Neighbors Complained: Barking Pyrenees: Please Help!!!
D Foster
We have a problem with a barking pyrenees and we're at our limits. It
has created a very difficult situation with our neighbor.
BACKGROUND
We rescued two dogs from shelters last year. A yellow lab (Jake) who is
about a year old now and a Great Pyrenees (Jess) who is about a year and
a half now. We live in a house with dog door access to a fenced in yard.
CONDITIONS
Both dogs sleep inside with us at night but we were wanting to leave
them outside during the day. The have access through dog doors into the
laundry room when we leave them out. They seem happier that way. In
addition, if we put them inside Jake starts to eat the furniture.
PROBLEM
We have a neighbor who works at home during the day and has been
complaining about Jess's barking. No other neighbors have complained,
and the ones we've asked have said it's not a problem. If we keep the
dogs inside all day, Jake seems to eat things. A half day is about all
he can handle.
ATTEMPTED SOLUTIONS
* Put dogs inside in the afternoon and out in the morning. This has
helped a little.
* Barking Collar. I hated to try this but we didn't know what else to
do. Unfortunatly, she scratches and it turns to be unaffected. We'd like
to try the Citronella maybe, but it's very expensive.
* Put dogs inside all day. Jake gets bored and eats things.
If anyone has any suggestions, please let us know.
Thank You very much,
Darren
Lots42
>PROBLEM
>We have a neighbor who works at home during the day and has been
>complaining about Jess's barking. No other neighbors have complained,
>and the ones we've asked have said it's not a problem. If we keep the
>dogs inside all day, Jake seems to eat things. A half day is about all
>he can handle.
sounds to me like your neighbor has a problem.
My suggestion is to get an auidio tape recorder and tape your dog. If the dog
does NOT bark during the day, and your neighbor says he does, you have nothing
to worry about except your lying neighbor.
If your dog DID bark, well, you got me.
_______________________________________________________
"Are you senile or just trying to stall us?"
"A little from column A and a little from column B."
Victory is life. All the rest is just details.
Daisy
D Foster <dfo...@redhawk.cnchost.com> wrote:
>We have a problem with a barking pyrenees and we're at our limits. It
>has created a very difficult situation with our neighbor.
>BACKGROUND
>We rescued two dogs from shelters last year. A yellow lab (Jake) who is
>about a year old now and a Great Pyrenees (Jess) who is about a year and
>a half now. We live in a house with dog door access to a fenced in yard.
>CONDITIONS
>Both dogs sleep inside with us at night but we were wanting to leave
>them outside during the day. The have access through dog doors into the
>laundry room when we leave them out. They seem happier that way. In
>addition, if we put them inside Jake starts to eat the furniture.
>PROBLEM
>We have a neighbor who works at home during the day and has been
>complaining about Jess's barking. No other neighbors have complained,
>and the ones we've asked have said it's not a problem. If we keep the
>dogs inside all day, Jake seems to eat things. A half day is about all
>he can handle.
>ATTEMPTED SOLUTIONS
>* Put dogs inside in the afternoon and out in the morning. This has
>helped a little.
>* Barking Collar. I hated to try this but we didn't know what else to
>do. Unfortunatly, she scratches and it turns to be unaffected. We'd like
>to try the Citronella maybe, but it's very expensive.
>* Put dogs inside all day. Jake gets bored and eats things.
>If anyone has any suggestions, please let us know.
>Thank You very much,
>Darren
Hi. Most dogs will engage in some sort of boredom and stress
related behavior when they are left outside for periods of time.
Some handle it better than others. Barking is one of the most
common... It's very stressful for a dog to be outside. It's the
perimeter of the den, so to speak, and so he might feel he has to
guard it. And of course there are all those interesting noises
and smells that are just beyond reach -- very frustrating. He
might seem happy to you, but really I think it's sort of hard for
we humans to gauge happiness in a dog. To me it seems that a dog
who spends a lot of his time barking is not usually in a state
similar to what we humans would call "happiness." And of course,
whether being outside barking all day makes him happy or not,
that's really beside the point, since it can't be allowed to
continue.
Most of the regulars that I know from this group don't leave
their dogs outside -- in fact, a lot of the people here don't
even put their dogs outside alone to go potty. Most go with
their dog or at least watch from the window. I go with mine most
of the time. Of course I do not want them barking and annoying
the neighbors, but I also go outside with them to keep them out
of trouble and make sure they are safe. Yards can be very
dangerous. I'm sure you've heard all the horror stories about
dogs who've never done anything odd suddenly one day hanging
themselves by their collars off a corner of the fence, or getting
their legs stuck in a lawn chair and breaking bones, or
whatever... I have a very safe dog run with very high fences but
things still happen there. A branch fell out of a nearby tree
and blew in and my golden ate it -- and eating wood is very
dangerous. And of course there is the chance that some horrible
person will steel your dog or poison him...
And yes, most dogs will find some sort of trouble to get into if
left loose in the house as well... That's sort of a dog's job --
find something interesting to do that usually involves the mouth
or the paws... And just thinking about your two breeds, it seems
quite natural that one would bark too much and one would eat
things. The Pyrenees was bred to guard, and the lab was bred to
retrieve. Makes perfect sense. :-)
So, to keep your dogs safe and your neighbors happy, you can do
one of a couple of things. A. You can get crates for your dogs
and crate train them and keep them in the crates when you can't
watch them. B. You might be able to fix up some dog-proofed
room of your house to leave them in when you are gone. Either
way, they will be inside where they feel more secure and where
they will feel less of a need to bark (and even if they do bark,
it won't be as noticable to your neighbors) *and* they will be
prevented from destroying your house because they won't have
access to it.
I prefer to use crates, since I find them much safer. I have
some gates that I use when I'm home too, but I don't like leaving
them behind the gates when I'm gone since they might try to jump
and hurt themselves. If I had an extra bedroom I'd just empty it
out and make it the dogs' room, but I'd still run the risk that
the walls and floor would be eaten... With a crate, you don't
have to worry about even that. I have crate trained 5 dogs, one
rescue 5 month old pup, one rescue 1.5 year old golden, two who
were already adults when I first crate trained them and one who
was a baby, and they all did fine. All but one actually loves
the crate and voluntarily go to it for quiet time.
As long as you give your dogs plenty of exercise and play time
and training time with you when you get home, being crated is not
a bad thing. Dogs sleep a great majority of their day anyway,
and when crated they generally just sleep and chew a bone and
then sleep some more... There are some tricks to help your dogs
like the crates that you can try. I always give mine a treat to
go in the crate -- at first I toss the treat in while saying
"crate" and then later I say "crate" and give the treat after
they obey and enter their crates. After a couple of months I
back off on the treat-giving, but they still get treats maybe
every other day for going in their crates when I say. They also
are all fed in their crates, which helps them like them. I give
them big Kong toys with treats stuffed in the middle for when I
have to leave them for the day and that keeps them occupied.
'Course, no dog should be crated for too long, regardless of how
much exercise you give him when you return. I would strive to
keep it under 8 hours per day, if possible. I have a couple of
days when mine are crated for 9 hours, but the rest of the week
they are only crated for 5 or so. Various people will have
various opinions about how long a dog can be crated. It's not a
hard and fast science... But I have one very bad barker, who
barks when a leaf falls and the tree looks different, and it's
simply not an option for me to subject my neighbors to his noise.
I personally don't have a problem with "debarking" dogs -- the
surgical procedure that cuts the vocal cords so that their barks
are much, much quieter. I think it should be a last resort,
perhaps, but if the barking becomes such a problem that the dog
is in danger of being given away, then I think the surgery should
be considered as a valid option. I've considered it several
times for my little barker. There are some who would never do
such a thing to their dog, and that's fine with me too, if they
have strong feelings about it. But I can tell you there are a
few dogs in my neighborhood who I wish would get the surgery,
that's for sure. :-)
Good luck,
Daisy
R & D Ryan
Ken M. wrote:
>
> D Foster wrote:
>
> > PROBLEM
> > We have a neighbor who works at home during the day and has been
> > complaining about Jess's barking. No other neighbors have complained,
> > and the ones we've asked have said it's not a problem. If we keep the
> > dogs inside all day, Jake seems to eat things. A half day is about all
> > he can handle.
>
>
> (ken)
> --
>
> =================================================================
> See some sample photos taken with my new Olympus digital camera at:
> http://www.geocities.com/~digitcam/
Well said! If the other neighbors aren't bothered than I would probably
want to tape the dogs while you are away. There is a big difference
between a barking dog and a dog that may bark once or twice every so
often. You seem to have found a happy medium between indoors or outdoors
by giving them access to your laundry room. If this works for you and
the only problem is one complaing neighbor, be sure that your dog is
barking before you take any sort of recourse to stop the dog.
--
-==The Ryan's==-
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Eagles may soar, but weasels
aren't sucked into jet engines.
00drb...@bsuvc.bsu.edu
In article <34FCD6...@redhawk.cnchost.com>,
D Foster <dfo...@redhawk.cnchost.com> wrote:
>We have a problem with a barking pyrenees and we're at our limits. It
>has created a very difficult situation with our neighbor.
I disagree with previous posters who believe the problem lies with the
neighbor and not the dog. Assuming the dog is a nuisancer barker, the
neighbor has a perfect right to a quiet existence: many town's
ordinances will back him/her up on it, and it is the owners'
responsibility to control the behavior of their dog. The neighbors who
do not complain *may* just not want to offend the owners or face a
confrontation.
This said, the definition of "nuisance" is a gray area. The owners
should be commended for trying to find a responsible solution
acceptable to everyone, and they should find out how the dog behaves
when they are not there. A poster's suggestion to tape the dog's
alleged barking is one way, or they could spend some time observing
from a neighbor's house. If the dog *is* a nuisance barker then the
neighbor's problem with the disturbance takes precedence over the
owners' problem with the chewing. I'm sorry that I have no answers for
how to stop the dog from barking or from eating the house when
confined; perhaps consultation with a vet or a professional trainer.
One poster said that the neighbor should "get a life"--the neighbor's
*got* one, and he/she wants to enjoy it. If the dog is not a nuisance
barker, then the owners have a totally different set of problems with
the neighbor. Good luck to the owners in working out a solution.
Donna
Rhodesia
00drb...@bsuvc.bsu.edu <00drb...@bsuvc.bsu.edu> wrote in message
<6dmfe2$q...@wizard.bsu.edu>...
>In article <34FCD6...@redhawk.cnchost.com>,
> D Foster <dfo...@redhawk.cnchost.com> wrote:
>>We have a problem with a barking pyrenees and we're at our limits. It
>>has created a very difficult situation with our neighbor.
>
>I disagree with previous posters who believe the problem lies with the
>neighbor and not the dog. Assuming the dog is a nuisancer barker, the
>neighbor has a perfect right to a quiet existence: many town's
>ordinances will back him/her up on it, and it is the owners'
>responsibility to control the behavior of their dog. The neighbors who
>do not complain *may* just not want to offend the owners or face a
>confrontation.
I'm with you on this one. The original post stated that the neighbor in
question worked the night shift and found it hard to sleep during the day.
Other neighbors may simply not mind the barking, as it occurs while they are
awake. First step would be to confirm that the dog is barking as was
previously stated, but don't assume just because only one neighbor
complained, that the problem was with that person rather than the dog.
[snipped]
If the dog *is* a nuisance barker then the
>neighbor's problem with the disturbance takes precedence over the
>owners' problem with the chewing.
I also agree with this. Depending upon local laws, even one complaining
neighbor, if he/she has proof, could cause the loss of the dog. I'd rather
have a dog that chews things than one that is taken away from me all
together. Also, the chewing problem is probably easier to deal with (i.e.
putting dogs in a room with only appropriate chew items available).
[snipped}
>One poster said that the neighbor should "get a life"--the neighbor's
>*got* one, and he/she wants to enjoy it. If the dog is not a nuisance
>barker, then the owners have a totally different set of problems with
>the neighbor. Good luck to the owners in working out a solution.
>
>Donna
As a person who used to work the overnight shift, I can tell you it was hard
enough to sleep during the day. I certainly did have a "life", contrary to
what that insensitive poster suggested. I worked from 12:00 a.m. to 8:00
a.m., and usually slept from around 9:00 a.m. -5:00 a.m.. Now, most of my
friends and family worked 9-5, so sleeping all day didn't keep me from
seeing them, and I'm kind of a night person anyway, so I actually liked that
shift (although the original adjustment period was rough, and my days off
were kind of hard too at first). Now, personally, I sleep like the dead and
neighbor's dog barking wouldn't likely wake me (neighbor's house blowing up
would probably not wake me!), but if I wasn't such a heavy sleeper, I'm sure
that even though I love dogs, I'd have to do something about this problem.
We did have a nuisance barker about 3 houses away from me, who didn't bother
me, but apparently bothered some other people. The dog was eventually taken
to the pound, and probably put to sleep (I didn't have the heart to ask my
neighbor exactly what happened to their dog).
I think the suggestions to first assess that there is a problem, then work
to correct it are the right one. I also have no suggestions, as I am not a
trainer and my own dog's barking was not a problem for us. I'd have
consulted a professional trainer or behaviorist if it was. I think its
great that the original poster recognized the need to ask for advice, and
hope that he/she tries out some of the suggestion, as a good relationship
with your neighbors is better for all concerned in the long run.
FerengiWif
I agree with the other posters to start by observing / taping the actual
behaviour first, but I'd get hold of a VIDEO recorder rather than just sound.
You may find that something, like a neighbor's cat, the mailcarrier, etc. is
setting off the bark-frenzy. We had a neighbor who hated animals; she used to
poke a rake handle at one of our boys thru the fence. If you find a cause,
perhaps you can eliminate it. Otherwise, why not leave Jake, the non-barking
chewer, outside to run, and keep Jess, the barker, inside? Seems to me it would
make both of them happy
.>* Put dogs inside in the afternoon and out in the morning. This >has helped a
little.
Could you maybe get someone to pet-sit for you? They could let the dogs in &
out, correct the barker for her noise. Any other neighbors with dogs that might
swap daytime dogwatching for you petsitting for them on a weekend or holiday.
There're also 'doggie daycare' centers popping up all over the place, maybe
there's one near you.
Peter Signoretto
I have been trying to cope with our Great Pyrenees constant barking as
well we have tried bark busters $200 down the drain he behaves while
the trainer is there only. We have tried citronella collars he knows
that he can bark constrantly unlil the reservoir is empty. We have
tried spraying him with the hose or water he doesn't mind. It is the
same wether we are at home or away, I am trying to find out about
Prozac for dogs maybe that will correct the problem. Either my wife
or I am at home during the day we take him for regular walks which he
likes, our house backs onto an environmental Park which gives him a
lot to bark at eg. Birds, flying fox's, small marsupials, other people
walking their pets or aeroplanes it does not seem to matter once he
starts to bark he just does not know when to quit. We do not want to
have to resort to surgery, we would appreciate any advise you recieve
as well.
Peter Signoretto 61-7-32777427 v...@ausnet.net.au
D Foster <dfo...@redhawk.cnchost.com> wrote:
>We have a problem with a barking pyrenees and we're at our limits. It
>has created a very difficult situation with our neighbor.
>BACKGROUND
>We rescued two dogs from shelters last year. A yellow lab (Jake) who is
>about a year old now and a Great Pyrenees (Jess) who is about a year and
>a half now. We live in a house with dog door access to a fenced in yard.
>CONDITIONS
>Both dogs sleep inside with us at night but we were wanting to leave
>them outside during the day. The have access through dog doors into the
>laundry room when we leave them out. They seem happier that way. In
>addition, if we put them inside Jake starts to eat the furniture.
>PROBLEM
>We have a neighbor who works at home during the day and has been
>complaining about Jess's barking. No other neighbors have complained,
>and the ones we've asked have said it's not a problem. If we keep the
>dogs inside all day, Jake seems to eat things. A half day is about all
>he can handle.
>ATTEMPTED SOLUTIONS
>* Put dogs inside in the afternoon and out in the morning. This has
>helped a little.
