My pup is a 7 1/2 months old now and he has developed a nasty habit of barking at my neighbors dogs against the fence. My neighbor's dogs are horrible barkers. They bark at everything all day and all night long. Our shared fence runs along the driveway all the way back to the garage and the yard behind it. Whenever anyone (myself, my wife, landlord, my pup, friends, etc.) walks through our driveway or gets anywhere near the fence their 2 yapper dogs start going nuts at the fence. They have been barking at him from day 1.

I let my pup tag along (unleashed) when I take the garbage out, or if we are going to the backyard just to play and not to train.

Lately, he immediately goes for the fence. At first he would go and wait for them, then respond to their barks. Now, he has started prempting their barks with his own. I give him a no or grab him and tell him no and he stops fairly quickly and follows me. It has gotten worse where he makes a game out of it. He goes. I say no. He comes back, and then he runs back to do it again until I have to grab him by the scruff or the collar and bring him back to his pen area adjacent to our house on the other side.

We have a dog on the opposite side and he nevers does this with him - well occasionally he will give out a friendly bark like "hey are you there" and the dog on the other side responds with a similar bark.

He learned this habit from my neighbors dogs and he has begun barking at night or during the day on their cue. In other words, he likes the mailman and doesn't bark at him unless they start barking first and then he follows suit until the mailman is close and then he gets quiet realize it is someone he likes.

He has a few issues, but for the most part his training has been going great. Up until now his recall was very reliable, but with this new barking game he has started to ignore my come command in this particular situation.

How should I handle this? Keep the prong collar on whenever we go out there and maybe with a long line and let him initiate the barking then correct him????

Have you tried nicely talking to your neighbors about their dogs? Tell them that their barking dogs are becoming nuisance barkers, and would they mind doing something about it? Tell them that you can't even go out in your own yard without their dogs barking the entire time you're out there, and that they're also keeping you and your family awake at night. Suggest that they keep the dogs inside at night, or work with a trainer to get them to stop barking all the time. Tell them you don't want to have to report them to animal control, but if it continues, you feel you have no other choice.

In the meantime, don't allow your dog(s) to join in the barking, because then that will give your neighbors something to counter with "Well, your dog(s) bark too." kind of thing. Keep your puppy leashed (or on a long line) when you take him outside and correct him when he starts barking. Tell him "NO BARK" or "QUIET" or whatever, and then give him a leash correction with the prong. It doesn't have to be a hard correction - just enough to get his attention. Immediately after the correction praise him and give him a yummy treat. Distract him from the fence and encourage him to follow you or play with him with a toy to get his attention away from the fence and the other dogs. Do not leave him outside unsupervised

My neighbors don't strike me as the type to do anything about their dogs. They are nice people, but I don't believe they have ever attempted to train their dogs. They don't even walk them. They definitely would never spend money on a trainer for their dogs. One of them is 35 lb Benji looking mutt (not that I have anything against mutts - my last dog was an awesome mutt) that the guy thought was a Rottweiler.

If I correct my dog he stops fairly quickly, but I would like to prevent him from starting in the first place. I guess I have to put him back on the leash. This only happens when I am taking out the trash and I let him tag along. This is usually at night and sometimes he doesn't have his collar on. So I just let him come along, but it has obviously developed into a behavior problem. I guess I have been slipping on the groundwork.

Last night he did it again. It was really bad. He ran to the fence barked a few times and stopped looking back at me. He knows if he does this that I'll come to correct so he stops before I even correct him then runs to the yard. He plopped down and wouldn't move. I had to pick him up and drag him back to the house and he got really mouthy with me which is something he had grown out of.

He does not normally act like this. It is all a part of big game. Part of it stems from my new job (I have to commute 70 miles in LA county traffic and I work 10 hr days). I used to spend a lot more time with him training, playing, etc. My wife has taken on his morning walks, but she is not as actively involved with him as I was. I take him out at night when I get home, but it is dark so we don't play fetch and we no longer go hiking in the hills.

He has a few issues, but for the most part he is doing great. We have been working with the long lead at the park doing downs, sits, watch, recalls with dogs and horses as distractions and he is doing really well. This new behavior problem is frustrating me. He is a little over 7 months. Perhaps part of it is he is in a rebellion phase coupled with inconsistency on my part??????

Any other thoughts out there???

Throw cheap biscuts to the other dogs. I have seen this work. Sounds dumb but you become a good thing to have around and since they are eating they are quiet. I tried it and it worked, just took forever. in the end no more barking just anticipation of the cheap biscut. If this has been going on for a while don't expect them to figure it out for a few days. When I started they didn't even look at the biscut. I threw it where they could see it and moved on with my business. Keep your pup on a leash so he doesn't learn to ignore you.

Actually, when he was younger I used to do that and it would stop them from barking but only temporarily and grew tired of it as I found myself doing it all the time. Maybe I should start doing it again and if my pup doesn't bark reward him with treats as well?