Hi Guys, i am after some advice regarding my Gsd's. I have recently moved to a fairly built up area with my 3 Shepherds (2 entire males and 1 entire female) aged 5,4 and 2. We are in a terraced house with neighbours both sides. Since moving here 3 months ago i have found that my youngest male barks at the slightest noise. If he hears next door in their garden he barks (can't see them as 6 ft fences are up), if they have people round for bbq's etc he barks, if he hears a gate open he races to the garden barking. This is , as you can imagine, causing friction with my new neighbours.
He wasn't a barker before we moved here, in fact all 3 had a very reliable 'quiet', the other 2 are still listening to the command but Drako is ignoring me.
I have tried talking to the neighbours and explained that i am not just allowing him to bark and that i am working on it, however, this morning i received a letter of complaint from the council re the barking. He is not allowed to just bark until he feels like stopping, as soon as i hear him he is told to 'quiet', he now ignores this so he is bought back into the house, i thought this would make him realise that barking means the end of his time outside but he just doesn't seem to care. Just now he woke from a sleep on the sofa and raced into the garden as he heard next door walk into their garden.The other 2 are not at all bothered by it.
Any advice would be gratefully received.
Michelle

Councils now have to write to you as soon as they receive a complaint.

Firstly get in touch with the council initially by phone but also confirm in writing.

Explain that the barking is not allowed to continue after first few barks, and that you are working on stopping the issue through management and training (getting him back into the houses as soon as he starts), but it is a work in progress and they cause is him being unfamiliar with his current surroundings and that with re-training and gaining confidence in the new environment should solve the issue.

Any complainant will be asked to keep a diary of frequency and duration of any barking, so I would say keep one of your own too.  If the instances are not prolonged or outside social hours (before 7am and after 11pm) then it should not go any further with you doing your best to minimise the issue.

My own breed can be vocal and the only method that does work is to not allow them to practise the behaviour, so as your doing instantly brought back into the house (mine only have the first 20 feet of garden, so it's easy to hoik them in right away).  You may need to attach a trailing line so you can enforce the command to come in the instant he barks.

Is the gate solid so they can't see out, if not it may help to make it a solid barrier.

Something that worked well with one of my dogs who used to bark at people and dogs walking past the garden was calling her in for a treat.Once she realised she got a treat the barks became shorter and shorter until now she hears someone walk past and runs straight in for her treat with no barking.People walking past(or my neighbours in their garden) now have a positive association for her so she very rarely barks. It does mean that you need to put a few pots of kibble around the house but its worth a try.

Hi, many thanks for your reply.Brainless, he can't see through the gate or fences so is just barking at the sounds he can hear. Have tried the training line for the last few weeks but without much success as i am constantly untangling him or the others decide to play tug with it :-). Thanks for your advice re the council, i have phoned them today and feel much better, i explained the problem and hopefully will get no more complaints.

Hi Helen, thanks for your reply. I am rewarding him when he comes in but have found that once he has been rewarded a few times he goes back to normal, as if the barking is more rewarding for him. Any ideas??

For now I would restrict his access to outside, only allowing him in the garden when you are there to supervise. If he does bark I would thank him then tell him quiet and make sure he does.

Try doing some training outside and play with him so you are distracting him, whilst at the same time he is still getting used to the different sounds without reacting to them.

He could possibly be a little stressed with the move and will take time to adjust to his new environment but the more times he reacts to the different noises, the more he will react to ANY new noise.

Good luck, you have succeeded in teaching him once, so I am sure you will do again.