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Neighbours Starting To Renovate - Dog Starting To Bark


skully
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Pebbles (my 11 month old English Stafford) hardly barks at all. I've only ever heard her growl or do small barks if she's with us and she hears someone going past the front door (in our secure complex). So rarely...

Our neighbours over the fence have embarked on an extension and this morning before i left for work i heard her barking in the yard. I can only assume she's reacting to the new noises on the other side of the fence she's never heard. No idea if she will do it during the day (will talk to the neighbour tonight to find out), or if she's only protecting me when i'm home type thing.

any ideas how to nip it in the bud?

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I was wondering if you can keep her in the house while renos go on. My dog is an indoor dog and I go to work 5 days a week and he is inside the apartment. That way your dog gets used to both being left outside and some days being left inside so depending on weather you have more choice. I don't give my dog the run of the house but close selected doors and contain him, which has a settling message. I leave the radio on to buffer sounds and it is on a clasisical station to calm. I also give him his food on my way out... That way you could have the dog on the other side of house inside while noisy renos go on and can return to outside or a mix once they are done.

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One of mine was doing this, we had to keep him inside till the renos were done. Agree with leaving the radio or tv on for noise and just contain her to an area where she can't get into trouble.

:) buy a baby gate and maybe block her off in the laundry?

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Skully -

have you thought of it from her point of view?

She's a shortie, and young/inexperienced, and has NO idea what/who is on teh other side of teh fence!

Not sure if it would work, but have you considered maybe speaking with neighbours/workmen,arming yourself with yummy stuff and taking her next door , where she can see that it is just silly humans making big noise ?

Obviously keep a 'safe' distance ..don't force her near scary things ..but just let her have a look/sniff/listen , and see if that helps?

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My dog had this issue yesterday, barking at workers jack hammering a few meters away from our courtyard.

I gave him a bone which seemed to distract him and now he doesn't care about the noise or the close proximity of the workers. I think he has taken it to mean that when people are working with power tools, good things happen (bones).

This could go the other way, though. A dog might instead believe that the food is a reward for barking.

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Apparently mine barked all day when neighbours at the last house had a builder start. It drove the builder mad. :o

The next day I got my parents to pop around a few times during the day and the dogs were quiet and the builder said they were fine. I think they just got used to it and also were probably very tired from the day befores efforts so were exhausted. Also he said he was more careful not to touch the fence as that set them off even more.

Hopefully yours will be the same.

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Try taking her out and playing a game of tug or ball with her in the back yard whilst the builders are doing their thing. Let her see that you don't care about the noise and disturbance so that she might take a leaf out of your book and ignore them as well.

If you're inside and she's out and you hear her fussing (or see that she's interested in and about to fuss), call her inside to you. When she comes in, go to her "cookie jar" and give her a treat from it. You're rewarding the recall. Shut the door for these initial times, to get her to settle down enough to see and learn that you don't care about the noise from next door. Don't make too big a deal by going overboard with fuss and attention to her though.

There's a bit more to it than this, and doing this only once will most likely not be enough. That, and the fact that you can only teach her there's nothing there to fuss about, when you're home. But it might be worth a try.

Edited by Erny
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