Barking is offending the neighbours---

[Superscout]

Originally Posted by Anja1Blue

In your original post you asked for a "workable solution." We have given it to you, but it's clear from your reponse that you probably aren't going to act on it. If your dog is outside for "several hours" as you yourself stated, and is making enough noise to prompt complaints from neighbors, and the involvement of Animal Control, I think this IS irresponsible. Your dog may love being outside, but he is apparently making a complete nuisance of himself. (You can check to see just how much he is barking by leaving a tape recorder running while you and your wife are gone - people who have done this are either shocked when they hear the racket, or find out (rarely) that their neighbors are overstating the case.) I don't know what the laws are where you live, but in Denver 2 complaints to AC about barking from 2 separate households will land you in court.
__________________________________________________ _
Susan

Anja SchH3 GSD
Conor GSD
Blue BH WH T1 GSD - waiting at the Bridge

Interesting take on my comments, Susan.
I was thanking all of you for your suggestions and I don't believe that I stated that I would not act on them.
I do believe the neighbours are correct that he barks at them when they are out it their respective yards. When my Wife or I hear him, we bring him in immediately. As for when we are gone, he may very well be spending more time inside in his kennel.

[AbbyK9]

Yes, we have been using a "bark" collar for nearly a year now. It helps a bit but he figures out how to shake his head enough for the collar to move away from his vocal chords thus not delivering the "shock" when he barks...

If your dog is able to move his collar by shaking his head, the collar is not fitted properly. The collar should be tight enough that it cannot be dislodged by simply shaking the head or running.

He has no desire to leave or try to jump the fence nor dig under. the gate has been inadvertently left open twice now and he just walks out and into the garage and waits to come inside.

Just because he has not previously done it does not mean he may not do it in the future. He's a young dog and, right now, the barking appeases him when he's bored or lonely. Down the road, it may not. He may choose to start to dig instead. Or start to escape.

we are not irresponsible neighbours and leave him outside barking for hours

If he is outside unsupervised for a couple of hours while you are all gone, why do you think that he does not bark for those hours while you're away? He may be barking for twenty minutes or he may be barking for the two hours you are gone - unless you are there, you do not know.

Obviously, there has been enough barking outdoors that your neighbors felt so annoyed and upset with it that they called Animal Control. This should give you some pause for thought. It means your neighbors are very unhappy with you due to a situation that you have created (leaving your dog outside where he's bored and barking). That is irresponsible. IMHO. And it's not being a good neighbor.

[Holmeshx2]

I have to agree that if I was the neighbor I'd go insane. You might have one annoying neighbor that calls from the occasional bark it does happen however if its been more then one neighbor that has complained to you and AC then yeah its definitely a problem. With us just having Jinx I have had numerous neighbors now (including one whos house is attached to ours) that said they didn't know we even had a dog we do not allow constant barking at all. Right now with both our dog and the foster pup there has been more barking then usual (them playing and fighting with each other, one throwing a fit when the other one gets taken outside, pup being ticked off shes in a crate etc..) while we do our best to quiet it instantly we have never let it go on for more then a couple minutes and I have gone to all of our neighbors within a few houses each direction and across the street let them all know the situation and apologize for the barking and let them know we are working on it and training and gave them all some baked goods (cookies and brownies) as a bit of a peace offering. No one has complained everyone was rather understanding and many of them said they hadn't even heard anything. While I don't mind hearing a dog bark some if it's longer then 5-10 minutes straight i start getting aggravated because there is no reason to let it go on that long without attempting to stop it or if I hear the owner come outside and try to silence the dog I hav more patience.

No offense but if you were my neighbor and I saw the dog outside barking like a fool and knew no one was home I'd be down right ticked off. Maybe try going to the neighbors apologize let them know you are working on a solution to fix it and ask them to let you know when hes barking and how long etc.. maybe bring a peace offering to try and fix things with the neighbors. Sometimes even the most ticked off person will calm down and give you some slack if they know you are aware its a problem and are working on fixing it.

Also I think people are suggesting you don't care about whats been recommended because everything recommended and required to fix this you have told people not to tell you and tell everyone thats not the reason for the behavior. One of those cases of excuses are like backsides everyone has one... of course you can sit there and combat everything and have an excuse of WHY you can't do something however, you don't have many options in this case there are a few sure ways to fix the problem but you said you don't want those answers. Also, you can hire a behaviorist as well however they will tell you many of the same things and if you won't do them you might as well not spend the money but if you want to its your dollar.