Barking at neighbors who aren't there

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DaveFisher

Forums Regular
We adopted a 4 1/2 month little bi-black girl, Luna, about 6 weeks ago and she will be 6 months old tomorrow. We have had Shelties for almost 40 years so we are very familiar with the breed.
Luna is a very smart little girl; when we brought her home she already was familiar how to use a doggy door, has learned the stairs very quickly, and has had only a couple accidents in the house mainly when the doggy door was not available.
The problem we are having is with barking. If we let her go outside into the back yard by herself, she stands facing the next door neighbors' house and barks incessantly. A neighbor a few doors down is doing some renovations so, during the day, we attributed her barking to the noise from that but she even at night when there is no noise she goes out and barks looking at the next door neighbors' house. We go out with her and she will start to bark but we stop her but only after several attempts to quiet her. We cannot figure out what she is so obsessed with the neighbors who are very quiet and as far as we can tell are not in their back yard. We have started using a penny jar to make noise to startle her to stop barking but that works only some of the time.
We live in Southern California so she could use the doggy door and can go outside pretty much year round.
Any suggestions, ideas?
Thank you.
Dave Fisher
 
Wow, another Southern Californian! She's obsessed by something there, that's for sure. I would see if your neighbors would be OK with taking her over into their yard to investigate, sniff, and figure out there's nothing of interest? Can you distract by throwing a ball or other toy? I've had barkers but they've had a trigger I could recognize, trash men (they used to pick up the cans at your house years ago), birds, other dogs, etc. So I'm puzzled too.
 
What you said Sharon made me think of what Blueberry does sometimes (and I’m sure all our dogs have at some point) where she sees something I’d never noice that’s out of place or a new object/thing be it a box or clothing etc inside that suddenly sets her off to barking. She’s even done it outside (a bag blown in that wasn’t there before). With a dog it could be the way the light hits a fence, a tree limb that lays a certain way or even a shrub. I’d say (odd as it sounds) to get down to their level and try to see things as they do…clearly she sees something there. Is she just barking randomly in that direction or is there a particular area she barks at? When Blueberry does this I can usually tell the general area she’s barking at…sometimes my mom’s walker has a piece of clothing on it that Blueberry sees, or a box that fell over etc.
I also remember a couple years back reading about ultrasonic bark deterrents for outside. Not sure if they work though.
 
I've found with mine there doesn't have to actually be something there for them to bark at it. Their memories are incredible (unless of course you're trying to train them NOT to do something! :rolleyes2:). There is an occasional squirrel that runs through the tops of the trees near my dog yard. Mine are convinced those trees are populated with a squirrel community every time they go outside.

Unfortunately I can't be any help with how to deter it; clearly I'm an epic failure. Sharon's suggestion of distraction is about the best way I can think of. Even redirecting her attention with some tiny treats in the yard she has to find might help. Good luck to you, let us know how it goes!
 
Sharon7 said:
Wow, another Southern Californian! She's obsessed by something there, that's for sure. I would see if your neighbors would be OK with taking her over into their yard to investigate, sniff, and figure out there's nothing of interest? Can you distract by throwing a ball or other toy? I've had barkers but they've had a trigger I could recognize, trash men (they used to pick up the cans at your house years ago), birds, other dogs, etc. So I'm puzzled too.
Click to expand...
Sharon7 said:
Wow, another Southern Californian! She's obsessed by something there, that's for sure. I would see if your neighbors would be OK with taking her over into their yard to investigate, sniff, and figure out there's nothing of interest? Can you distract by throwing a ball or other toy? I've had barkers but they've had a trigger I could recognize, trash men (they used to pick up the cans at your house years ago), birds, other dogs, etc. So I'm puzzled too.
Click to expand...
 
Piper's mom said:
What you said Sharon made me think of what Blueberry does sometimes (and I’m sure all our dogs have at some point) where she sees something I’d never noice that’s out of place or a new object/thing be it a box or clothing etc inside that suddenly sets her off to barking. She’s even done it outside (a bag blown in that wasn’t there before). With a dog it could be the way the light hits a fence, a tree limb that lays a certain way or even a shrub. I’d say (odd as it sounds) to get down to their level and try to see things as they do…clearly she sees something there. Is she just barking randomly in that direction or is there a particular area she barks at? When Blueberry does this I can usually tell the general area she’s barking at…sometimes my mom’s walker has a piece of clothing on it that Blueberry sees, or a box that fell over etc.
I also remember a couple years back reading about ultrasonic bark deterrents for outside. Not sure if they work though.
Click to expand...
 
Ann said:
I've found with mine there doesn't have to actually be something there for them to bark at it. Their memories are incredible (unless of course you're trying to train them NOT to do something! :rolleyes2:). There is an occasional squirrel that runs through the tops of the trees near my dog yard. Mine are convinced those trees are populated with a squirrel community every time they go outside.

Unfortunately I can't be any help with how to deter it; clearly I'm an epic failure. Sharon's suggestion of distraction is about the best way I can think of. Even redirecting her attention with some tiny treats in the yard she has to find might help. Good luck to you, let us know how it goes!
Click to expand...
 
I think maybe the problem is with the workers a couple houses over who are making a lot of noise with the construction. When they take a break or are not hammering or nailing she doesn't seem to bark much at all. They are not scheduled to work tomorrow (Sunday) and I will see if she barks a lot less without that noise that she doesn't understand. The odd thing is that the noise they make kind of echoes and she has it in her brain that the noise is coming from next door instead of the direction where it is actually coming from.
Thank you, everyone, for your input and help.
 
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