I have a fab 10mth welsh springer. He is crate trained and quiet at night. I work from home so he is not often left alone. He is on Burns and has at least 2 good walks a day. He is a very calm dog who very rarely barks -even when people come to the house and ring the bell he is quiet (his nature has always been like this). But when we go out and leave him alone in his crate he barks. The neighbour has complained in a phone message and so I have videoed him! The video didn't really show any problem - it could only film for an hour - so maybe he gets fed up after a certain length of time but the most we leave him for is 2 hours. It seems that sometimes he's Ok and other times not and I can't really see a pattern that I can try and work with. Sometimes we come home and all is quiet and other times we can hear him barking as we come up the drive. Again, no pattern. I've tried a DAP diffuser (used one since beginning of Nov) but I don't think that's helped and in fact at the mo he seems worse!! I'm contemplating a citronella  collar and would be interested to hear what others think. I really don't know how else to crack this because the problem happens when we're not here. We've done all the things about ignoring barking, etc and we don't let him out of his crate until he's quiet and we don't let him out straightaway. Once out of his crate we always ignore him until we're ready to greet him. But what can you do about the barking when you're not there? I need to solve this for the sake of my neighbour. He says the dog barks every time we go out but I know this is just not true cos I have the evidence, but we're dealing with somebody's perception here which to them is reality! One thing I have noticed is that the dog does not like being left in the evenings alone if we need to go out eg for a school concert that the kids are in. That situation always results in him barking (not good with Christmas concerts around the corner!). Thanks in anticipation of some advice on this. Is a citronella collar the way to go?
PS Have registered as a member but think my PC must be blocking the cookie via its firewall!

How was he with the fireworks?  It could be that with approaching darkness he wiorries about them happening?

Also is he barking ofr a reason, can he hear things from outsie that might worry or excite him?

Do you leave the TV or Radio on for him to make outside stimulus less of a problem.

Also can you confirm the barking from any other source than this one neighbour,a dn how long does it actually go on for.  It is not unknown for neighbours to find any barking unacceptable, or even to deliberately provike a dog to do this.

I would try more tapeing sessions, set them up as opposed to actually going out.

Are you freinds with any other neighbour and coudl you visit wity them or get them to make a note of each barking episode and if they noticed what external thing may have set him off.

Thanks for all the advice so far. Yes I do leave radio on (and light if dark) and he also has a stuffed kong, but he sometimes leaves the kong until I get home (is he anxious that I won't return when this happens?). My neighbour on the other side has not heard the dog bark, but then the complaining one is attached cos we live in a semi so that's not too surprising I suppose. But I do know he barks sometimes cos I've heard him. Like today, I came home after  one and half hours to hear him barking, but a friend of mine who had dropped something in the porch 10 mins earlier, and rang the bell, said he was quiet when she was in the porch wondering if I was in. see what I mean about no pattern! Having watched the videos I made of him there didn't seem to be anything particular because he only barked a couple of times and cried on and off in the one hour I recorded him for (over a fortnight). The phone sometimes rang which kind of disturbed him, but didn't make him bark.

Re asking the neighbour to make a diary, I'm not sure he'd be that obliging cos he's elderly and may get confused. To be honest the fact that the neighbour complains isn't the main problem too me. I don't like to think of my dog barking/upset/anxious/distressed (whichever it is?) which is why I want to figure this out. I think that sometimes when he starts to bark he can calm himself down (as I saw in the video) but maybe sometimes he just can't manage it and so winds himself up. Perhaps it's cos he's still young too? That's why I though the citronella collar might help, but hear what you're saying about it. Re the DAP diffuser, I have left it on permanenetly and it looks as though it'll need replacing but not sure it's worth £19.99!!!

Any other thoughts? I notice there are some remote anti bark devices that emit an ultrasonic  sound - are they any good? Thanks again for your input. It's good to discuss this with people who understand.

PS Finally managed to get my registration to work, so no longer a guest but "puddle" !!

Hmmm, couple of issues here I think.

First of all, at the moment you do not know IF and WHY your dog is barking, until you have whittled down the occasions which appear to set him off any action that you take is more of a blunderbuss approach ie a bit hit or miss.

If your dog is distressed at being left and THIS is the cause of his barking, I am not sure I would then consider it very reasonable to punish the dog for being unhappy would you?

I consider the use of citronella collars an extreme aversive as a dog's most sensitive organ is his nose, which is far more sophisticated than ours, which we then proceed to assault with citronella or mustard to tackle a behavioural issue.

They are not always effective either, as some dog learn to bark like mad to empty them and will put up with the spray as for THEM the barking is more self rewarding than the collar is punishing.

The dog may be barking for all sorts of reasons, boredom, habit, distress, attention etc etc etc.

People often come out with phrases such as "he always barks as soon as you go out" ie sweeping generalisations.

I would put the onus on them and ask them to complete a diary for a week of EXACTLY the times and duration of the barking; this way you can confirm whether or not they are being truthful, exact and what the extent of the problem actually is.  If they balk at doing this remind them that if it is sufficiently annoying to involve and EHO that is exactly what they will ask them to do.

You may find this in itself "solves" the problem.

If your dog has an issue with the dark/night/noise etc that is easily resolved by light/TV or radio etc plus providing the dog with something to do AT THIS TIME ONLY that he likes ie stuffed kongs, raw knuckle bone, buster ball etc.

If possible you could also set up some sort of camcorder to see if the cause becomes apparent.

I have had neighbours in the past who just hated "alsatians" and used to bang on my fence to annoy my dogs - it does happen although thankfully rarely (I hope!! :P ).

You are certainly trying to do the right thing with the DAP etc...do you leave it switched on all the time, as it works best that way?.

Lindsay
x

I have noticed you said to maybe leave a raw knuckle bone tohme do you think this is safe? I have always thought about leaving a bone for tyler when we go out but i am a little paranoid about choking. Sorry to get off the topic but does anyone have an views on this, i am being overly paranoid?

A knuckle bone is fine for your 10 months dog, it will keep him occupied for hours, and hopefully do the trick. Dogs love them!

Don't make a big deal of going out. Be hard and ignore him, don't fuss and faff with diffusers and lights etc, which signals what to him???. Give him the command to bed and shut the door and go. Don't look back. He's prop stressing if you have made a big deal about leaving him alone. You worry, so he worries, he wakes, where are you? Don't fuss when coming in either, ignore him, make a cup of tea first and just say hello. You could also try the 10 min away by sitting in the car then go back in, pick up something, don't speak to him and go. Then 20 mins do it again and on and on. It's hard hearted to do but it works and only if you do it properly. Do it till one day he's bored with it and would like to say to you, "For Gods sake, just go".