Barking dog...again

[RobertH]

Hi everyone -

I've very late to this thread - I don't check the BB very often. 

However, we have a house full of dogs right now (one extra small, extra barky one that we're watching for a few months) + 1 Full Great Pyreness + 1 half GP + 1 medium mixed breed that is not the problem.

I concur with Jackie that GP's especially are very attuned to wildlife around (we get bears in our back area + foxes and other critters). They, unfortunately, also bark at all of our lovely neighbors walking down Main St., and for that I am very sorry. 

Someone mentioned that the dog owner of a particular dog must be deaf and you're correct - I have severe hearing loss. I am at home alone with the dogs while I'm working all day. Sometimes they are outside and I'm on a video call and cannot get off the call to bring them in. Again, I am very sorry for any disturbances.

At night, we try to make sure they are all in by about 9pm. However, our very large, very hairy, very old GP sometimes wants to stay out longer at night in the cool air. My husband is usually really attentive and tries to bring him in if he's barking for more than a few minutes. 

Also, regarding bark collars - we've tried those and they don't work on dogs like GPs with very thick woolly hair around their necks. I haven't tried the specific training suggested, but we've tried a lot of other things. GPs are barkers, but they're really good at keeping the bears from breaking into our house.

If anyone would like to reach out to me directly on this topic, or if you are having an issue about our dogs, I welcome that. It pains me to hear that people think the only recourse is to call Animal Control. I would much prefer speaking to any of my neighbors about this in person. We exchanged phone numbers with our sweet neighbor above us so that he can let me know if there is a barking dog that is disturbing him. (I get my text messages even when I can't hear the dog).

So please, this is a lovely, sweet small town. Let's be kind to each other. I will do whatever I can to help out and to encourage a better situation in relation to dogs barking. There are a lot of dogs in town and dogs do bark, but I am willing to do what I can to help reduce the disturbance to my neighbors.

Hillary
51 Main