Barking at new neighbours dog - advice please!

Looking for advice and reassurance

My dog, Bentley, Jack Russell is 9.5 months old. his barking has improved considerably in the last two months but he does still bark if something scares him, (quite sharp barks) sees another dog or children (more growly puff barking) and occasionally for attention
New neighbours moved into the house but one from us on Monday. They have a Spaniel. Bentley was barking his head off along the fence (there is a garden between us) I tried 'quiet' but he was too excited. I will also add that I will not shout at him when barking as I know it makes it worse. got chatting to new neighbour and we were going to let them get to know each other in the empty garden when he realised Bentley is still intact and she is just finishing season!! perhaps explains why his barking was on a new level
We went for a walk together on Thursday evening and as you can imagine there was a lot of barking and snarling from both dogs outside my house and then as we walked down the street on opposite sides. a 'neighbour' (their house is a one minute walk from mine, it's at the end of the street) I'll call her 'B', had come out to see what all the fuss was about because her dog had started to bark ( I have never heard it bark the two years I have been here) I apologised and said 'we're socialising them' (with a smle) apologised again but she turned around looking really angry
after another 5 minutes the dogs had calmed down and then were great off lead together for over an hour. No more barking until we got back to the houses, and only for less than a minute.
The new neighbours are having a BBQ and are all out in garden. Bentley and I went out at about half 2 to do some gardening and he barked a little bit on and off but not even 10% of how it was on Monday, I am really proud of him! I was very reassuring, saying 'quiet' and using my hand signal, using upbeat happy voice when talking to him.
We came in at 3.15 so I could skype my OH in Afghan. I went back out, at about 5.45, after doing some training with him so we could have a play, and I could do some more 'quiet' training with him. He was barking once every 5 minutes whenever Pretzel came into view, and not barking for more than 20 seconds, a real improvement. I decided it was enough for today and we came in.

Just as I shut the backdoor the doorbell went, so he barked and it was B from down the street to ask me to stop him barking. I said sorry, we have just come in, and that 'he is still a puppy. I have been trying to train him, I am trying my best' B said it had been all afternoon which I said it hadn't because we had been inside most of the day and she said he must have been barking through the door then (!?! he had been sleeping and humping his blanket most of the time!!!) I apologised again. She said he had ruined their afternoon
B was already walking away when I said that I am trying to get him used to the new Spaniel and she said 'well that's dog's for you' so I said 'exactly, dog's bark!' She shrugged and walked away. I said 'I really am very sorry B'

I am sooooooooooo upset Am I handling the situation with Bentley totally wrong? He is a noisy little dog and no one is more sensitive to it than me. I am always apologising to my closest neighbours for him barking and they always tell me not to worry and they hardly notice it. The barking has increased this week and that is why I want to tackle it straight away. I work full time and he comes with me and is so good at the office now. It doesn't seem fair not to let him out at weekends. I am certainly too scared to let him out again tonight in case she sends the RMP round (I'm on an army camp)
The worse bit is that my friend, who lives opposite B, got a complaint against her dogs recently for letting them bark after 10pm. I was there that night and they barked for less than 30 seconds. However the Estate Manager said it wasn't the first complaint against them barking after 10; my friend is always in bed by 9.30 pm!! (we were only up late cos it was her son's first birthday the next day and we were decorating his cake) My friend is still really upset about it and now I think I know who may have made the complaint...
I have worked so hard with Bentley and I will be gutted if an official complaint is put in. It's not like I'm leaving him unattended in the garen to bark his head off

Please advice? reassurance? Tell me I'm doing it all wrong??

Well I must say you are handleing it much better than I would!

My Oscar has barked on ocassion at my neighbours and I apologise and then ask if he can come and meet them. After that he doesnt bark at them anymore!

I know that probably wont be suitable in your case and the problem is different.

Do you ever socalise with "B" and her dog?

Could it be jealousy??

Sorry I couldnt be more help.

Good luck.

Mark And Oscar.

We have yappy dogs out the back of us and it is annoying but at least you are doing something constructive to stop your dog barking too much. Our neighbours don't care and just let it yap and yap. My husband works shifts so needs a reasonable level of peace and quiet!

Cherry and Parker are trained not to bark in the garden. The only time they will bark is if the yappy dog starts first and I will then recall them and give them a treat for coming in. I think as we live in a built-up area I have to be responsible as I don't like hearing other people's dogs barking.

I let them bark when out on fields playing with their balls where it isn't annoying anybody but once we were on a field next to a football field separated by a hedge. The football crowd were making a very loud noise shouting and cheering and Parker and Cherry were having a good old wuff for me to throw their balls when one of the spectators shouted out "Shut-up"! I thought what's your problem? You are all making much more noise than my dogs!!

From what you've said you seem to be doing really well to inhibit & control the barking. It's just a shame that you don't have more understanding & sympathetic neighbours who will bear with you while you work through it. But I expect stress levels may be higher & therefore tolerance levels lower on an army camp so maybe this is the problem? Plus people working shifts need to sleep in the day?

I think you should carry on doing what you're doing with regard to the socialising with other dogs & people. Perhaps see if some of the more dog-friendly folk on the base would help you do some training on meeting new people & having visitors to your house? And just be extra vigilant if you take your dog outside "after hours". It would be easy to say don't worry about upsetting the neighbours if you were not on an army base as I bet the Environmental Health people would not consider the noise levels a nuisance in civvy street, but maybe it's a bit different for you?

I wish you luck & I'm sure as your dog grows older he will calm down. After all he's at one of the most reactive times in his life & being entire with a female dog just out of season nearby is probably as worse as it could get!!! So it should only get better from now on.

I all honesty i think your neighbour is a bit of an idiot, i have never lived anywhere and not heard dogs barking during the day, sounds more like she has control issues around her environment and anything that disturbs what she considers her area she reacts too, we used to call them net curtain twitchers where i grew up, for me it is a bit like loud music, acceptable during the day but not during the night.
My friend who is an estate officer/housing manager has to follow guidelines and they do not consider dog barking a nuisance as long as it is not constant and not between 11 and 7 at night.
In all seriousness if my neighbour knocked on my door because my dogs had barked a few times during the day then my answer would be short and swift, sounds to me like you have a neighbour who does not give and take, stand up for yourself and do not let them control you.
You are doing a good job with your dog.

Thank you so much for the replies and kind words! I spoke to the neighbour who owns the Spaniel and he said I was doing really well and that he had definitely improved from the start of the week

I am feeling really low about everything doggy today There were a few other incidents last week which have only confirmed that Bentley is dog reactive in a negative way. I've worked so hard to take a couple steps forward and now I've been knocked back to the crawling stage. Got my work cut out with this one!!

To be honest I think that your neighbour is being a little unfair on you. Had she of not seen you in the morning with the dogs, then I don't think she would have noticed the barking as much. It's like my TV buzzing and I hadn't noticed, till someone pointed it out now it drives me mad. The way I see it you are making an effort, which is more than most do.

Hi there. It sounds like your working really hard on him, well done! Cain was very barky when he arrived and we had to work hard on him. Luckily we have very tolerant neighbours and now his barking is reasonable. Keep doing what you're doing, it sounds like it's working.

Do you take Bentley to training classes at all? If he's starting to be dog reactive then it's good to nip it in the bud while he's young, as you are obviously aware. This may be a good environment to socialise him in?