Ask the Trainer: Dealing with barking

This week, I wanted to reach out and help both owners and neighbours who struggle with living with a barking dog.

Unfortunately, this is often a situation which ends with the involvement of animal control and strained relationships between neighbours.

To attempt to keep harmony within our communities, we must keep the lines of communication open and both parties must be proactive to resolve this issue.

If your neighbours are home, perhaps they are unaware of how to go about training their dog to not bark in excess.

It is important to remember that the basic reason dogs have become such valued companions for us is due to the feeling of security they provide their owners through alerting them to intruders. The household dog can create their own perception of their territory, which may be the front gate or the entire street, depending on the dog.

In my opinion, it is reasonable to allow dogs to release this instinctive need if they are cued by stimuli such as people or pets in their territory.

However a controlled amount of barking should then be halted with a cue from the owner, such as "quiet". If you wish to give this cue yourself, remember to do it in a calm voice at a normal speech level, as shouting "quiet" will be an invitation for the dog's barking to heighten because you are now "barking" with them - game begun.

If this barking is happening while your neighbours are away at work, the simple fact is they will not know the dog is behaving in this way and are unable to correct the behaviour because they are not home at the time.

Take note of when the dog barks and for how long. Be aware that this behaviour does have both visual and sound stimuli.

A loud bang may startle a dog and cause an alarm bark, a visual may be the cause, or you may feel - after looking at the behaviour with fresh eyes, eliminating stimului - that boredom is the cause.

In most cases I deal with, blocking a visual point often resolves the situation, so if you are able to give your neighbour a clear idea of what is happening over a coffee or back fence chat, you will be able to work together to resolve the issue to a point you are happy with.

Paw point of the week

Remember, your neighbour's dog may also help you one day. This has been proven in our own backyard with the alert from our dog coming as soon as our neighbour's window was smashed, preventing any property being removed. Good boy.

Email me for the chance to have your question selected for publication at mutsrus2@gmail.com.