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Comment by John Wolff on February 21, 2009 at 10:11pm

"Going to the neighbors... with cookies..." is an excellent idea. Even if you can't eliminate the barking, just knowing that you're sensitive and responsive and listening will have a great calming effect on your neighbors. A lot of their anxiety comes from the feeling of having no control over this external annoyance. When they get to know you, it puts a human face on things. There's a huge difference between "...the neighbor's dog is barking again" and "...Bonny's dog is barking again."

This is a tough thing to deal with. I don't want them to bark at passersby or squirrels, but I DO want them to bark when strangers come to the house.

Comment by Bonny on September 24, 2008 at 11:37am

I tried to update this a day or two ago with no luck.

But fortunately, the barking problem has improved greatly since Friday. I spent some time with Junebug at various doors in the house, knocking and rewarding with chicken each time she didn't bark. She picked up the association of "shhh"=chicken pretty quickly, and I am happy that now when she barks at something and I give her "shh" she comes to me and lays down instead of feeling punished or scolded (and barking ever more intensely!).

We also increased her walk time and have been more diligent in giving her one-on-one play time, fetch being the activity of choice. I throw until she is just too tired to make it back to me and she plops down in the shade, happily panting away. Yay, tired dog!

Between these two things, she is MUCH quieter in the apartment. She still lets out a solitary bark now and then, but 99% of the time, quiet prevails. Of course, the two of them still get a little rowdy playing, but that's not particularly noisy :)

Thanks for the encouragement, everyone! I was so afraid I couldn't solve this because I've tried before using other methods. What a coincidence that the book I was listening to last week had the answer!

Comment by Owen's Mom on September 20, 2008 at 12:42am

I would go to the neighbors, honestly- bring cookies :) Before we had Owen and we lived in a house that was really close to our neighbors (like I could hear their door slam) I went over and explained that we were musicians and if it ever got too loud to please let us know. I said that we are respectful people but if there was an issue to let us know.

In an apartment - also no Owen but our neighbors had a really annoying dog that barked ALL the time.. we didn't complain until they were having 2am fights and then making up - ick.

Good luck with the barking.. Owen barks at the guitar, Wii Fit, the subwoofer letting out bass, and the swiffer cleaning series .. Awesome since we are musicians and enjoy the Wii Fit and are clean people! We are working on the noises.. I'll be reading this to check on other's advice on the barking

Comment by Bonny on September 19, 2008 at 11:56am

I have been working on teaching "shhh" and rewarding when she stops barking. She does seem to be getting this (we've had three good sessions so far), but since there have been complaints with relatively little barking, I'm thinking people are expecting complete silence. There is going to be some barking in order to teach these things....and I question if people will be able to understand this!!

My strategy at this point is to continue with the training, upping the treat quality to cooked chicken, and increasing the excercise until she is very very tired. I have high expectations that this will be effective in at least reducing the amount of barking.

I was totally upset by this--I guess I am sensitive to other people's opinion of me. I would like to knock on their doors and explain what we're trying to do, but now I'm a little gun shy. It would obviously be good, but mentally I'm a little freaked out to do it! Your comments and encouragement are so helpful, so thank you :)

Comment by Avyon on September 19, 2008 at 11:20am

Well everyone here has their own ideas of dealing with issues...

One that I've seen work well is teaching your little ones to speak.. have them speak speak speak then say quiet or shush or whatever command you want it to be.. when they shush give them a treat... speak speak speak then shush! then give them a treat.

We now have little treats at our desks and around the house because Roxi had this issue when we moved into our apartment. Though our neighbors never said anything to us. When she starts barking she say the hush command and don't give her a treat till she shushes.

cuz she refuses to learn how to speak for some reason :/