pseckman- dachies do tend to do thisI'm afraid- I have one myself and at our last house he was continually running outside to bark at the neighbours- nothing to do with being left outside for long periods, he certainly never was. He never does it at my present house- I think the problem often stems if they can hear you but can't see you and if your gardens have a high fence that they run to. When we moved we put up a low fence along our path so he can't get to the part where the neighbours are, if that makes sense. As I say, often if they can see the person they won't bark. Also, they do grow out of it- it tends to be a young dog thing. I wish I'd have had neighbours who wanted to make friends with us like you- their children used to shout abuse at my dog from their garden. I know it's annoying but it might also be upsetting for the dog-owners too- I got extremely anxious and depressed when we had this and felt afraid to let my dog go outside so tread carefully. It would be much better for them if they'd let you befriend their dogs as once they get used to seeing you I bet this problem would stop.