam around loose, if I did I'm sure they'd bark and I have no tolerance for barking dogs, especially at night when I'm trying to sleep. My dogs are confined from around 11pm at night until about 7 in the morning and I don't hear a peep out of any of them.

[dee lee]

Im afraid i'm with Miranda. Keep the dog inside at night.

Once the kids are in bed, my dog is curled up inside on hers and she just sleeps until we all get up in the morning.

Im sure she dog would love to be outside barking at dogs, cats, bats etc, but nighttime is sleep-time so we keep her inside at night and she doesnt stir much at all.

I do feel for you though, i remember getting up in the middle of the night to my dog i had when i was younger when she barked. it was HELL... I like my sleep too much!

[BrunoBella]

My house is tiny and my dogs are big so mine are crated on the deck with covers over them. They rarely bark in their crates outside. Mine are generally in the house from 7ish to bedtime and then moved into their crates. They only bark very occassionally after 7 pm and certainly not at other dogs.

Bella used to bark at other dogs during the day and I have been training her out of that successfully using a recall , I call her to come, make her sit and give her a treat every time she barks. She now only does single barks at people walking past and none at the neighbours new barky dogs. Sometimes when she has barked she runs inside and sits for a treat .

I use an ecollar but if your dog will recall you wont need one of those.

Good luck