[QUOTE=gigi]
But I’m glad for this thread because I hate to risk starting my own. What is it with dogs and barking at every movement outside? I can completely understand barking at someone coming in the driveway or yard, and certainly someone approaching the house. The dog would be warning the intruder, notifying its owner, prtecting its territory.
But does the darn dog next door have to bark at cars going by all the way down the block? At another dog minding its own business down the street? At the train going by? What are they proving when they do this? If I could understand better maybe it wouldn’t make me so pissed off.
[/QUOTE]
Different barks for different reasons, but mostly it’s because their people aren’t taking care of their needs.
Our dogs bark when they see the neighbor on his deck–one bark to say “someone’s outside, mom.” One of our dogs, Pi, barks at our other neighbor’s dogs–play barks as they run along the fence with each other between times of laying on their respective sides of the fence, apparently doggy communing.
IME, incessant barking is usually a territorial issue–the dog saying “This is my yard, stay out.” It’s because they are doing their “jobs.”
I think this happens more with dogs who are not secure in their territory. For instance, one neighbor’s dog would stand on their second story deck and bark at everyone she could see–letting them know she was on guard. I told them to block off the deck stairs so she couldn’t see everybody and now she barks much less; usually when the weiner dog behind them starts his obnoxious fence running.
The other neighbor has a 4-foot high fence that his Lab rests her front feet on and talks to people walking by–inviting them to play. If you acknowledge her, she stops barking. She only does this when her owners are not home. If they had a 6-foot fence all around the yard, she would only bark when playing with Pi as mentioned above.
We specifically fenced our yard with 6-foot wooden fence all around back yard so our dogs would know their territory–this is where we play, and they get to hang out sometimes by themselves when we are home. Our “dog yard” is a 20 x 20 foot fenced area not bordered by areas accessible to neighbor dogs so they don’t spend all day fence running and barking. This is were the dogs stay when we are both gone and it has shade, fresh water, grass, shelter, etc. The gates are locked so no one can accidently let them out. This helps keep our dogs feeling secure and happy, so they don’t bark much and are not a nuisance to the neighborhood.
IME, most people are unwilling to take the small steps necessary to make their dogs a non-intrusive part of the neighborhood. When we walk our dogs, neighborhood dogs bark from behind their chain link fences; dogs bark at animals they see outside their yards; they fence run and are generally irritating. I love dogs, but the people they live with sometimes suck.
Small dogs seem to bark alot because their people let them. People let small dogs get away with far too much and they are far more dangerous than people think.
