can anyone give any info on how to stop my bullmastiff from barking at my neighbours dogs.
this started three days ago my neighbours dogs stand on top of the wall looking down at my dogs and bark now my pup has started barking back her tail is wagging and she has met these dogs but other than getting her in everytime she does it nothing seems to stop it .any info will be greatly received thanks.

Hi Maysea,

Can't you have a word with your neighbours?  As it is just a recent event, perhaps there is something happening within their household that means the dogs being unattended / misbehaving in the garden is a very short term situation in which case you could come to some arrangement with them whereby your pup is indoors when their dogs are out.  Obviously it is their dogs which are causing the problem and I can't see how you can overcome this without their help - your baby is just "communicating" with her "visitors" after all :( 

Without having a chat with them to ascertain a cause and attempt an amicable solution it will be very difficult for you to train your puppy out of this habit - hopefully it will be easy to sort out with them.

Good luck, Teri )  

When my dogs started replying to next doors dog barking I went out and talked to them gently- "NO, be gentle"  repeating this while stroking them. I waited until they stopped before stopping and coming back in leaving the dogs out.

As the dog next door was left out alone for hours at a time I could not just  bring my dogs in or they would never have been out.

Soon I only had to tell them "no, be gentle" and they stopped. By making sure I got my command in as soon as they started barking they soon stopped barking back and just looked at me for a " good boy your being gentle.

If the people next door were out in the garden- very rare- I made sure they heard me praising my dogs for not barking. Didn't make any difference though. They didn't take the hint.