Dog problem

In My Humble Opinion
1

We have a lovely 14 month old crossbreed, female and neutered. She has a delightful disposition, and the sweetest girl ever. Mostly.

There is a dog next door who barks maniacally whenever anybody makes a noise here. Doing our dishes, opening a door, next door doggo goes ballistic.

Now when our girl was younger, she didn’t take any notice of Mister Barky McBarkface. But in recent weeks, she’s taken the challenge…and is VERY aggresively barking back and growling at next-door dog.

It’s a shit. Our pupper is strong and can pull her lead out of my hand (she never goes outside except on a lead) but ends up running up and down the fenceline threatening to annihilate the other dog. It’s distressing to watch.

The poor dog next door is kept outside from app 6am until 7pm, unattended and prone to barking. As we live in an apartment, I take our girl down at app 5am for a wee before the drama starts.

Apart from shooting the dog next door, or leaving a poison, any suggestions??

2

Notify the neighbor, notify your management, and notify animal control. Not necessarily in that order. Unattended noisy animals are violating the law in most jurisdictions.

3

Addressing the problem with the neighbor would generally be viewed as a proper first step, but from what I’ve seen, people who neglect their dogs and create such situations are notoriously resistant and hostile to having their behavior addressed.

A goal should be avoidance of having both a neighbor dog problem and a neighbor feud.

4

As a less agressive move… maybe let them meet each other in a neutral place? Like a nearby park?

My familiy had a dog that would race up and down the fence, furiously barking at his rival on the other side. Both studiously ignoring the open gate that would actually allow them to physically fight.

Outside his .territory he was quite friendly with the rival dog

5

I’m trying to understand how you both live in an apartment AND have a neighbor whose dog is outside all day. By definition, apartments don’t have backyards …

If I’m understanding at all correctly, though, and these thoughtless assholes inconsiderate neighbors live in the same apartment complex as you, then I would speak to management as a starting point.

6

My experience has been somewhat different. I have no experience w/ HoAs, which might have stricter rules. The non-HoA suburbs/towns in which I am aware of the law generally had provisions such as “barking for longer than 20 minutes.” The OP did not say the neighbor dog barked for 20 minutes after hearing a sound. From experience, I can tell you that even 5 minutes of barking seems an eternity. Plus, the ordinance turns you into an idiot with a stopwatch and a recorder, trying to make a case. When you believe all that ought to be needed is some reasonableness - both by the neighbor and the cops/municipality.

In short, IMO this can be a horrible situation, with no ready resolution other than moving. I have a nephew who recently did that. He did not have a dog, but his 2 small children could not play in their yard without the 2 large neighbor dogs (shepherd and pit-like mix) barking and throwing themselves against the fence. The neighbor thought my nephew should be thankful that his dogs were keeping the neighborhood safe!

The other part of the equation is the OP’s dog’s behavior. Same answer. I have a dog, and understand the appreciation of letting it enjoy your fenced yard without behaving like a maniac. I do not know how you would be able to untrain such behavior in your dog.

Really sucks to have shitty neighbors.

On edit - I missed the part about the apartments. I cannot visualize how that works.

7

Call in a noise complaint.
You’re neighbors won’t like it.

Crossed fingers they’ll take it seriously.

Then call animal control about animal neglect.
They’ll like that less.

Next is law enforcement.
Who, I assume, hate dog calls.
Good luck with that.

It’s a crappy situation.

(Bark collar? I think they’re cruel. But people use them)

8

Good resource:

I mentioned elsewhere that I am dying as an indirect result OF barking dogs and a horribly failed effort to resolve the issue.

IME, @Jackmannii and @Dinsdale are both right: there are basically three kinds of people who own nuisance barkers: 1) Those who truly don’t know and are grateful and responsive when politely informed (unicorns in the wild); 2) Those who don’t really know but also don’t really care (whether or not they respond reasonably is a coin toss); 3) Those who are simply negligent dog owners and antisocial assholes who will make your life a living hell simply for raising the issue without regard to how ‘well,’ ‘properly,’ ‘civilly,’ ‘delicately,’ ‘neighborly,’ or ‘appropriately’ you raise it.

And it’s very difficult to know what kind you’re dealing with in advance. It’s even harder to unring the bell if and when you take that first step.

And if you stepped into a very tribal neighborhood late to the party, and you’re the new kid on the block, your position is radically worse.

There are no end of these stories out there. Generically, they’re not much different from the myriad non-pet-related Neighbors From Hell tales.

But it’s a misery. You have my sympathies.

9

I just read your whole story. To the end
Holy cow man.

I knew you had a backstory. I just didn’t know all of it.

If that’s not proof of real injustice, I don’t know what is.

I still hope you find some joy… I hurt for you.

10

For those curious about the physical set up, yes, I live in an apartment complex (2 storey, two buildings, 14 apartments in all) that faces one street. Running along the rear of the complex is a long paling fence that we share with the dog owner who lives in a fully detached house that faces onto a different street.

The entrance to our apartment is from just askew of the dividing fence

11

That’s kinda how I pictured it.

I’m not sure what a paling fence is. Is it solid?

What kinda of fence separates the dogs?

12

It’s a wooden fence, with ‘palings’ app 3" wide and app 6’ high. It runs the width of their property, which is approximately 100’.(their property is wider than it is deep). Unfortunately the palings have gaps between them app 1/2" wide, so the dogs can actually see each other.

13

Oh. I see.

Try talking to the neighbors. I’m not hopeful it will help. But just maybe y’all could figure out something.
Be very gentle. Explain your dog is young. And at fault(even if not) as well.
Good luck.

14

We have a similar problem with our next door neighbor’s dog. We both live in houses. We have a fenced in area for our dogs and the neighbors have their dog on a pulley tie-out system. The dogs can see each other. Our German Shepherd and the neighbor’s dog (looks like a husky/shepherd mix) would happily bark at each other 24 hours a day if we let them. Sometimes it’s just regular barking and sometimes it sounds vicious. The neighbors will yell at their dog, which doesn’t do much. We use a water gun. After our dog was squirted a few times, all I have to do is pick it up and he shuts up and runs to the door. But until he sees the water gun, he will bark.

15

I suggest in the meantime you work with your dog to get her past the aggression/obsession with this other dog.

My dog has leash aggression meaning that he can hang with any dogs most any time but when he’s on a leash (when we’re walking) he loses his shit when we’re within 20’ of another dog. So walking past dogs in their own yards has been a challenge, let alone passing other dogs on the street.

We went to training at the local Humane Society to specifically work on this. I have to load up on treats when we walk and when another dog walks by, we stop and I get him to focus solely on me by telling him “watch me” and giving treats slowly (I have big crunchy treats that I break apart so there’s a lot of fumbling around to watch).

When we walk past a barky dog in their own yard, we cross to the far side of the street (to give a buffer) and I talk to Grady and let him know that it’s ok, he’s a good boy, the other dog is a good boy, and I’m here and It’ll be ok. Once we’re past the offending dog, he gets treats.

It took a LOT of constant work but he’s tons better. He can walk by dogs in yards without incident. Crossing dogs on the street is still a problem for him but he can focus quite well on treats. Used to be that he would start losing his shit just coming up to one yard, even if the dog isn’t there. Now we can walk by that yard and the dog can run up and start barking and he doesn’t even flinch.

So I would suggest trying this on a leash by your fence, both inside the yard and outside. Let her hear the dog barking, get her attention with treats, and have her sit and take the treats while the dog barks away. Lots and lots of praise and reassurance. Let her know that you know that the other dog is there and it’s all good, you have it handled.

I’ve found that in my neighborhood at least, when my dog ignores the other dog, the other dog eventually stops. I’ve trained them all :slight_smile:

ETA the way the Humane Society trainer explained it is that the stuff my dog was doing was coming from immediate innate Beast Mode reaction, and by giving the treats you are able to divert the reaction from being Beast Mode to Happy Time Treat Mode.

Oh yeah, also, he walks with a Freedom Harness to help me manage him better when he’s losing his shit. Everything else he has been able to escape out of.

16

This is hugely important. AIUI many dogs get neurotic (snappy, barky, etc.) because they feel like they have to be the alpha, protect their human, and generally be in charge. I mean, somebody has to, right?

It was explained to me that doing things like walking first out the door when going for walks demonstrates that you’re the one scouting for possible danger, and that - as ZipperJJ stated - you got this, and doggie can rest easy knowing you’re the one in charge.

17

I had one of those for my Weimeraner/German Shorthaired Pointer when he was a pup.

I irritated my wife by referring to it as his BDSM outfit, but it did work. He is a profoundly stupid dog, but he was able to learn.

He moved on to a normal harness when I ran with him. Now in his dotage he walks very slowly with just a lead.

My other dog, a German Shorthaired Pointer cross farm dog of no discernible ancestry, is fine with a normal harness or a lead. She’s several sigmas ahead of him on the dog IQ scale (if such a thing exists)

18

You are obviously a wonderful dog owner. IME it can be SO challenging to change such undesirable behaviors. And I admit that at times w/ different dogs we have lacked sufficient follow-through.

19

Why do I keep imagining something like this:

20

I mean, I worked hard but we’ve been working on it constantly for 9 years and he still has issues so I could have been better and less lazy myself.

The OP might not get any fast resolution from the neighbors, if at all, so they’re going to have to work on the thing they do have control of. And that is helping their dog feel better about the whole situation, which may be their permanent situation.