hi i am having serious problems

it all started when i got my first 2 sbt, the neighbours dogs(adults) were being very angry towards my 2 little ones through the front fence which has gaps around 10cm wide, it kinda scared my two, this behaviour happened loads of times, so i stoped letting them out the front and kept them in the back where the gaps in the fence were only around 1cm, this is when it all got out of hand, my two would be gobby through the fence at the neigbours, obviously felt safer, but now they are adults and their bark is very furious, they cant hurt each other through the fence but its so annoyying, i know the neigbours think mine are vicious because of this, now my two youngsters are copying my adults,

question is do i let them bark it out or do i keep stopping them? i dont tell them off but sometimes i have to grab them to get them in the house, i do feel as though im being too rough with them but once i try to get one away the other runs back so i have to grab them,

its mainly the biggest puppy and the male that do it, my other two are very obedient and as soon as they see me they run in the house,

please help me and my neigbour before we get complaints from other neigbours

> question is do i let them bark it out or do i keep stopping them?

Stop them. We can't control other people's dogs but it's up to us to control our own, with some work (distraction/positive reward) you should be able to get your dogs to ignore the other dogs. Failing that, get some solid fencing/fill in all gaps so your dogs can't see the others and don't leave your dogs unatended in the garden. The more chance they get to bark/react to the other dogs, the more likely it will become a habit.
I have barky dogs next door, my dog doesn't bother atall, the only time he looks at them with interest is when they start howling.

On our walk we pass a garden with 2 dogs in, they go mental at all passers by, throwing thierselfs at the fence and pushing thier muzzles underneath to try to see out, this made my dog exited the first time we passed them, so our I started an  'exercise' on our walks which entailed Buster having to sit calmly paying no attention to the dogs, when he looks at me he gets a treat, that worked very well and now we're at the stage where I don't make him sit, as soon as he hears the dogs he looks at me for a treat and walks 'nicely' :) (the idea behind this is to teach your dog that barky/growly/manic dogs behind fences means your dog has to be calm & it's more rewarding to pay attention to you)

ETA, don't shout at your dogs (temping when they are being noisy & you can't be heard), it defeats the object of teaching them that the other dogs are not worth reacting too.

Keep stopping them. As soon as they start barking bring them indoors. If necessary let them out only one at a time so they can't set each other off and wind each other up.

Just because your neighbour's inconsiderate doesn't mean you have to sink to his/her level.

I'd put up a solid fence.

This really does work, now my dog only barks to be let in when he's in the garden, as he knows that is the result of barking in the garden. He used to be a right pain: barking at birds, someone making a funny noise in a neighbouring garden,and sometimes just for the fun of barking, I suspect. Also, I agree wholeheartedly about not shouting, as i think the dog just thinks you are getting excited and joining in with his barking. I just calmly call him in if he barks (he is allowed a quick warning to cats or whatever, just not allowed to really go for it and make a nuisance of himself).

I have a similar problem. When she first arrived my neighbours dog tried to attack mine through the fence (she's a rescue) and one of mine took great offence at this. Mine was extremely hormonal as she was pregnant at the time. 2 years on and I still have a problem with her, but not as bad. We have come to an agreement that we check the gardens before letting the dogs out, though we do have moments when we get it wrong ;-) I don't enjoy my garden with the dogs as I used to, but I don't allow the barking - never have. Any barking and they are straight back inside. It is now my bitch that starts the argument, the neighbours bitch will just stand and watch. My others will give a quick bark before looking at me and walking away from the fence. I tried to put a solid barrier against the fence to see if that would stop her (before spending money on a fence) but she just stood up with her front feet on the fence to look over it :-( It isn't a major problem to us though as we live in the countryside and don't have many neighbours. If I was in a more populated area I would sort it out.

so do you have 4 sbt's?

I would put up a solid fence at least a foot inside the present one and then set about stopping my dogs barking, may be letting them out one at a time would help or calling them in the moment they do bark.

I have the same problem with two of mine, the gobby ones! We have a staffy on both sides of the fence and they do yap a lot especially through the little gaps which I keep hammering bits of wood on to block but the staffy on the lefthand side keeps making more holes (fence looks like a patchwork quilt!) I have conifers and plants in front of them to try and hide the 'scenery' but it doesn't stop him from barking all friggin day long - dreading the summer months. Anyway, I've found that if I bring mine in as soon as it kicks off its not long before the neighbour gets annoyed with his own dog doing the barking and so once he is back indoors I can let mine out again.
Trouble is my two (out of the four) know exactly where to look and will bark as soon as they go out, like they are warning him of their presence, so I say 'enough' and bring them straight back in, letting them out a few moments later and repeat until they go out without looking for him. If the neighbour's dog starts the barking I quietly call mine back in, I just rattle the 'treat' jar. This also works when we are all in the garden and his starts barking, I just let mine know I have treats and if they don't run, jump and bark at the fence they get rewarded and soon enough he takes his back in then mine can carry on lazing in the sun :)

yup, they are the nicest little things but that bark of theirs is so ferocious, and i know that ppl who live nearby think my dogs are viscious because of this

i think this is my best option really, thank you all for your replys

thankyou i will give this one a go, im sure ill get there, it got so bad one day that i left mine out, i was so peeved because the neigbours son left theires out so i thought id do the same, but i soon gave up and got them in, thankyou for your advice, im going to start it now,

poor you, i know how it feels as well two years ago our old neighbour passed away he used to have a dog many moons ago,so he liked dogs he was lovely.Then his house was sold to a couple who had a 18 month old Alaskan Malamute he was a really big boy,the day they were moving in i was walking up the path i said hello etc.to one of the men and oh by the way i have three Boxers his face went white he had moved next to me with no idea i had any dogs to say it was a nightmare was a understatement they left their dog in the garden all the time,i had to keep shouting over the fence to get their dog in before mine could go out as they had years of going in and out when they wanted now they had to be restricted i am not saying that my dogs are perfect but the malamute had attacked so many dogs near us so i was scared every time i opened the door, the only time i felt safe was when i saw it go on his walk.We have a six foot high fence and when my dogs and the malamute all jumped at the fence i thought it would come down every time so OH got some 4ft panels and banged them in against the other panels so it was double thickness though it looks horrible but gets covered with plants in summer.Anyway i think they got fed up with all the getting the dog in and the fighting that it was having on its walks they moved it was like a weight being lifted.i would try the treat method but its not just one dog you have so they all want loo times at different times i really feel for you,if you can put some fencing up like ours it did give a little bit more peace of mind good luck.

well we have just ordered a run for during the day, for the opposite end of the yard and were going to try 7ft bamboo screening trebbled up, so my yard can still look ok, well see. lol

> i would try the treat method but its not just one dog you have so they all want loo times at different times

I have four debby :) and at this very moment (lovely sunny day) the back door is open and its two in, two out, three out, one in, three in, one out, all four out :) if one kicks off barking they will all join in. I will just rattle the treat jar, shout 'sweeties'  move out of the way for the stampede and close the back door. Easy.....honest :)

*now, if only I could teach the neighbours* ;)

LOL missie I shout 'sweeties' too and they all run in !!

I have a neighbour who had an old lab who didnt bother about my 3 beardies and vice versa when he was PTS they got a 6m old lab who is like a live wire.
I feel sorry for him sometimes as he peeps over the fence watching my 3 play together but one of my girls hates him I think its because he is black, she is fine as long as he doesnt try looking over the fence , we think our girl is protecting our youngest anyway I digress...we have a very  large garden 5 fences are 6 ft but  the rest are 4 ft one day I looked out of the window and the lab was running around our garden flinging the dogs toys around having a ball I was shocked but realised he had climbed onto a bench they had at the bottom of thier garden and jumped over (luckily the end near our house is fenced off for a dog area and my girls were in the house)  this concerned me so hubby and I nipped out and bought heavy trellis to make the rest of the fences 6 ft. Our expense even though it was thier dog who jumped the fence.
That evening the wife came bouncing to my door complaining about the trellis (it looked nice) asking what has she done to me ..how stupid is she I have 3 girls she has one young 'entire' boy. I explained to her my reasons which she finally accepted but has hardly spoken to me since.
When her boy is out I also call mine in , if they bark I tell them once to be quiet if they continue they go in .

My hubby has also strengthened the fences with 2x2 across the middle of the panels  once its stained it looks ok.

That's my fear aswell Ronnie, I have 3 intact girls here and two boys either side of the fences. Ok, one is a little too old to try fence climbing but the other (the noisiest one mentioned earlier ;) ) is about a year old so my garden must smell as sweet as roses to him! I've had two of them in season these past weeks so had to be extra vigilant - good job I brought 7 bags of fish4dogs treats at crufts! AND I have wonky trellis on the top of the 5ft fence - well it shouldn't be wonky but OH is no DIY expert :-p 

my hubby is a joiner and screwed the trellis in so its tight and stable its also double thickness and the neighbour has moved the table back LOL

Oh to live in a rural area without neighbours!!! bit difficult in the suburbs of Liverpool !!

> Oh to live in a rural area without neighbours

My dreams exactly *sigh*

you could see if giving them a soaking does any good? well a squirt of water rather than a literal soaking

Barking in the garden in my house is simply unacceptable for whatever reason, and the dogs are taken indoors immediately.  Unless we live on a desert Island we owe it to our neighbours.

There are dogs next door, but due to this policy I have never had an issue, and next doors when they were pups soon got bored with trying to bark at mine and any of my new pups son learnt to ignore the neighbours too.

As for gaps in fences it is always best to ensure that at vision height at least fences are solid so these problems don't ever start.

It will take a while to break this bad habit, but it can be done, but you must be absolutely consistent.

It may mean putting the dogs on a line when going outside, perhaps only letting one out at a time and instantly pulling on the lien and getting the dog in if it barks, ans so on with each.

I would not leave your dogs outside unattended, a dog run won't stop them barking.

iv started this process, thwy had a go today through the fence, (7ft) i said biscuits and 3 of them came in ,it was the bigger puppy that stayed at the fence so i just picked her up and brought her inside, i did give her a treat once inside, i just hope this works,

please still feel free to give advice and i can keep posted with my progress

thanks sami x x x

if my lot bark its in the house they go but i dont have neighbours with dogs and none of them would have dogs either which i dont understand but each to there own
but i respect my neighbours not everyone likes to hear dogs bark!!!
but on days there is no one around i shake a treat tub and when all eyes are on me and everyone is quite they get a treat so i am hoping this training works ad when the summer comes the treat tub comes in handy LOL

My neighebours idea of excercisig her dog is to let it in the back garden!!!  Its there most the time. it barks, snarls and bounces at the fennce whenever me or my dog go into my garden, she makes no attempt to control it!!  I know its not the dogs fault it has a terrible owner but I have been tempted to spray it with the hose pipe :-)

>but I have been tempted to spray it with the hose pipe 

im tempted to do this when my neighbours children stand on top of the climbing frame and peer into my garden

I would by accident ;)

Using the treat reward for quiet and bringing in for barking methods, that have been fully explained before. have really helped me. I have difficulties teaching mine what is 'good' to bark at [nasty kids kicking balls etc on fence/ throwing stones over and being generally horrible] against being good natured dogs.  I live next to a thouroughfare - lot og dogs, kids, adults going past and it's difficult to to teach my girls what to bark at and what not.  I try to use - what is it? - 'Thank-you - it's Ok' then bring them - or the one of them not quietning- in.
Next door have a fabulous Rottweiler - Heidi sometimes barks and chews at the fence [open slatted] at him, he sometimes barks at us - I've used treats and making all of them sit and talking to them to encourage good relations - mine get a treat AFTER sitting, being quiet, and the Rottie getting a treat. Being good around him is GOOD.  Sometimes, especially when grooming mine on our picnic bench, the Rottie barks for a treat - he knows they're out and about- the treats that is - he always knows when my girls are!

> Barking in the garden in my house is simply unacceptable for whatever reason, and the dogs are taken indoors immediately.  Unless we live on a desert Island we owe it to our neighbours.

I have to say I disagree with this.  I don't agree with constant barking but I have been allowing my pup to bark (as a rottie it is only a couple of woofs at a time) as I feel he is a deterrant to burglars and he alerts me to anyone in the vicinity that shouldn't be there. 

He lets out a few woofs when anyone is in the 3 surrounding gardens and if anyone comes up my path.  I don't see a problem in that, given the amount of break-ins in the area and that I have a staffy who has never really found her woof.

A woof or two is fine, but barking at another dog is different. Especially if the dogs want to kill one another. As I have already mentioned I have one that really hates my neighbours dog. The others are fine with her. In fact they will sit or stand and sniff one another, but this one has her hackles up and will run up and down the fence snarling. The bitch next door is now fine with all my others, but will also run up and down the fence snarling and barking. These 2 girls just hate one another. I am now starting to get really annoyed with my neighbours as they aren't coming out and stopping this. I immediately put my bitch in doors, but what do you do when the other party doesn't take control? If I know she is out then my bitch is kept on a lead so therefore doesn't get the full use of a decent sized garden. I have tried treats, but my girl is far more interested in this bitch. It is fast becoming a fixation.

Lindylou, I agree with you and I wouldn't allow that either but I responded to barbara who said she wouldn't tolerate any barking from her dogs.  I wouldn't allow either of mine to be having vocal standoffs in the garden either.

> I have to say I disagree with this.  I don't agree with constant barking but I have been allowing my pup to bark (as a rottie it is only a couple of woofs at a time) as I feel he is a deterrant to burglars and he alerts me to anyone in the vicinity that shouldn't be there.

I don't allow my dog to bark unless it is a play bark and I definately will not allow him to bark at people in surrounding gardens etc., it's not his place to decide weather a passing stranger should recieve a waring bark and I don't wish to be informed by a bark everytime somebody goes into thier garden (I'm sure the neighbours don't want to hear that either). I think it's especially important for my dog to make a good impression on all people due to his size, the bigger the dog, the more effort it takes for people to accept them, I don't want him doing anything to give me, him, his breed, big dog or dogs in general a bad name.  I also want him to be relaxed in the garden, not on alert mode looking for things to guard against - that could be a recipe for disaster :(

Agree with Cheekychow and mastifflover.  I remember a previous thread about barking dogs and neighbouring dogs.
I also think I might have mentioned my neighbours two dogs that constantly bark at the drop of a hat.  My 2 staffords rarely bark.  Tess will if the odd hot air balloon goes over in summertime, but that's very rare and I don't think I've ever heard Alf bark at anything in all his 2 1/2 years on this earth!
But the neighbours fur 'brats' are a different matter.  Thankfully I've managed to teach my 2 to ignore the yapping!
I think it's completely unnecessary for such constant yapping.  The female owner of the 2 dogs decides after about 20-30 minutes of the yapping from her own dogs and encouragement from surrounding neighbours dogs enough is enough and screeches "shaaadddaaaaaaaap" at the top of her lungs, which REALLY works to stop the problem (roll eyes!).
As I've said my 2 take little notice, but the 2 neighbouring dogs - particularly the min. schnauzer, has started launching himself at the fence, and that does tend to raise the interest levels of my 2. 
Deansami, if I were you, I'd definitely go with the advice given and make a real effort to teach your dogs not to respond to the yappers.

I have problems when the neigbours children are in their gardens.
Only time my boys like to bark, they just want to join in. But sadly children noise is allowed and dogs is not...

I'll tell you what I've done and although it might not be ideal for everyone, it does however stop the dogs from being able to actually have 'fence wars' so there's no chance of any making contact with each other.
On one side (right) and across the bottom there is a 6ft fence. On the left a 5ft fence. In front of the 3 sides there is a 2 ft gap and a picket fence - raised on border so about 3ft high. In the gap between these fences are (now) established shrubs, conifers, trees (which includes Camelia, Broom, Lilac, Holly, Honeysuckle etc)
The fence with the gaps (left side) that have been covered are behind the shrubs etc so the odd bits of wood don't look so noticable on our side and keeps his nosey little dog out :)
The only trouble I have is the barking which, as I said earlier, I can cope with. What I wouldn't be able to cope with is if they were constantly chasing each other up and down the fencing, but with this 'barrier' I found it no longer happens because they are not close enough - if you get what I mean? Even though my dogs can stand with front paws on picket fence to bark higher :) they can't attack the higher fencing ;)
It also means I can have some nice 'greenery' bordering my slabbed garden that the dogs' can neither eat or trample on :)

Sounds ideal...

> but I responded to barbara who said she wouldn't tolerate any barking from her dogs.

but barbara has a large number of a vocal breed-in her case allowing it is making a heavy rod for her back. in your case you've a guarding breed that are not to vocal so a couple of woofs are fine, indeed possibly valuble. different circs :)

well these wars have gone to the next level, not only are our dogs battling throught the fence, but the two big ones of mine are having battles, with each other, i mean this is getting too out of hand, its like a dominence war, HELP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! please

any advice please

Is there a bitch in season nearby, or one of yours due in season? This alone would cause dogs to fight. Along with the stress of your neighbours dogs this will only add to the stress levels. You may have to permanently separate your dogs and take them into your garden one at a time. Or think about rehoming at least one of them. Not what you want to hear, but something you may have to think about. I've had to rehome a bitch in the past because she started to fight with her older sister.

Think Barbara spoke as she did because our breed don't do one or two barks, with them it is all out or shut up, total. Barbara must work hard to achieve a quiet garden and I only wish I could instill some silence without having to bring them in.

thats the point i was making :)

Sorry, managed to miss your post, typical at least I did not answer on the wrong post.

One of mine is the same breed as Barbara's so I fully understand the 'no bark' sort of rule, I do use it at times.  However, I need my dogs to give some sort of protection.  I don't want them barking 'willy-nilly' but want some warning, I think they are learning. 
I also am learning their different barks and what they indicate eg: when other  dogs are going for walks; my son/s coming home; they want their tea; go for a walk; go relieve themselves; the  rabbits need feeding [yes they tell me this too!!; the posts here, etc...  Dogs are highly intelligent and, if we are observant and in-tune with them, we can pick up on what they're trying to tell us - they have different vocalisations for different activities.  It's hard work and I certainly get a lot of it wrong but between us we're developing a decent communication system eg when the post comes I now just say 'It's OK, it's only the post' - I think my calm tone has more to do with their relaxed attitude than my words though.  Listening - on both dogs' and owners' parts can help understanding of what makes each other 'tick'.  If there are things that you want your dog/s to alert you to - let them=  then teach them to be quiet immediately when you 'go see' 'what's the matter' and gradually teach them what to ignore .  If there's some things they can't then bring them in.
I think what I'm saying is that I think it's great that they alert you to situations that may be problematical but you need to show them you're in charge and their defender.

Thing is mine is not a breed naturally silent and with five the first bark or two from each before responding to the quiet command is more than enough barking. 

One of my neighbours would prefer it if dogs were actually mute.

[i]One of my neighbours would prefer it if dogs were actually mute
ROFLOL

I also use the 'bark and come in' rule more with my Elkhound  than my collie X and yes I can't imagine how difficult it would be with 5 - I know how much mine can ?deliberately? wind each other up at times.  I sometimes think my collie barks just to get rid of my Elkhound or get her into trouble!!

pssst- you answered my post lol ;)

My baby monster Inka likes to wind everyone up to fever pitch.

i couldn't bear barky dogs i think but its probably come from having a very quiet breed- stealthy sneaking about forests is not best aided by booing at everyone :)

however they will give voice (most impressively!) when they feel it is needed

no seasons due, i know i said fight, actually i was over reacting a little(stressed) it was male who had his chops round female, i dont know if its a behaviour problem, sometimes he jumps on my older bitch if she barks as a warning if someone snoops round the back of our home, i dont think he meant it, ill just have to keep an eye on them, were going for some more fencing this weekend to try to help, its a start

Our pensioner neighbours used to be pleased at the barking of our GSD. They felt safer as she would bark at anyone back or front who got too close. She was their alarm, little did the usavoury  yobs realise that if they came into the house invited they would be licked to death.