Originally Posted by
PennyQuilts
I was once told that if you have a barking dog and want to know if their bark is bothering your neighbors, don't ask the neighbors if the bark "bothers" them. They'll typically hedge and it can lead to a bad situation. The suggestion was made that you should ask your neighbors if they could "hear" your dog barking and then track down when and how often it was happening.
I am a big dog lover and it is very hard to be objective about your dogs. My heart dog used to have the most ghastly bark and I worried that she was bothering people. I don't know what I would have done if someone had complained because, frankly, I have no idea how I would have been able to stop her barking when I wasn't home. I'd have moved, swear to god, before I would have given her up.
And that gets back to the situation at hand and trying to seek a resolution. If there is a question of whether the dogs are actually barking, that is a question of fact. Perhaps they really aren't being a nuisance but you won't know that if you really don't know how much they are barking when they are left alone. You need that information if you want to fight the accusation. Anyway to record them? It is hard to prove a negative, unfortunately.
And on the other hand, assuming the dogs really are being a nuisance, I would be at a loss how to deal with it. It isn't fair to disturb your neighbors and if your dogs or kids or the like are being unceasingly unpleasant, that's not fair. It isn't being a good neighbor.
Shock collars have limited value. Setting aside that I don't like them - I don't see how they could be used to train a dog to not bark when he doesn't bark unless you're gone. Shocking them when you are home and they are barking at the door or when they are playing with you is just mean and useless to teach them to not bark during the day - possibly out of boredom.
I don't mean to be negative. Looks to me like if you DO have barking dogs, it is going to take more than just getting the neighbor to overlook it. Perhaps you could look into a dog behavioralist but, again, getting dogs who are used to barking to stop when you aren't there to keep them from doing is a trick. Doggie day care? That would be pretty pricey. Do you have a friend who could keep your dogs during the day?
What kind of dogs are they? How old?
Don't mean to be pessimistic. This is a situation that I feared would happen with my own dog.
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