Barking dog

[chazza]

What is the most humane way of stopping a dog barking quickly? Neighbours of ours have wrongly accused our dog of barking all the timeand we know it wasn't ours as we weren't there at the time and neither were the dogs!

I would like something to show that we are taking steps to keep him quiet and prove that the barking is still going on and is therefore someone else's dog, but don't want to hurt our dog!

[B00]

Can you not just pop round to your neighbours with your dog whilst the other dog is still barking?

I'm sure that they'll realise it's not yours doing it when it's stood by your side.

[chazza]

No, I don't know who it was that made the complaint

[Schutzengel]

Who told you there was a complaint?

[lankeela]

Stick a notice on your gate/fence/door saying 'to whoever complained please note it is NOT our dog that is barking'
or words to that effect.

If you are there with it, a water pistol is a good way of interrupting whatever it is they are barking at, but if you are not there you need to remove any triggers. I leave my curtains pulled on the french doors as they look through these and bark at the birds. I put a post box on the outside of the house as they will bark when the postman or anyone puts something through the letter box. I also put a rude note on the door saying visitors were not welcome without appointment (especially Jehovas Witnesses, Gas/Electric salespeople and other unidentified nutters. This has cut down the number of callers when I am not there. I had one neighbour who complained so much the council put in sound monitoring equipment, and they found out it was not my dogs at all, they were not barking for any length of time or at unsociable hours. I do agree though it puts you on edge and you tend to jump on them at the slightest bark.
Got good neighbours now, who are happy that our houses won't get broken in to!

[chazza]

Thanks but my dog is in a large run in the back garden during part of the day when we are at work (he is walked for hours a day by a relative so he is not even there all day) so a water pistol would not work as I am not there during the day to do it!

[madmaggot]

You seem from what you have said to be doing it right, ie giving the dog plenty of exercise and not leaving them alone for long periods. I think you should state this calmly to your neighbours and then just take no notice.
If they report it and you get an inspector round the dogs won't be there anyway so that will prove that it is not them barking.