My dog has a really loud bark and only barks when he's startled. My neighbour has a large garden but decided to put a patio right next to our adjoining fence where my patio door and living room is. I cant understand why he put one there when he has such a large garden probably 1/2 acre no neighbours other sides. The last two nights at almost 10pm hes proceded to dig the garden near my fence so obviously most dogs would bark as its getting dark. I've brought my dog in and distracted him. I don't talk to my neighbour on that side hes quite ignorant and I think hes the type of man who is unreasonable as normal people wouldn't dig that time of night when got all day to do it. Tonight late almost 10pm as it was getting dark he was at his patio being noisy so of course my husko barked like the hound from hell. My dog has a loud bark. I dont want any complaints as I do have neighbours at a distance and ironically I don't feel its my dogs fault as I think most dogs would do the same if they heard loud noises at night. Any training tips to get my dog to stop. Summer is underway and my neighbour built a patio there now which hes going to use. I cant sit in my other rooms as I have tbe patio door that side and I leave it open for my dogs.

Lycan, this is a point where a reminder of where you are would help. Since you refer to a garden, I'm going to presume the UK?

Here in the States if a neighbor were doing something at that time of night and causing my dog to raise cain I'd be inclined to call the sheriff. Your dog is doing the right thing by alerting you to a potential problem and I think *I'd* be disinclined to try to make him stop - do you want him to not bark if a burglar walks in?

If I remember right, much of the housing in the UK is owned / leased by what we here would call a county (probably completely wrong idea and terms) couldn't they assist with the problem since his choice of location for a patio would constitute a nuisance.

If that was going on at my house mine would be getting good dog amd treats. I cant say i havent done odd things like mow the pasture at 2am to keep the tractor from overheating but i like having alert dogs. 2 of my dogs bark way too much but they alert the german shepherd and spider runs and hides. Personally i would let them bark at your neighbor, thats an ok thing. Also maybe your neighbor will get annoyed and not use his patio.

I love no noise regulations and the fact that everyone here has dogs that bark 24/7 so mine dont stand out

they make whistlers that make noise when a dog barks that's at a level that people can't hear but it pesters the dog so they will be quiet to make it be quiet. I've wanted to get one for my neighbor's who all have dogs that bark at every leaf the wind moves.

You may just ask him why he does what he does at the hour he does it and then base whether you want to control the barking on what his answer is. Something that seems unreasonable to you might be completely reasonable if it's super hot outside and night is the only time cool enough for him to safely do work, or if he works odd hours and night is his day of sorts. And the patio might be in the location it's in because he has future plans for the other portion of the yard he just can't afford to do yet. If he wants to be a jerk about it then I'd let my dog bark as much as I could stand to listen to myself. But he might have legit reasons and if that's the case then a little sound mitigation doesn't hurt. You can get the ultrasonic bark trainers in a collar or a box. If you do the collar you can just attach the collar only when you know it's him that the dog is barking at. I like the collars because they learn that when the collar is on that it's quiet time but when the collar is off then they know they can still bark and alert as needed. You don't want to train away the bark, just train in a signal of when barking is acceptable and when it isn't.

We tried a bark collar on splinter. Im not sure if hes just too stupid to get it or too stubborn. The only neighbor close enough to care has chihuahuas so they are very used to barking.

Thanks for the responses. I'm in the UK. He rarely barks through the day. It's at night which I agree that's what dogs are suppose to do. I've been bringing him in the house at night. My neighbour is well within his rights to put a patio where he wants yet im baffled with such a large garden why he would do it so close to someone else's house.
I dont want my dog getting into trouble as I feel any dog would do the same. Anyway I've put a really large compost bin next to the fence where his patio is directly on the other side maybe he will reconsider once the smell starts. I do have CCTV and if I get complaints I think starting to dig the garden late at night is unreasonable. The neighbour is retired so he can do work in my opinion at an earlier reasonable time. He keeps messing about with fence so my dogs have got out in past too. I'm trying to be reasonable as personally i think hes ignorant.
I'm waiting to get a new fence put up which I know if he messes with i will prosecute.

Personally. At the moment. I'm quite happy Ami barks on occasion. Because it is exceedingly rare. Once to warn of a suspicious stranger at a hotel.

And two nights ago? At 2 in the morning. Lots of barking. So unusual I went out to check. He was running around like a madman. Charging something I could not see. In the morning I figured out what. I had left the shed door open (forgot to shut) and all my drawn frames waiting to go into supers were on the floor and outside the door on the ground. Looks like the big boy chased of a bear. Before he could get to the hives. Which is really, really good cause the electric fence was not on (Z'ev plowed threw some wires while I was in watering the vegetable garden and broke some wires )

Electric fence now repaired and working. Some barking is good.

I believe in UK you cannot use bark collars? They do work. My son's dog at times barks indiscriminately. Highly annoying. Bark collar works.

Lately this one youngish male coyote has been hanging around. I dont think hes sick. Hes very healthy looking. I think spider being in heat is why hes here but for the last week the girls have been howling and the boys have been barking at night.

So last sunday, spider who rarely barks, was barking up a storm in the laundry room. Went in there and the water heater was smoking and melting. Im really glad she did bark because i could smell an electrical fire but she pinpointed it and then i called 911.

I can tell the barks apart and if its a something i need to check out or call them in over or if my terrier is just being annoying. We have a magpie that imitates splinters bark and him and the bird sit there barking at each other. That is super annoying. And i tried one of the citronella spray collars. Didnt work, i think he is to stupid to get it. It took me 5 years to teach him sit. Hes a few crayons short of a crayon box.

I use the bark collar that gives a correction like the invisible fence. But only on my son's dog. The other two don't bark. Except when absolutely necessary. As above.

What it is in the UK you get people who whine to the council about barking dogs. Ironically things make a dog bark like people digging gardens late at night. Ive had no complaints and he does not bark randomly. Its at night.

We had 1 complaint about the dogs barking. Ironically the person that called was the one that received the ticket. Basically the person was told they could take me to civil court and try to get pain and suffering based on nuisance barking. Anyway i keep mine inside between 9pm and 530am and the person that called had a german shepherd that whined all night. Always funny how its never the other persons fault. Like someone whos dog barks all night every night calls the police on splinter at noon.

I just think the majority of the world has turned into self obsessed assholes. The idea of anyone but themselves is beyond thier comprehension. Or atleast in both america and Israel. Though my BIL says alot of the orthodox jews are convinced god will save them and they dont need to take any precautions but its gods will. And tel aviv is back to shutting down.

Basically how can you expect anyone to be considerate of your dog when they arent considerate about anything in general. So if the dog is only barking at the one person let him bark. Maybe the barking will convince him not to be digging late at night.

I watch ID channel alot and the digging a garden at night sent my imagination all directions.