Barking At Neighbours - What To Do?

[deltoid]

Our 6 month old Silky Terrier puppy has recently started to bark at the neighbours. He doesn't do it all the time, just occasionally when they are doing something near the fence and making noises he is unfamiliar with.

He doesn't do this much but just wondering what the correct approach should be to teach him it isn't right. I don't mind him having a bark or two to alert us but he needs to know when to stop. So far I try luring him away and give some commands but that only works 50% of the time. So I've changed to picking him up and taking him inside whenever he barks at them (he is an inside dog so he likes being outside, we leave the back door open when he is outside so if he wanted to come back inside he is able to so it isn't a boredom / separation issue).

[BMAK]

proof a good recall, if you can catch the dog in the act to tell it a firm no, it could work and bring him away via it's collar immediately then let him go a few meters away or change the dogs attention to something more fun and distracting like a game of fetch or tug, clicker training would be great to learn for outside.

Don't pick him up he will think that barking could be associated with cuddles when it shouldn't and could possibly aggrivate the situation when he is barking to bark more. if you have to grab your pup a lead attached then guide him inside to settle and let the pup back out.

you can even teach him to speak and quiet but it would take some practice and could make it worse in some circumstance haha.

[ESCS]

Would it help to introduce him to your neighbours? Our tibbie takes his watch dog duties seriously and used to bark at the neighbours until we introduced him to them. Once he realised that they are friends not strangers, he stopped barking at them. The other neighbour took matters into their own hands and told him off in a deep, gruff voice and that has also stopped him in his tracks!

He still barks at other dogs walking past our house and we have done what BMAK suggested with a lot of success. We taught him to come back to us when we called him and gave him lots of praise and treats for the recall (and for being quiet). After that, it's distracting him with a game or bringing him inside until whatever is bothering him has gone away.

[deltoid]

Would it help to introduce him to your neighbours? Our tibbie takes his watch dog duties seriously and used to bark at the neighbours until we introduced him to them. Once he realised that they are friends not strangers, he stopped barking at them. The other neighbour took matters into their own hands and told him off in a deep, gruff voice and that has also stopped him in his tracks!

He still barks at other dogs walking past our house and we have done what BMAK suggested with a lot of success. We taught him to come back to us when we called him and gave him lots of praise and treats for the recall (and for being quiet). After that, it's distracting him with a game or bringing him inside until whatever is bothering him has gone away.

Yeah, we've introduced him to the neighbours on a couple of occasions. Usually he will bark when they are doing something near the fence and he doesn't recognise the sound (like for example if they are gardening. Sometimes when I'm having trouble settling him down they will pop their head over and he will stop once he realises the sound was coming from them.

There are two dogs across the street which always bark at him when I take him for walks. Now as a result, if he is outside and they start barking he will run over to the fence (he can't get into the front yard but he can still see the dogs through the fence and will bark at them.

I'll keep walking on it. He won't come even if I use a treat to lure him when he starts barking.