I couldn't be happier. Tomorrow and Saturday my hubby's going to be putting up a wood fence(panels) and that way my dogs won't bark at people walking down the alley, at the neighbor when she's out in her garden, and other dogs coming into our yard, including my other neighbors Vizla. It's nice cause taking care of a baby that's almost 4 months old and starting to teeth and trying to entertain the dogs and having to tie them up in the yard, just plain sucks.

Cooper, the neighbors Vizla, has a bad habit of barking his head off at our dogs(he's fenced in) and occasionally getting out of his fence and coming up on our deck. And his owner is a dink, for lack of a better term. He didn't want to be responsible for a dog but his dad(who lives on the other side) wanted one just for hunting, so son gets dog and does nothing with him.

Thank god my dogs haven't been outside when he's been loose, cause I know that there'd be a fight. He'd go after Otto(both are intact males) and then Shaed would go after Cooper cause he's trying to hurt one of her pack members. And I don't even know what would happen to Lily, cause she's still got puppy teeth and wouldn't be able to defend herself if she had to.

This is why I'm so happy for a fence: privacy, containment of my dogs and keeping other dogs out.

Keleah,

That's great news! I know I would lose my mind without a totally fenced-in back yard. This spring when we had to replace one side of the concrete block wall, I had to take the dogs out separately on leashes everytime since there was no barrier between our house and neighbor's. It was a pain in the rear!

Oh, I don't want to rain on your parade. Having a fence is important, and it will give you a great deal of peace of mind. But don't be too surprised if it doesn't change the barking behavior. My yard is fenced. The neighbors dogs bark at us all the time when we are in the back yard.

I am happy for you all I have is a electric fense.

Which keeps my gang in but does not keep others out.

Its a rental so hopefully she puts a fence in soon

Rich,

I agree that the fence does not stop the neighbors' dogs from barking but teaching your dog not to respond will cut down on a lot of the barking. It has taken lots of work on our part to consistently teach our dog Roxie not to race over to the fence when she hears the neighbor dog bark. The ecollar has come in real handy for that! Now when we go outside, it's like she will want to go in any part of the yard EXCEPT near the fence area.

Fortunately our other dog Nickie has never barked at the other dogs behind the fence.

I'm a really huge believer in teaching your dog to be neutral to all things happening outside of your property.

A dog that barks at neighbor dogs, someone walking down the street minding their own business, the mailman, etc, becomes like the boy that cried wolf. When someone does intrude into your property or pose a legitimate threat, you may very well ignore or block out the barking.

A perfect example is my neighbor's GSD.
When we moved in a few years ago, the dog was just under a year old, and almost never barked. If we heard Duke barking at something, we immediately looked to see what was the matter. In every instance, some unsavory charector was lurking about- typically kids up to no good, but once it was a burgler on the prowl.

As Duke got older, his owner began to neglect him more and more, and now Duke barks at everything from cars to leaves blowing down the street. Jack the Ripper could be murdering my neighbor, and I'd never know because I ignore Duke's incessant barking.

My GSD, on the other hand, has been raised from the time we got her, to be absolutely neutral to anything outside of our yard.
As a young pup, she was lavished with praise when she ignored the neighbor's dogs barking, people walking down the street, etc.
She will look, and even follow them along the fence, but she does so without barking, and is handsomely rewarded for it.

As a result, the few times she has barked, I immediately investigated, and found her barking to be legitimate.

She also does not bark at known people entering the house. She waits at the top of the stairs to greet them.
Recently, when a person unknown to Danke entered the front door (my brother was bringing a friend to visit), Danke immediately barked, and put on a very civil display. I had heard my brother pull up, but didn't know he'd brought a friend, and Danke certainly alerted me to that fact.

We have two very obnoxious pitbulls behind us, and Danke does not respond to their barking, snarling charges at our fence. She looks at them, looks at me, and goes about her business in the yard with little more consideration of the neighbor's crazy dogs.

Praising your dog for ignoring "normal" goings-on around the neighborhood, and equally praising your dog for responding correctly to out of the ordinary circumstances, creates a very reliable "alert" system. It is always easier to reward desirable behavior than it is to correct undesirable behavior.

Diane, you've gotten me started.

The neighbor have two Italian Greyhounds. Little dogs. The neighbors are gone much of the the time. They have installed dog doors so their dogs can go from the house to the garage and into the yard. They used my fence as a base to build their own.

At first they denied that their dogs bark, but enough neighbors complained that now they believe it, they just don't know what to do about it. One neighbor told me he didn't even know Hans was there, but he always knew the Italian Greyhounds were there.

Once, one of them dug under the fence. My wife nearly had a heart attack, but managed to dial up the e-collar enough to distract Hans so the little guy could get back under the fence and get away. Italian Greyhounds can run really fast. So can GSDs. Without the e-collar stim, Hans would have caught him.

Hans has a corner in the yard 25' x 25' covered in pea gravel and surrounded by railroad ties. That is his bathroom. It is the opposite corner from the neighbors. He can't even go out to take a dump without these little guys barking up a storm.

Every time my wife is out working in the garden, or we have Hans in the backyard playing, they go at it. As long as Hans has something to do, he leaves them alone. But he'll go over to their corner if he gets board. And he doesn't always bark at them, sometimes he tries to break down the fence to get at them. That's e-collar time.

We work with him, to discourage him from going into that corner. When we catch him looking at it, a simple "no" is enough to turn him away. But if we let him out by himself we have to keep an eye on him, because once those little dogs get going with their barking, he'll head over to that corner. Again, that is e-collar time.

I gave the neighbors the URL to Ed's site, and suggested they look into no-bark collars. They told me you can't put one on an Italian Greyhound, they they will just shut down. I kept my tongue, didn't tell them that would be a wonderful improvement.

The biggest lesson I have learned from this is that you can't get a couple of dogs, let them have the run of the house and yard, and then leave them alone all weekend every weekend and most days of the week and expect to have happy neighbors.

Alyssa,

My dog is part of the canine neighborhood watch. Once starts barking, and it alerts the others to start looking for what is going on.

Can you give more detail on how you taught Danke to ignore things going on off your property? I'm not certain how to go about making the connection in the dogs mind that he is being praised for NOT barking at the people walking their dogs down the street.

 Quote: keleah stull

I couldn't be happier. Tomorrow and Saturday my hubby's going to be putting up a wood fence(panels) and that way my dogs won't bark at people walking down the alley, at the neighbor when she's out in her garden, and other dogs coming into our yard, including my other neighbors Vizla. It's nice cause taking care of a baby that's almost 4 months old and starting to teeth and trying to entertain the dogs and having to tie them up in the yard, just plain sucks.

Welcome to the world of blissful relaxation.

I have a fenced yard, but it did not contain my dogs (it was chain link) and plus my property backed to a city park filled with off leash dogs who loved to run the fence with my dogs, a next door neighbor with two unsupervised GSDs and another neighbor with six little barky dogs.

Although my yard is 50 x 200, my dogs were mostly only let out on leash. And they would always bark and be harassed by other dogs and people.

Finally I saved my pennies and built a little "Alcatraz" of plywood panels. HOURRAY!! A yard that can contain my dogs so they can run free, exercise, and play with each other. It cut WAY down on barking. Now even when they can hear the little dogs bark, they only woof a few times and resume what they were doing. Now they only bark if they hear a person banging around in another yard near the fence, but mostly at the squirrels running on the overhead wires. (They are dedicated squirrel dogs).

Although the "new yard" is only about 50x50, I am MUCH more relaxed (because I don't have to confront the owners of the off leash dogs several times a day) and can now sit on my patio swing while the dogs are out, and they are calmer because they get more exercise and less stress.

I call it the "ghetto fence" and it looks awful but I don't care. I love it!

Rich, its a long process.
Luckily, we started it with Danke when she was very young, and continue to reinforce it daily.

In reality, you aren't teaching your dog to "ignore" anything, just to respond with an established pattern of behaviors.

Every single time your dog is in the yard, and displays desirable yard behavior, reward the dog. If you use marker training, your dog will understand that it's being rewarded for whatever it was doing at the time of the marker.

For example, if the neighbors dogs are barking, the second my dog looks away from them, mark. If someone is walking past our front yard, and my dog watches them quietly, mark.

All desired behavior is marked and rewarded, but some behavior is rewarded more heavily than others.
I've been able to shape her yard behavior so that she will shadow someone walking along the outside of our fence, without making a sound. This behavior is always "jackpotted".

If she barks or becomes otherwise responsive in a CORRECT situation (someone actually approaches/touches our fence, enters our yard, etc), I also mark and reward heavily.

Any time she displays negative yard behavior, I give her a negative marker, and it's time to go inside.

Smart dogs learn quickly what is expected of them in the yard, as long as you make it as black and white as possible for them.
Of course, the more bad habits a dog already has, the longer it takes.

I was lucky to be starting with a puppy, who at the time had no inclination to bark at things. Since there was really no negative behavior at that point, I just reinforced positive behavior and ignore other behaviors that were neither negative nor desired.