New Pup And Neighbours' Noisy Dogs

[flycow]

Dear all,

It's nice to get out of lurking once in a while. My, this forum is so full of humour, I came here for my daily fix, never failed me once!

Tomorrow is my big day - new puppy is coming home! My first after many dog-free years since my last dog passed. My only worry now is about neighbouring dogs.

I am unfortunately surrounded by suburbian home owners who have little terrors in their backyards. Three neighbours - two behind and one beside have small dominant dogs that are untrained. They are territorial and bark day and night at each other, banging on the fence wanting to fight. I thank the heavens they are little, or they will tear the fences down. It's a nightmare.

Then recently I decided to get a female Lab myself and intend to send her to doggie preschool, starting next week. Due to the backyard problems with neighbours' dogs, I will also let her sleep inside away from distractions and only let her play outside under my supervision.

My question is, in her crtical puppy period, will she pick up bad barking habits from the neighbours'? We can hear their noise from inside the house. What can I do to correct this if my baby barks back?

Edited August 4, 2006 by flycow

[ls_l]

Hi, I bought myself a little puppy not so long ago too, and have the same type of Neighbours as you do, and my pup show no care at all, she just sit there or keep doing whatever she was up too when they all start barking, si I don't think that it will be a problem, specially if she is occupied most of the time.

[Guest Stevie'sGreat]

People across the road from us have two rottieX who howl at every siren and bark a fair bit at any strange noise, but their new labrador and ours don't bark at all. Actually, no, that's not true, Stevie's just starting to bark at things, she's nine months now and we haven't quite worked out what that's about, but it doesn't seem to be related to the noise of the other dogs in the neighbourhood.

[ls_l]

Mmm

Edited August 4, 2006 by ls_l

[cavNrott]

.

Edited May 9, 2009 by cavNrott

[flycow]

Thanks guys for your advice.

I agree with cavNrott that responding to bad behaviour is a no no. My puppy doesn't bark when she is with the breeder, her mum doesn't bark. In fact most of the breeder's dogs don't bark at strangers, they have excellent temperament which is why I bought her.

Now that she is coming to suburbia (the dirty word), and with all the noise around us, I really don't know what to expect. I'm going to put in my best effort to bring her up properly.

[flycow]

ls_l : how old is your pup now? Is she still ignoring the neighbours' dogs?

[ls_l]

She will be 3 months soon. I never had any probs with her, in fact I never had that prob with any of the dogs I owned in the past.

I think you are right too about what cavNrott said.

"I would divert their attention by calling them to me and tell them to sit."

Don't forget the treat when they sit

Edited August 4, 2006 by ls_l

[flycow]

Dear all, some updates. My puppy arrived home this morning and did the usual howling, crying, whining, watching me and destroying paper ON THE FIRST DAY! I was thinking, here we go again. :rolleyes: (she's not my first dog so I kinda know their tricks a little)

I am very lucky so far, she knows how to pee outside, seems like she learned it from the breeder and I just need to reinforced it. And she adjusted into a play pen immediately. I am so very amazed at how intelligent Labradors are. ;)

As for the neighbours dogs, today they barked twice when she's outside. First time she was curious, second time she got a little scared. I hope puppy school will solved this, she has been socialising only with Labs so far. Now my whole family is praying hard she won't get affected by those surrounding dogs.

Edited August 5, 2006 by flycow

[kiki]

Try to never encourage barking. As soon as you hear your pup bark, correct it straight away.

I did this with my mini schnauzer since she was young and now she with rarely barks - and I also have noisy dogs for neighbours