problem barking

We just got back from a long weekend away and whilst away my mil has been feeding the animals for us.
We got back last night, and this morning she rings to tell us the people in the house across the road came up to her and made a complaint about our dog's barking.
Then just now the neighbours came across to inform us of this barking.
Apparently she barks whenever we leave the house, the whole time we are gone. Now they havent documented any of this, called the ranger, called us (they do have our number, all our numbers do). The girls and I live in the front yard almost every day and I am home almost every day, all day besides school drop off and pick up (yep I have an exciting social life), the neighbours come and go and I chat to almost every single one of them, and no one complains about the dog, they never mention her barking.
Because I have no evidence to say whether she has been barking or not, Im not prepared to say whether she is innocent or guilty. The neighbour suggested that our only option would be to put her down :o There is no way I am going to put down a perfectly healthy, albeit old dog. I know our girl is losing some of sight and teeth, I know she is a little more flighty then before but nothing that would suggest that she barks all day.
We feed her in the mornings before school drop off, she gets lunch and dinner too. We play with her, I walk her as often as I can, but honestly a play in the yard is enough for her these days.
Dh is yet to talk to the other neighbours about it. I plan on setting up my video camera tomorrow when we go out. And currently I am sitting inside very quietly by myself waiting to see what happens whilst we are gone.
What else should we do/could we do to work out what is happening and also how can we fix it?

Thanks :)

I'm not sure what you can do, but my neighbors dogs do exactly the same thing. As soon as they leave, they start (two little Jack Russells) and stop as soon as they get home. :(

Thanks for replying :) Sorry about the Jack Russells too. I hate to think about our dog being a problem dog, and Im pretty much willing to do anything to to help the situation, the last thing I want is conflict with the neighbours over it. (mind you I have never complained about this particular neighbours dog barking consistently whilst they are at work, away, it using our front yard as a toilet etc)
Since sitting here, in the last hour she has barked twice. Once at someone walking their dog at our back fence, and I heard the other dog bark first before she barked. And once at the kids next door when they were right up against our fence and made some weird highpitched noise. But she didnt bark when someone parked their car in the driveway and walked up to ur front door and left a package for us in this same time.
Honestly Im willing to do anything right about now to help dissolve the problem.

They can not tell you or make you put your dog down. That is a horrible suggestion by them.:shakehead:

Have you got an old jumper or T-shirt you can wear, get all sweaty in and then live to her. If she is getting old, she might use it for comfort. Sometimes even a big stuffed toy can help for older dogs. Places like Vinnies might have some.

From what you have said your dog has done what any normal dog does. It will be interesting to see what you get on camera.

Next time I speak to DH I will ask him for suggestions. He is a ranger for our council so deals with this a lot and I can tell you that majority of complaints have no ground. Don't worry to much about it if they do complain to council. Chances are they will say there was a complaint but without proof they can't do anything.

for awhile, we had to leave our dogs in the laundry when we went out because they would bark. do you have somewhere comfy you could leave your dog when you go out?

there are barking collars you can get but I don't know if I would use them on an old dog.

Thanks Kazzo, I will try those suggestions, Im keen for anything that would help right about now. :) And yeah if your dh has some ideas please pass them on. :)

HotI, I dont really have anywhere to put her when we go out, we have indoor cats that live in the laundry when we go out, but now I am thinking about organising to have our shed cleared out so that she can have in there. But thats going to be fun considering very little in there is our things anyhow.

Im going to set the camera up tomorrow when we go out, and see what happens, if it picks up negative behaviour then we'll set about sorting it, but otherwise I have no idea. I am of the opinion though that if it were as bad as they have said, and over the whole time we have been here (18months) then why they havent said anything more in the past or sooner ( besides that ine time,, which was just after we moved in) is beyond me.

Hi! We had the exact same problem with my 2 dogs... After 2 neighbours telling us we decided to do something about it. Mind u we had lived in the same house for 5 years with no complaints... I think its one of those things that neighbours just think they have to put up with cos theyre not sure if there's a solution and feel bad letting the owners know.
Anyway, the solution for us was to buy the best invention ever... A barking house!!! It is a plastic little house looking thing that wen turned on let's off a high pitched noise that rings really loudly in a dogs ears and is enough to snap them out of it. The human ear can hear it but it is very quiet and just sounds a bit staticcy.. It was an instant fix for us!!! Because we like our dogs guarding our house when we're not home we didn't want to stop them barking completely and have it turned on all the time so we gave it to our neighbour and asked her to turn it on for a minute when our dogs started barking at nothing. It worked instantly!! It has a long range, I think about 30 metres so u cld easily give it to a good neighbour who u trust to use it wisely and ask them to turn it on wen they hear your dog continuously barking. It's even great for ur neighbours dogs that bark all the time, ur neighbours don't even need to know!! ;) its about $140 but really worth it, best money spent! The brand is Pet safe I'm pretty sure, look for it online or pet stores. Get the outdoor one so it can be perched on ur neighbours fence etc in the weather. Good luck!! :)

Suggesting you put the dog down!!!!!!? That's absurd! Have you talked to your other neighbours to see if they hear the barking too? Reet has a great suggestion, i would definitely look into that.

I have also lived next to a dog that you would never know was there until the owners went out and then barking and crying happened constantly. I found it quite distressing as the dog sounded sad. I think Tasha's suggestion of approaching other neighbours to ask would be good. Although I guess if neighbours are out a lot they may not notice.
I think I noticed as I was home alot myself with a young child whereas now with an older child we are out more.
Putting the dog down for barking is a bit over the top!

My SIL had a similar problem. Their two dogs were accused of barking all the time by the neighbor, although she (the neighbor) decided to go to the council without at least checking with SIL. The council dropped off a brochure basically saying someone has complained. SIL had to go away and was fretting the neighbor would do something. So SIL rang council and they told her they won't do anything until the person complaining has to complete a log book over a 2 week period. My SIL mentioned there is feral cats around (why dogs were barking) and council agreed they knew cats were a problem.
I stayed at SIL overnight, for peace of mind and her dogs barked twice!! It was other dogs in area and neighbor banged on the fence once. When she saw me in the morning she asked did I hear them and I told her yes twice and that if she actually walked out of her patio she would have heard the other dogs and the feral cats.
Well karma came, neighbor got robbed one night and of course SIL wasn't home during that day, but other neighbors told police all the dogs were going crazy! The police said the neighbors house was robbed because she didn't have a dog!
My own little Pom cross is getting old and hard for her to see at night so often yaps at nothing (more a warning bark!) but we are the first to go settle her.
Good luck, but call the council first and find out their policy cause if its like ours and a log book your neighbors prob won't bother!

Yeah, there has to be more than one report and a whole list of other things before anything serious happens to you or your dog.

Kazzo I had no idea he was a ranger! So needed to know that when I was 37 weeks pregnant and wrestling the escaped greyhounds from up the road off my goat at 1.30am!!! Omg!
Our dog barks a lot at night, we live on acres so no direct neighbors but we have those soft muzzles and we pop one on at night. He can still bark but it's not as loud as he can't get full jaw leverage. Sounds mean but he can still drink, pant etc just helps control the length and loudness of his bark. He jumps up to have it put on so he's not traumatized by it. Perhaps you could try something like this?

Now you know if, but hopefully not there is ever another problem :)

Our neighbours dog howls constantly when they leave for work from about 4am until 8am. She sounds so sad. We havent complained but they approached us last week as another neighbor has and wanted to know if it were true. They have resorted to leaving a light on and the radio on. She has howled a little bit here and there but not to the point she was. Perhaps you could try something like that?

The log book thing has to be a flawed idea though - if a neighbour really wants to be rid of a dog, all they have to do is create a false log book! What sort of person suggests a pet be put down for barking!

I have a friend that has an issue with two dogs next to her owned by the same couple. She rang council and they told her to keep a diary for x amount of weeks. Before she handed it in. I looked at it and there wasn't a day missing. She got a letter back from council basically saying it wasn't enough to warrant them doing anything and that they also needed complaints from other neighbours.

My mum's dog is now 12 and probably won't see the year out. He has only just started howling/barking when they go out.

The log book is supposed to be filled out over two week period, including nights and specific times. Our council one also asks if there are other dogs in area and if they were barking at same time.
So in effect the council try to get people to think reasonable rather than spiteful! Well that's how I took the instructions!!
Beansbeans - maybe just have a peek around your surrounding neighbours also in case there's a cat or other animal rustling and making your dog feel the need to bark.
We found a neighbours cat had kittens in the shed backing onto our fence - for about 3 weeks our bigger dog was annoyingly at the fence all the time, barking. Until we saw what she was barking at, then we were able to deter her and calm her so to speak.

If you're in Melbourne, I can recommend Alpha dog training. They've had success training dogs not to bark and it doesnt involve bark collars or stuff like that. It's behaviour adjustment. I wish our neighbours would do it. They have a lovely German Shepard who is bored out of her very bright brain. She'll bark from 6am until 6pm some days. But she's in a boring backyard without any environmental enrichment. No toys, no hidden treat caches, nothing. I feel so sad for her.

Thanks everyone :)

So yesterday and last night we didnt hear a thing from our girl which is not surprising. Dh spoke to some other neighbours this morning who they said that she wasnt a problem other than one night when she was upset. That happened to be the same night that night we had a lot a rain, and thats pretty normal behaviour when we get a heap of rain over a period of a few days.
Also we found another possum in a tree in our yard last night. Dog hates possums, and normally she wins in the dog vs possum stakes.
Last thing we found out yesterday was the neighbours grandkids were pulling on the fence and teasing her.

I do think they overstepped the line by suggesting we put her down, or even rehoming her. And I think that is the part that has hurt most. Not to mention the fact that apparently she has been a problem barker for over a year now but yesterday was the first time they have came to us to tell us about the problem and how on earth can we fix it if we dont know its going on.
From what Ive read about the barking diaries councils ask the complainer to keep, it does sound like they are trying to prevent neighbourhood bullying and disputes by getting the complainers to look at verything that is going on in the neighbourhood and not just on the dog. Thats good though, cause it is quite easy to forget about the rest of the environment and forget about the reasons behind why something is happening.

Asking for the dog to be put down is a completely unreasonable request, and it suggests that the neighbour's complaint is at least partly overblown. BUT:

It may be that in your total day/night absence your dog has barked a lot. Solutions in future might be for her to go and stay at a friends house or even the doggy motel (kennel) when you go away. Even a few hours of barking each day over several days in a row (especially at night) is likely to aggravate the neighbours. This could be why they have mentioned it now, it's compounded the annoyance of what is otherwise a lot more irregular or shorter episodes of barking.

What you need to do is to start documenting the times/dates that might be an issue - for example, the days you were away, when the neighbours approached you, who it was who suggested she be put down (important detail because if they bring this up with the council that comment indicates their complaints are probably a little over the top). Include the detail about the dates lining up with the aggravation by the neighbour's grandchildren. Also, document the specific measures you have taken since the neighbours brought this to your attention. These measures might include:

*changing where you leave the dog when she is at home alone. For eg, our dog will bark at dusk in our yard, but if we leave him in the laundy he feels safe and stays quiet
*if you're going out, put her in a small closed room with soft furnishings that will muffle any barking she does do (some rooms are echo-y and barking reverberates and sounds much louder than it needs to).
*trialling a citronella spray collar (some councils/vets loan these out at a low cost)
*sending her for a doggy sleepover at a friend's house or to the doggy motel (kennel) if you ever have to be away overnight.
*work out what the barking triggers are and minimise those. Eg the possums - wondering if there are some lateral-thinking solutions to discourage them from your yard (eg pruning trees so they can't jump from one to another).
*if your dog only barks when you're away, it's like to be loneliness/fear/boredom. If your dog likes food, feed them less in their dinner bowl and more in toys like kongs or pig ear swhere they have to work to get the yummies out. And give them one of these if you're going to be out for a few hours in a stretch.

I would not be trying to make a shed condo for her because the shed will amplify the barking noise 500% and p*ss the neighbours off even more. Do think about getting a crate and crate training her as an alternative, or move the kitty cats to a different room, or even put all the furries in together (ie by giving the cats a shelf/perches to use).

I just spoke with DH. He said you really don't need to worry. You would need complaints from more then one neighbour for anything to even get close to happening. He said they don't tell people how to stop their dogs from barking as situations are always different and dogs are too, they just tell you to try and do something about it.

Your still doing the right thing by looking into before council is even involved and if none of your other neighbours see an issue there is no problem.

When I told him your neighbours sugestion of putting the dog down or rehome he just laughed. Said that will never happen :)