Night Barking At Neighbours

[Mystiqview]

Sometimes saying "good dog" for barking to get them to stop could be (depending on the situation) be rewarding the dog for the bad behaviour.

I don't see it as 'bad behaviour though', not with LGD's anyway. It's simply what they do.

When I say good boy to mine barking, the way I see it, is that Ive acknowledged that they're on to something and I take over from here. It hasn't heightened their barking, it really does work. I've been using this method now after advice from other LGD people and it has really helped over the past year or so. Before, it was excessive and now a quick Good boy stops them and they usually just stand and watch the 'threat' from their initial position or come close to me and watch still.

For the SBT and Pug though, I yell out the window STFU and that works pretty darn quick for them :laugh: The SBT is good and comes back straight away but the Pug was raised with MAremmas and fancies himself as a LGD.

May have been the way I originally read your post. Sorry. From this explanation, you do pretty much as I do with the collies. I acknowledge the bark and then they are quiet. But as Steve said, it also comes down to tone and timing of praise etc.

[JulesP]

If mine are barking at the fence they get a stern STFU. I never tell them off if they bark if people actually enter the property though. That gets a 'good job'. Hopefully they will work out what I want.

[Guest Labradork]

I have never had a problem with barking so I don't have any advice (sorry). I just wanted to say that I have always acknowledged my Labs for barking appropriately. I give the command "It's alright" - meaning Thank you for protecting me but I can handle it.

Also, I have always taught them to bark on command by saying "Who is it?".

Edited November 10, 2012 by Labradork

[Steve]

I have never had a problem with barking so I don't have any advice (sorry). I just wanted to say that I have always acknowledged my Labs for barking appropriately. I give the command "It's alright" - meaning Thank you for protecting me but I can handle it.

Also, I have always taught them to bark on command by saying "Who is it?".

LGDs bark - full stop - its how they work and as they get older they get worse . Sometmes you can control it if you are there but they are bred to determine what is a threat without your help so in suburbia you need to live with it as if it is a child and truly a part of the family and either be close to them all the time or lock em up where they cant see or hear potential threats. training to control it when you are there is a hard ask but trying to find a way of doing that when you are in bed and they are outside is way too hard for me to try to do.

[Guest Labradork]

I have never had a problem with barking so I don't have any advice (sorry). I just wanted to say that I have always acknowledged my Labs for barking appropriately. I give the command "It's alright" - meaning Thank you for protecting me but I can handle it.

Also, I have always taught them to bark on command by saying "Who is it?".

LGDs bark - full stop - its how they work and as they get older they get worse . Sometmes you can control it if you are there but they are bred to determine what is a threat without your help so in suburbia you need to live with it as if it is a child and truly a part of the family and either be close to them all the time or lock em up where they cant see or hear potential threats. training to control it when you are there is a hard ask but trying to find a way of doing that when you are in bed and they are outside is way too hard for me to try to do.

Wow they sound like very demanding dogs. And what a frustrating situation. I would be anxious about neighbours complaining to the council.

I'm looking at buying a larger property and I'm thinking of getting a male Rottweiler. I would prefer a silent, watchful dog than one that is geared for barking. But I don't have livestock.

[Steve]

these guys work brilliantly - you never see livestock or poultry or humans in danger when you have them and they are the best pets ever but just like any breed has its management issues so do these but part of the way they work is by barking . As they get older they work out what is normal coming and going and bark less at what is normal but in suburbia it is a management issue and you need to take that into account - you cant just train them to stop barking ALL OF THE TIME because its part of the breed instincts - so you manage it.

[Guest Labradork]

you cant just train them to stop barking ALL OF THE TIME because its part of the breed instincts - so you manage it.

Personally, I wouldn't want to own a dog like that. I would much rather have a Labrador who gives the occasional bark, as in one single WOOF! :)

ETA

Sorry my quote stuffed up.

Edited November 11, 2012 by Labradork

[Steve]

Personally, I wouldn't want to own a dog like that. I would much rather have a Labrador who gives the occasional bark, as in one single WOOF! :)

yep thats why we have different breeds so we can choose the ones that most fit in with our lifestyle - I don' like Labs and they wouldn't look after my sheep and my goats and my chicken the way the Maremma do so its lucky we all still have choices and get to live with what most suits us.

[Guest Labradork]

Personally, I wouldn't want to own a dog like that. I would much rather have a Labrador who gives the occasional bark, as in one single WOOF! :)

yep thats why we have different breeds so we can choose the ones that most fit in with our lifestyle - I don' like Labs and they wouldn't look after my sheep and my goats and my chicken the way the Maremma do so its lucky we all still have choices and get to live with what most suits us.

Yes thank goodness we have choices. And it all depends on what purpose the dog was bred for. My Lab is an outrageously spoilt furkid who has never seen a farm animal in her life. She would be useless to you - she might even eat your chickens :)

[Clyde]

Wow they sound like very demanding dogs.

Quite the opposite IMO. I've had a lot of different breeds and Maremma are by far the easiest I've had. Very low maintenance provided you get their way of thinking and work with it, rather than against it. Rottweilers are far more challenging in my experience.

[Steve]

Wow they sound like very demanding dogs.

Quite the opposite IMO. I've had a lot of different breeds and Maremma are by far the easiest I've had. Very low maintenance provided you get their way of thinking and work with it, rather than against it. Rottweilers are far more challenging in my experience.

Me too . They suit me right down to the ground.

[Jed]

I have only owned 1 LGD, but as he reached the teenage barking years I determined that I could not live with a dog who barked all night.

He was barking for a reason - foxes out of my hearing, owls, rodents, kangaroos, aliens, all sorts of things. He lived outside. When he barked, I would determine that there was nothing obvious, and go to him and correct him. I did this every single time he barked (and that might have been 5 times a night),

I figured he didn't know what was dangerous, and what was not, so was giving everything equal attention. He only needed to learn what was dangerous.

He finally learned what not to bark at, and never barked "inappropriatelY" after that, whether he was inside or outside.

It took a lot of patience and effort, but it was worth it. And it can be done.

Edited November 13, 2012 by Jed

[Chris the Rebel Wolf]

I have only owned 1 LGD, but as he reached the teenage barking years I determined that I could not live with a dog who barked all night.

He was barking for a reason - foxes out of my hearing, owls, rodents, kangaroos, aliens, all sorts of things. He lived outside. When he barked, I would determine that there was nothing obvious, and go to him and correct him. I did this every single time he barked (and that might have been 5 times a night),

I figured he didn't know what was dangerous, and what was not, so was giving everything equal attention. He only needed to learn what was dangerous.

He finally learned what not to bark at, and never barked "inappropriatelY" after that, whether he was inside or outside.

It took a lot of patience and effort, but it was worth it. And it can be done.

I am very impressed Can I be nosy - what breed? What training method/correction were you using?

Aliens :D

[Steve]

Even without correction mine learn what is normal and as they get older they don't bark as much at the things that usually occur but they bark more at the things which are out of the ordinary. Mine - by the time they are about. a year old only bark when its serious they go through a stage between about 6 months and then where they bark more often.But my adults which are out all night with stacks of different sounds don't bark much at all. The ones which are in the house yard rarely bark of a night at all and the one in the house never does but Im not in suburbia and I've got Maremma.

[mixeduppup]

I live at the edge of semi-suburbia and have a 3 year old maremma. He has never been a big barker but he went through a stage at about a year old when he just barked at everything once it got dark, he quickly worked out that if he did that he got locked up earlier so he got more discerning. Now he's 3 and he only barks if we have visitors, at strange cars that stop outside and foxes. He also chases birds out of the yard all the time and may bark once or twice at them.

[eyeopener]

LGD's seem to respond better to praise, sounds silly but they're just doing their job. If we tell Mo to be quiet he ignores us but if we say good boy he stops :laugh:

Espinay taught me this trick. It confuses the heck out of my dogs so they stop :laugh:

I dont have any helpful hints about Maya but I think whatever you choose to do to prevent it, you'll have your work cut out for you. All my dogs go nuts at my neighbour who drives up and down his driveway numerous times a day. They have met the neighbour and accept him when he visits, but when he drives past our property they all tell him off. I am lucky as the only person who hears it is me, but I dont think I'd have a hope in hell in getting them to stop anyway.

Does she sleep inside at night?

Could you introduce your neighbours to your dog?

Fonz's bark is much more half hearted at the girl next door walking down her driveway, as he knows her well, but her older brother he really goes off at as he never visits here.

I agree with the praise comment as this works with TM s too but when in town I found the only real way to stop night barking was to bring them in of a night.