Welcome to Paws and Effect, a pet expert advice column penned by longtime Rover contributor and award-winning pet writer, Jen Reeder. From navigating squishy social scenarios and murky ethical territory to burning behavioral or moral questions about cats and dogs, Jen uses her years of experience and hard-earned instincts to find real solutions for real pet people. Got a question for Jen? Email: pawsandeffect@rover.com
Hi Jen,
Our neighbors work from home and have started complaining that our dog barks during the day when he is outside. I also work from home, however I don’t always hear our dog barking. At any rate, I’ve been blocking the doggy door so our dog can’t come and go like he used to (he is very sad about this).
Recently, the neighbors adopted a black Lab. When our dog is outside, the neighbor’s new dog growls, snarls, and slams himself against our shared fence, and this causes our dog to bark back. The neighbors left an unpleasant note on our door last week about the barking our dog is doing—but to me it’s clear that their new dog is antagonizing ours.
Is it better to inform the neighbors that their new dog is actually the instigator, or should I try to train my dog just not to be reactive to the other dog? I feel my dog is just protecting his own property and he has a right to bark, but my husband doesn’t want me to start a war with the neighbors. What should we do?
Signed, Time to bark back?
Dear Bark Back,
I feel for you. My husband and I recently adopted our first barky dog, who after a couple of weeks, became reactive to dogs walking past our fence. Sweet little Tux transforms into 7 pounds of fury! He would bark his head off even at some of our canine pals like Fiona, a charming Pit Bull who always wears pearls. Luckily, Fiona’s mom spent several weeks offering Tux dog treats every time they passed by our front gate. Now Tux loves Fiona so much that they play in our yard together while our senior Labrador Retriever mix, Rio, looks on.
Tux greets Fiona at our gate while expecting a treat. Courtesy photo
Your situation is much trickier since you’ve already gotten an unpleasant note from your neighbors. That can’t have been fun, and I understand your husband’s wariness to avoid escalating the situation.
I shared your question with dog trainer Teoti Anderson, CPDT-KA, KPA-CTP, who is the award-winning author of numerous books, including “The Dog Behavior Problem Solver: Step-By-Step Positive Training Techniques to Correct More Than 20 Problem Behaviors” (pssst: like barking) and “The Ultimate Guide to Dog Training.”
“You can’t control your neighbors, but you can do your best to control your dog, and you should,” she told me. “However, in this particular situation, since they believe that the other dog is the antagonist, I would recommend videotaping the other dog’s interaction, just to have it on file and ready to go if necessary, because these things can escalate.”
You should also start training your dog to have a rock-solid recall so that every time you call his name and say “Come,” he runs to you and sits no matter what, she said. When he does, reward him with treats, praise, toys—anything that makes it fun to be by your side.
Start practicing in your living room until your dog comes every single time. Then start training in the yard with a 6-foot leash, then a 20-foot leash, then dragging the 20-foot leash, and off leash. (As Anderson quipped, “You can’t go straight from kindergarten to college.”) You could even work with a rewards-based trainer in your home.
Dog trainer and author dog trainer Teoti Anderson, CPDT-KA, KPA-CTP, smiles alongside Sawyer, a Belgian Tervuren. Photo courtesy of Teoti Anderson
I was alarmed to read that a Lab—typically an affable breed with proper socialization and enrichment—is acting so aggressively toward your dog, so I asked Anderson if you could bring your neighbor a puzzle feeder or other enrichment toy that could distract their dog from yours. But she set me straight: a toy isn’t going to fix the problem.
Her idea is much better.
“Go over with a bottle of wine and a pie—that’s my go-to for everything—and say, ‘Hey, I want you to know that I’m working on training my dog because I know both dogs get at the fence and they work each other up,’” she suggested.
If things go OK, ask your neighbor for permission to throw a small handful of treats or kibble over the fence every time you’re in the yard. (It’s important to ask not just as a courtesy but because dogs can have food sensitivities or serious issues like Inflammatory Bowel Disease.)
You can work to change the neighbor’s dog’s emotional response to your dog.
If your neighbor agrees, Anderson said, you “can classically condition the Labrador to look forward to [you and your dog] being in the yard.” (Depending on how the conversation goes, you could potentially also share the contact information for your trainer if that’s not pushing your luck.)
Also be sure to never reach over the fence so you don’t lose any fingers, she noted—just toss the treats into your neighbor’s yard.
“Basically what you’re doing is changing the dog’s emotional response to you or your dog,” she explained. “The dogs are going to start calming down. The neighbor’s dog is going to start to look forward to your presence, and the barking should lessen.”
iStock/mgstudyo
Another reader wrote in with a related question that I also asked Anderson to weigh in on:
Our next-door neighbors have a private wooden fence that is extremely old and needs to be replaced. They have a dog who is very aggressive and this causes our dog to react defensively and aggressively. Both my husband and I have tried to get our dog under control, but the neighbors are oblivious and seem unconcerned about the state of the fence, or their dog—who one time almost got through the fence by pushing against a weak spot. My dog has already torn her ACL as a result of these interactions. I am all for confronting our neighbors but my husband is not comfortable with confrontations and said it would cause a feud. How can we resolve this and keep our dog from getting injured again?
Once again, Anderson stressed the need to develop a strong recall with your dog. Avoid mistakes people make when training the cue “Come,” like having a negative consequence (like cleaning the dog’s ears when they come). I’ve been working on Tux’s recall, and try to practice at random times—not just when he’s starting to race toward the fence to bark, or to come inside the house.
Anderson also said it’s important to manage the situation—don’t let your dog engage in fence fighting, so keep them on a leash in the yard until that recall is a sure thing.
A big component of her approach to teaching recall is starting with name recognition.
So she doesn’t use the names of her dogs—Rosie, a 10-year-old Yorkshire Terrier, and Desi, a 15-year-old blind Papillon—casually. Instead, she’ll call them “every sweet nickname under the sun” so that when she does say “Rosie” or “Desi,” they know it’s time to listen.
“The problem with dogs that don’t come when called, the problem with dogs that pull on leash, the problem with dogs that jump on people is they’re not listening to you,” she advised. “You have to have their attention first. So I use a dog’s given name to mean, ‘Look at me. Pay attention to me.’”
Teoti Anderson inherited her “Papillon pirate,” Desi, from her late father. Photo courtesy of Teoti Anderson
While you can keep your dog from barking at your neighbor’s dog, the damaged fence is a serious concern. Anderson told me one of her friends was walking his dog when they were attacked by two dogs who broke through a dilapidated fence and injured them both.
He and his dog pulled through after being hospitalized, but the case went to court because the fence had been in disrepair for months, and the homeowners had been warned numerous times that it needed to be fixed. Ultimately, they had to pay for hospital bills, veterinary bills, were cited by the city, and had to pay a fee to reclaim their dogs, who were taken away by local animal control officers.
“It ended up costing them a lot more than a fence,” she said.
Hey, I’m really concerned. Your dog almost came through here. This is your fence. If it were our fence, we’d be fixing it, but it’s your fence. So we need to know when you are going to fix it.
She suggests taking photos of the fence, showing them to your neighbors and calmly saying, “Hey, I’m really concerned. Your dog almost came through here. This is your fence. If it were our fence, we’d be fixing it, but it’s your fence. So we need to know when you are going to fix it.” Be polite, but set expectations.
You might even print out this article to share with them so they know there will be serious repercussions if their dog breaks through the fence and hurts someone.
It can be so tricky working through issues with neighbors, so I wish you both courage and tact while working to resolve them to make your living situation safer (and saner). I’ll leave all readers with Anderson’s closing words of wisdom:
“Teaching a dog to come when called is not always a convenience, but it could save your dog’s life sometime,” she urged. “You never know when you’re going to need it. It’s saved mine on several occasions. So make it fun.”
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