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mom24dogs
Dogsey Junior
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Location: Missouri, United States
Joined: May 2013
Posts: 23
Female 
 
25-07-2013, 02:07 AM

How can I stop my dog from barking at my neighbors?

My half Old English Sheep Dog half Pitbull/beagle mix dog, Marley, is 8 months old, over 50 pounds, and he is neutered.

Marley barks excessively at my neighbors. It's so bad that if my neighbors are outside I cannot let him outside. He runs up and down the fence barking and barking like crazy. He wont listen to anything I say, he is in his own zone. I try to take him outside on a leash so I can control him and all he does is pull as hard as he can to get to the fence and he still barks. He will take off and yank me and almost pull me over to the ground. He will also spin round and round while he is on the leash. I am guessing letting out some anxiety energy by doing that?

Then on the other side of my house, my neighbors have 2 dogs around his size. He likes to bark at them like crazy too. But this bark is more high pitched like he is excited and wants to play with them soooooo bad. They will run up and down the fence together.

His barking is super annoying and I am sure it drives my neighbors crazy. I know it drives me crazy. I have tried working with him, putting him on the leash and making him sit and be quiet, but it doesn't last long. It's like he will never learn.

I don't know if barking at the people is fear based or what. He is afraid of new people. When I took him to the vet for the first time he tried to bite them and they had barely touched him. We had to put a muzzle on him and he still tried to bite. He also acted like that when I took him in to get neutered. When my husbands friend came over to our house Marley barked at him a little when he first came in, then he kept trying to check him out. But the way he was doing it you could tell he was scared and weary. He was going in really slow to sniff. He was going up to sniff the guys face. And I could tell Marley was uneasy and I was afraid he might try to bite him.

Marley has tried to bite at me a few times. He was outside and I wanted him to come inside but he didn't want to, so when I tried to grab him he tried to nip at me. Another time he was laying in his cage and he had his paws hanging over the doorway. I went to put his feet inside so I could close the door and he growled at me. Another time he was laying and sleeping on my legs and one was starting to hurt so I went to pull my leg out and he growled at me. Even before I had him, when he was like 4 months old and lived with my nephew, I took him outside to potty and when I wanted to go back inside he didn't want to so I went to pick him up and take him in and he growled and nipped at me.
He gets scared when I get mad and yell and wont listen to me. Like I yelled at him to get in his cage because he nipped at one of my other dogs and he just gave me his scared look and wouldn't go anywhere. Another time I got mad and yelled at him to go outside, he wouldn't go. Then I used my happy voice to tell him to go outside and he went. So he does not like it when I get mad.

Other than that he is a pretty good dog. He loves to snuggle. He loves to play with his rope, tossing it around and playing tug. He likes chasing balls too. He knows sit, on command, and shake. He goes in his cage when he is told.

What can I do with him to get through to him. I have thought about a no bark collar but I really don't want to do that. I don't know what to do. Any advice?

Sorry to ramble on so long. I hope people read this.
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Lynn
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Location: March, Cambridgeshire.
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25-07-2013, 05:30 AM
This may be of help.

http://www.humanesociety.org/animals...p_barking.html

With friends or strangers visiting you are going to need to keep him in a safe place away from people introduce him carefully and under control do not yell or shout at him if he shows signs of fear you will make him worse. Calmly remove him from the situation to a safe place for him and your visitors.
Ask your visitors to ignore him and no eye contact not even speak to him. they can toss some treats to the floor so he hopefully learns to associate visitors as good things not scarey things. Look for a reputable behaviorist. Try the vet for recommendations. If they suggest yanking shouting or pulling or alpha rolling run.
It sounds as if your dog has fear issues and any of those techniques will make him worse.
Do not grab his collar use a treat as a lure or the leash you need to find another way that he is comfortable with.

Never ever push him past his comfort zone.
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mom24dogs
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Location: Missouri, United States
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25-07-2013, 05:46 AM
I don't push him into meeting people. I let him do his thing to check out the visitor. We did pull him back out of the guys face though. We did not yell at him because he didn't do anything. Next time he came over we put Marley in his crate to just avoid any weird behavior. We don't have a lot of visitors so that's not the biggest issue. Although I know having more visitors would get him used to it and hopefully not be so fearful.

The big problem is him barking at my neighbors in the yard. My neighbors had a big party all weekend and Marley was going crazy as usual barking. They don't mess with him, I don't know what Marleys big problem is with having neighbors. He does it even if one person is walking through their yard. If he even hears a sound coming from that direction he is in barking mode till he sees it is nothing.

I will check out that link now.
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jeagibear
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Location: southampton, uk
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25-07-2013, 06:57 AM
If his problem, seem's to be the neighbour, on the other side of the fence, then get him to visit the neighbour. Make it a really enjoyable experience for him. Low key, but happy. Loads of his favourite treats, loads to smell. All under his own steam. Get the Nose working, then you can start to get the Dog working. I'm sure your neighbour's wont mind helping. Once you let him know that there is NO danger, he can start to settle! Be careful of playing Tug. It will encourage him to be rough and compete with you. What, controlled, excercise does he get? Do you have a Training regime? He certainly sound's a Handfull. What experience do You have?
I have just seen your profile. You have only trained a Dog to Four Commands?
There is your main problem!!!!!! ( And the Dogs.)
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Baxter8
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Location: Somerset UK
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25-07-2013, 07:03 AM
Could you get your neighbours on board to help you out - I think if they were armed with a bucketful of special treats that they threw to the side of him (not at him!) he would begin to seem them more positively. I think he needs to be introduced to the dogs on the other side - is there a part of the fence that he can see though and meet them in a controlled way?

Everything else - the nipping, the biting etc.. in my opinion really needs specialist help, this is a large powerful dog capable of causing damage to you or your visitors. To my mind he doesn't feel safe and it might be a question of creating rock solid routines with him so he knows exactly what is coming next and what is expected of him and dare I say quite a firm hand (not in a Caesar Milan way) - but somebody who isn't going to take any nonsense from him but praises him like crazy the moment he behaves appropriately - have you checked out clicker training?

Good luck - he sounds like a wonderful mixture of breeds.
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mom24dogs
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Location: Missouri, United States
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25-07-2013, 05:06 PM
My neighbors don't speak English to well but maybe I can see what I can do. As for the other dogs, we have a chain link fence so he can see and smell the other dogs, they can even touch noses through the spaces and paws under the fence. I am not a real social person and I don't talk much with my neighbors. I do smile and say Hi when I see them, but that's about it.

He doesn't have any real training or exercise he does. He runs around the back yard playing with his toys. Sometimes I go out there and chase him around and throw his toys for him. It's hard to give him a lot of one on one attention because I have 3 other dogs that if you give one dog attention they all come over and want attention. The other 3 dogs do not want to play with him. One dog is old and just wants to be left alone. The other 2 are small and he gets too rough with them so they don't like playing with him either. I wish he did have a playmate he could play with to let out some energy. Maybe later down the road we will get another dog his size to play with, but it isn't happening now.

Also, I don't have a lot of money, I don't know how much money I really want to put into him with hiring a trainer because I don't know how long he will be with us. He was originally my nephews dog but he got too big and their landlord said he had to go. So I volunteered to take him. They said they were going to look for a new place that would take him. But so far they really haven't been looking at all. That was back in April. So I don't know what to do about that.

Here are a few photos of 3 of my dogs. Marley, Madde, Pepper.
http://s103.photobucket.com/user/mom...Madde%20Pepper
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Lynn
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Location: March, Cambridgeshire.
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25-07-2013, 05:26 PM
I am going to try not to sound rude, but if you do not put the time and the effort into him you will not get anywhere with him. Is it possible for you to try to source him a new home as soon as possible.
If a dog is left to do what it likes in the garden with the odd toy throwing session he is not going to grow into a well rounded dog with any manners.
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Lacey10
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Location: Nr Ireland
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25-07-2013, 05:50 PM
Yelling at a dog will get you nowhere,except to make them fearful and switch off and not listen. If I yelled at mine I think she would take a heart attack!! also if you "grabbed" me I think I'd nip you too( no offence)
Lacey,my dog doesn't bark at the neighbours, two dogs on either side of my fence do, constantly.I don't mind that.Only thing I can think of is out of the three Lace is the only one routinely walked morning and night. She doesn't get over excited when in the garden because she knows she'll be walked.If I didn't take her out,and excerise her I couldn't blame her for barking at everything she see's or for not listening to me. I don't know how often you excerise your dog outside but I'm thinking if it was enough he'd have a lot less energy and be less inclined to get over excited or maybe possibly overly frustrated.Just my opinion
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mom24dogs
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Location: Missouri, United States
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25-07-2013, 06:00 PM
I want to take him for walks so we can both get exercise, but it's the middle of summer and it's so hot I think I might pass out, and the ground is so hot he would burn his feet. I would take him to a dog park or to a supervised dog daycare to socialize and playing but I am not sure he would act right, especially with the people. I don't want to get a call saying he bit someone.

I don't know what to do. I have not had a dog act like this before.

They way you said grab made it seem worse. I just took hold of his collar to lead him inside, but he did not want to go inside and he let me know. So if I want him to come in and he does not want to come in, I just get the leash and clip it to his collar and lead him in that way.
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Lynn
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Location: March, Cambridgeshire.
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25-07-2013, 06:16 PM
Could you not do what we have to do in the UK when its very hot walk very early morning or late evening or both.
I had a dog who hated you taking her collar so it was leash or treat as a lure.
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