Indoor Apartment Sheltie - Will Neighbors Hear the Barking?

M

Marc

Forums Novice
Hello,

I have been interested in getting a dog for the past 6 months or so, and on December 1st my wife and I will be moving to an apartment complex that allows dogs. I have looked at lots of different breeds over the past few months, and I am pretty sure we will be getting a Sheltie.

I have read and seen videos that they are quite the barker. Personally, I don't have a problem with this. But as my wife and I are still saving money for a down payment on a house, we are living in an apartment in southern California, so my main concern is bothering the neighbors or them complaining that our dog is bothering them. Our Sheltie will be an indoors dog (although I plan to take it out for lots of exercise). Will our neighbors be able to hear the dog barking if it is kept inside?

Thanks in advance for any help.
 
Oh yes.

My dogs are bark softened (reducing the sharpness that carries) and I can still hear them two floors away, and from the yard when I get home. And my building is cinderblock and brick.
 
If your neighbors are hearing impaired, you will have no problems. Shelties are barkers, and while their sound levels vary, their barks carry. This is part of their heritage -- they bark to alert the farmer to problems and to frighten away predators from the sheep.

Our Annie Laurie had a bark like a drill! :rolleyes2:
 
Definitely. Shelties have an exceptionally high, sharp bark. If Starr's kenneled in my bedroom (which is near the front of my house), I can hear him clear as day in the back yard of my neighbour's house.
 
I live in an apartment with a sheltie puppy (9 months old), and so far we haven't had any serious complaints. The only time somebody has said something, it was when I first got her and she was having separation anxiety when I left for work. The guy who lives above me caddy-corner, so not directly above me, could hear her through my door when he walked past when he was leaving for work. He didn't complain, he just said something like, "I can hear her when you leave, she get's very upset" with a smile on his face. He was just trying to spark up a conversation about the new puppy. I have not gotten any complaints from any of my direct neighbors, above, below, or next to me.

BUT- So far Missy does not bark very much inside. It's only when provoked, like playing with her and purposely making her bark, me sneezing, and sometimes she gets upset when I do loud things like open trash bags and she'll bark. A semi-quiet apartment sheltie is not guaranteed unfortunately.
 
Shelties are barkers but that doesn't mean they non-stop bark. I have a mini schnauzer & her yap bark is much higher than the sheltie one & she can go on & on. But neither my shelties nor the schnauzer bark all the time. They don't bark from boredom but to alert if someone comes to the door or they hear a noise nearby. My 4 shelties are relatively quiet & lots less annoying than my neighbor's beagle.

Do you plan to get a puppy or an older dog that has established habits? Before you get a dog you might scope out your neighbors & see if they're dog people. It helps if they are & have been through dog issues too. They might be afraid of annoying you with their dog if they have one. Leaving a radio or tv on when you're gone often masks outside noises that might put a sheltie on alert. It seems to calm mine if I put on a classical station or talk radio.

Maybe if you are open to a dog that is out of the puppy stage you could foster one & see how that works out before you make the total leap into ownership.

Good luck! They are wonderful dogs.
 
I raised a sheltie pup in an apt for 5 years.
i found he generally only barked happily and exuberantly when I got home. so that was only a problem if i came home late and of course don't want to wake the neighbors at 2 AM.

You learn coping mechanisms.....like limiting the stimulus that leads to barking when you aren't home. Leaving a radio on to block out noise, making sure they can't see outside, treat toys to limit boredom. i monitored gavin with a web cam when i got a mention from a neighbor and never actually saw him bark outside of the ups man and fed ex guy.

mots of my neighbors liked his alert barking since it was pretty limited. you just need to make sure its not a nuisance. a good measure is to find someone who is home all day and ask them how things are. most people work and are gone during the day so they wouldn't know.
 
I think it depends on the dog. What are their barking triggers? Can you manage the triggers? The hard thing for me is that we live next to a barking dog that is outside all the time. That's a trigger for my dog that I can't manage. I leave fans on, the TV on, close the blinds and never have the windows open, but my dog can still hear the barking and barks.

Also, even if you can discourage nuisance barking, what if your dog barks when playing? My two usually get crazy once in the evening (especially during the week when they're a bit bored) and one just barks and barks and barks as he plays. It's hard to discourage because he is having fun. And it's VERY loud. I know it can be heard from outside.
 
If you're concerned about barking, work with the breeder you choose to select your dog. You might consider an older puppy or adult dog. It's easier for a breeder to identify a dog for you that might be more mellow, or less likely to be a serial barker.

Every Sheltie is different. Of our four, one is not a barker at all and only barks to alert; two bark at anything and everything, and one is in the middle. If you have an only Sheltie, I think it's easier to control the barking since they do learn from their pack members.

Barking is in a Sheltie's DNA, but a good breeder can help steer you to the right dog for you.
 
I live in an apartment with my boy Beau. For a sheltie, he really doesn't bark much. He knows my neighbors footsteps so he doesn't bark at them. Now, if they bring someone in the building that he doesn't know, or if the maintenance people are in the building, that's a different story, but, then Beau and I have the situation under control because all he wants if for me to know that someone is there, so I go to the door and open it and tell him no one's coming to get us, and then he quiets down. but, yes, I do exercise him ALOT so maybe he is to tired to bark or get into much trouble because he is tired
 
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