HELP! Dog Barking!

susiestar

Roll With It
My upstairs neighbors have a new dog. It is driving me crazy. It barks for hours every single day. You cannot hear it outside their apartment, but you can hear it in my bedroom. It won't bark when they are home. When they are gone, all it does is bark. It has barked nonstop for the last 3 HOURS.

I put a note on their door asking them to do something about it. It gives me a migraine. It is very high pitched yapping.

Any ideas for what I can do to get this to stop before I go nuts?
 

BusynMember

Well-Known Member
Why not stop by with neighborly cookies or something and suggest a few tips you can look up online or doggy daycare. Obviously he just doesnt want to be alone but this could get better.
I think it works best if you try the friendly approach first. They may then be motivated to look for a solution.
 

Crayola13

Well-Known Member
Obviously, the dog is lonely during the day. Perhaps buy a dog toy to keep it occupied? For dog owners who can afford it, there is what is called dog daycare where dogs get to play and race each other all day. People say it really does keep their dogs happy.
 

GoingNorth

Crazy Cat Lady
The dog has separation anxiety. I feel very sorry for the dog, who is truly miserable, but sorrier for you. First of all, record the dog barking from your bedroom.

Then, show up with cookies or whatever, AND the recording, and tell the neighbors the issue must be taken care of. Try to brainstorm with them as this could result in bad neighbor relations, especially if it gets to the point of you having to complain to the landlord. There is also the risk of them being forced to/choosing to get rid of the dog, which may wind up with the dog in a not very good place, or dead.

Seperation anxiety is something that ideally should be addressed when the dog is a puppy. It can still be addressed with an adult dog, but takes some time and requires a period when one of the owners is off of work to do it.

Doggy day care is expensive, a great way to spread diseases, and very hard on some dogs' joints as most are on cement and some breeds run around the entire time they are there.

The training is pretty basic and requires the human to leave and show up at increasingly longer intervals, thereby showing the dog that s/he always comes back. It is important that the dog be totally ignored for at least fifteen minutes after the human returns home.

The owners can easily find instructions for this online.
 

pigless in VA

Well-Known Member
Can you still hear it if you put on headphones? I can totally relate. I had to find one of my rescue dogs another home because she would not stop barking. I tried everything. She just needed to be with people 24/7. I had just had baby Candy and couldn't accommodate her need.
 

Littleboylost

Long road but the path ahead holds hope.
You can suggest an anti bark collar. I use one for my 2 hooligans. It is citronella based so no electric shock. If they bark they get a puff of citronella and they hate the smell.
Mine will get barking and if I am home I can quiet them. My neighbor did tell me once that they were barking non stop.
Now if I have to leave them alone I snap their collars on them. I can tell if they have tried to bark as you can smell the citronella in the air if they have.
 

GoingNorth

Crazy Cat Lady
The problem with the citronella is that the reason that they "hate the smell" is that it is extremely irritating to their eyes and mucous membranes. If you have birds, it can cause fatal respiratory distress, and can have severe effects on some cats as well.
 

susiestar

Roll With It
I was asleep when the neighbor came over. They brought the dog with them. It is a little puppy. They have only had it a few days. They are crate training it. They have been coming home during the day to check on it, but today the guy's car broke down and he could not get home.

He was SOOOOOO sorry about the barking and will do what he can to stop it. He thanked us for not calling management. I would sooner call to have someone bring roaches to infest my apartment for me than call management. I loathe our manager. She is a nasty little witch. She would do something to make them put the dog down if she could.

We will take them cookies soon. As long as they are working on it, I won't get too upset. Especially over a brand new puppy! As long as I get to pet it sometimes. There is no way that Captain would tolerate us having a dog, so I have to play with someone else's to get a puppy fix.
 

BusynMember

Well-Known Member
Susie, I am so glad, but not surprised, that you have a heart for this little puppy. And glad the neighbors are going to do their best.
 

Lil

Well-Known Member
Buy a Kong puppy chew and fill it with peanut butter. Tell them to freeze it and then let the little guy have it when they leave. That should keep him busy for hours!
 

GoingNorth

Crazy Cat Lady
Awwww...Yeah, little puppies carry on when crated or left alone. Be sure to tell him to read the peanut butter labels. Some peanut butter these days is sweetened with xylitol, an artificial sweetener that is deadly to dogs and cats.

I'm glad you got it worked out.
 

GoingNorth

Crazy Cat Lady
What also works great, if puppers isn't lactose intolerant,is a little bit of yoghurt mixed with a little low sodium chicken broth. (plain yoghurt). Put it in the Kong, and FREEZE it. You can freeze the PB, too. All day tongue workout for puppers. Whatever you do, stay away from the "Kong Stuffing" sold in the spray cans. It is basically meat flavored fat, and is really bad for the dog's digestion, not to mention horribly fattening and nutritionally useless.

The do make teensy Kongs. Stay away from ANY toy that only has one hole in it. Toys like this, even balls, that have holes in them, MUST have a hole at each end. If only one hole it is possible for the dog to get its tongue sucked into the toy and stuck, causing massive swelling, choking, and risk of tongue amputation.

For teething, soak a washcloth in chicken or beef
broth, wring it out and leave it tightly twisted. Freeze it. Give it to the pup frozen. Chewing it will feel good on sore gums, taste good, and help the new teeth break through. If you notice retained puppy teeth, haul to vet to get them removed. This is critically important in toy dogs as retained teeth (usually canines) can cause/worsen malocclusion; already a problem in the tiny tots.

Also, Kong does honor their guarantee as regards indestructibility. I've sent back a few of the supposedly indestructible huge black kongs after one of my GSDs destroyed them. I always got a new kong from the mfr. That said, the Kongs lasted those brutes longer than any other toys I'd gotten them.

You said you were starting on toothbrushing early, which is a good thing. Try using a chlorhexidine toothpaste if you are not. They're gum friendly and regular use will prevent the development of gum disease in most cases.

Best of luck, the only teeny dogs I've had were a yorkie/border terrier cross and a longhaired dachshund that I fostered. The yorkie x was an adult when I got him, and his mouth was already a mess. The dachsie was a half-grown pup and a real sweetheart. Couldn't get him house-trained, which apparently is an issue with the breed, but a sweet little guy. He had an awfully impressive set of teeth in that long little snout of his.
 

susiestar

Roll With It
This dog is only teeny because it is a puppy. It is going to be HUGE. It has giant paws, which are pretty funny on such a little puppy. I was up most of the night so I slept until 11. I didn't hear a single bark after that! So they must have gotten home more often today. Or the girlfriend only has MWF classes and was home all day. She is a student. Either way, it helped my headache greatly.

The owners seem really friendly, which is a nice change from the previous tenants in that unit. They were obnoxious and did something that thudded for a half hour every night starting a 20 minutes past midnight. Until the puppy, I didn't even know there were tenants up there! They are that quiet, which is hard in these units. But they were super sorry about the noise, they share the same disgust with management, and they are really nice. So I will probably stock up on puppy treats and take some cookies or other treats up when we bake next. Which will probably be in a day or so. If not tomorrow.
 

Littleboylost

Long road but the path ahead holds hope.
The problem with the citronella is that the reason that they "hate the smell" is that it is extremely irritating to their eyes and mucous membranes. If you have birds, it can cause fatal respiratory distress, and can have severe effects on some cats as well.
We use a non irritating form as we are aware of the issues and we have no cats or birds. Thank goodness. It is to the pint now that we use the collars for a day or two and then leave them in view and the barking is back under control.
Our collar is vet approved I will try to find the name. It isn't cheap but it is not harmful.
 

GoingNorth

Crazy Cat Lady
Our collar is vet approved
Oh good! I haven't read up on the citronella collars in several years, so didn't know they'd come out with ones that were non-irritating. Thanks for the updated information.

I've had mostly German Shepherds, quite a few as fosters, and my big separation anxiety issue was chewing, not barking. I have forgiven Sophie, the blind foster who ate my dining room table and chairs. (Who knew I'd not have room for it in the future, after all?)

I'm still waffling on Rowan, who thought cats were a food group. He was the only dog Duncan, my big ol' rescue Maine Coon boy, ever ran from.
 

Littleboylost

Long road but the path ahead holds hope.
Oh good! I haven't read up on the citronella collars in several years, so didn't know they'd come out with ones that were non-irritating. Thanks for the updated information.

I've had mostly German Shepherds, quite a few as fosters, and my big separation anxiety issue was chewing, not barking. I have forgiven Sophie, the blind foster who ate my dining room table and chairs. (Who knew I'd not have room for it in the future, after all?)

I'm still waffling on Rowan, who thought cats were a food group. He was the only dog Duncan, my big ol' rescue Maine Coon boy, ever ran from.
Been there with the chewing. Sideboards and drywall. Collie rescue. He was a fabulous dog after he settles.
 

GoingNorth

Crazy Cat Lady
I've been lucky that none of mine ever ate my house, but furniture took a serious beating on occasion, between the dogs and the cats.
Sophie, unfortunately, wound up having to be put down as she couldn't adapt to being blind.

Rowan turned out to be a wonderful dog in an only-pet home. He was sweet and brilliant, just had an incredibly high prey drive, and being rescued from a scrap yard, had probably eaten cats in the past. (He was horribly emaciated when first taken into rescue.)
 
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