Dogs and Windows

[The Ponzzz]

Ok, hoping someone here has some advice I haven't thought of to solve an issue I have with my house. I have a low window in my living room that goes from the ground almost to the ceiling. It's a great window that lets a lot of sun in. The issue is that my three dogs like to window bark at everything that moves outside.

We had shades and blind up, but they've destroyed them. The curtain is dark but they just get on the other side of it and continue to watch outside the windows. The barking is driving me nuts though. There is a house for sale across the street and people are constantly coming and going from there, as well as we have a heavily used sidewalk that people seem to jog/walk their dogs on.

We have talked with a trainer about it and tried all the tricks he gave us. We have the water bottle tactic. When we are in the room, they seem to be ok about it, once they get going, a simple clapping of the hands and a no will do the trick. We've rearranged the living room once to block the window off, but it didn't work, as they could still peek out. But if we aren't in the living room, it gets horrible.

Here are some things I can't do:

* Blockade the living room.
* Keep them outside.
* Keep them locked in a room.
* Kennel them.

I fear that if I can't stop them, that the neighbors are going to start calling the ASPCA or Police. Neither are really warranted, but I heard from one of the neighbors that the previous owners had a dog that would bark in the morning from 8am-noon when the owners were at work and eventually, they had to get rid of the dog. My neighbors on each side of my place are both old. And the people in back of us seem to hate us because we put a fence up.

[Gan]

Shutters on the outside?

Bark collars (not very humane but better than a 2x4 to the head).

http://www.moorepet.com/Bark-Collars-Anti-Bark-Devices-Comparison-s/119.htm

Site above has several varieties...

Spray collars that emit a spray of citrus or whatever when it senses the wearer barking.

Ultrasonic emitters that turn on when they sense any dog bark within a nearby radius.

And the old standby - the shock collar... muahahahahaha


*Too bad they couldnt make a spray collar that senses and sprays a deodorizer when a dog farts.

[Khariz]

Depends on how "inhumane" you want to be. You can have their vocal cords removed, you can put one of those shocking bark collars on them, etc.

Edit: Or what Gan said, lol!

[radamanthys]

Don't they have those sensor things that give out a screech every time a dog barks?

[diethx]

Gan's shutter idea is good.

How can you possibly have to get rid of a dog because it barks during the daytime hours? If it were the middle of the night I could probably understand, but during the day?

[AnticorRifling]

You can buy the cages/baby play pens that you assemble by unfolding and latching one side into the other, instead of latching it go from one side of the window to the other in a u shape. Then you can have your curtains and the dogs cant get to them to destroy them and when you have company it's easy to fold the cage/pen and store it behind a couch or whatever.

[The Ponzzz]

Yeah, we don't want to go with the electro-shock collars. Those things are terrible. It was one of the reasons we wanted to get out of an apartment to avoid having to wrry about the dogs barking getting us in trouble. But seems this window is causing it.

We have a brick facade that is just decrative. Perhaps we can see about installing real shutters on the outside windows in the front.

But yeah, we're staying as humane as possible here. No surgeory, no evil things that hurt them. They aren't really vocal dogs most cases. Just nosey at anything that moves!

[The Ponzzz]

You can buy the cages/baby play pens that you assemble by unfolding and latching one side into the other, instead of latching it go from one side of the window to the other in a u shape. Then you can have your curtains and the dogs cant get to them to destroy them and when you have company it's easy to fold the cage/pen and store it behind a couch or whatever.

This was what we did when we first got the place. We bought the baby gates and pens that we tried to blockade them from the windows. Two of the three can jump over them. The one can jump about feet high and the other can clear 3 and a half easily. So I'd need a wall.

[Tisket]

And the people in back of us seem to hate us because we put a fence up.

What the mother fuck...fences make for GOOD neighbors. Those people are obviously insane.

[Tisket]

And I like Gan's suggestiong best, outside shutter you could close when you aren't home sounds like it could work.

[The Ponzzz]

Gan's shutter idea is good.

How can you possibly have to get rid of a dog because it barks during the daytime hours? If it were the middle of the night I could probably understand, but during the day?

They got fined for loud noise and public annoyance or some crazy shit.

"It defines nuisance barking as 10 minutes of continual barking, 20 minutes of intermittent barking or barking for any duration of time between the hours of 11:00 PM and 7:00 AM. "

"Barking during daytime can and will result in a citation if the annoyance does not cease. If the barking continues after the warning, the offending dog’s owner will be in violation of the barking ordinance. Fines for violations will be $50 for the first, $100 for the second and $500 for each subsequent violation."

[The Ponzzz]

Haha, man. The window is like 5 feet wide. That shutter is going to look gnarly. But I think it is the best thing to do. Thanks Gan. I'll give the window company a call Monday.

[Gan]

What the mother fuck...fences make for GOOD neighbors. Those people are obviously insane.

Walking around naked in the back yard from time to time can change the fence is a bad thing mindset... unless the person walking around naked is hot.

[Mighty Nikkisaurus]

This may not be the answer you want, but I think you need to stop leaving your dogs unattended since they obviously don't behave without supervision.

Nothing wrong with that, but IMO it's never too late to crate train a dog. Then, when you can't be directly nearby to supervise the dogs, you can crate them or put them in a pen to keep them away from the window and in a confined, controlled, and safe space.

You could also try citronella bark collars, which are more humane. They sense when the dog barks and release a puff of citronella (which dogs don't like) when they do. It doesn't shock them/hurt them, but they associate the barking with something they don't like and they knock it off.

[The Ponzzz]

Yeah, they don't have to see my fat ass wandering around shirtless when I do yard work. Yeah, I'm THAT guy.

But in all seriousness, we put the fence up so we could let our dogs wander freely. I think they were pissed because we used the exact land to what our survey said was our land. So we potentially stripped about 4 feet of land that I believe they were using that belonged to us. My bad. We even gave a letter to each house just to let them know we were tossing the fence up (as was suggested to us) and bought a bottle of wine to say "Hi, we're to the neighborhood, get drunk!" Guess that was too Italian of a thing to do.

The only person that asked us not to put a fence up was the person to the right of us, who already had a fence (which is falling over and ugly). So we respectfully left their fence there, but I had to go buy big rocks to put where all the gaps in the fence were because my little 10lb maltese could slip through if he wanted to.

/life story

[diethx]

They got fined for loud noise and public annoyance or some crazy shit.

"It defines nuisance barking as 10 minutes of continual barking, 20 minutes of intermittent barking or barking for any duration of time between the hours of 11:00 PM and 7:00 AM. "

"Barking during daytime can and will result in a citation if the annoyance does not cease. If the barking continues after the warning, the offending dog’s owner will be in violation of the barking ordinance. Fines for violations will be $50 for the first, $100 for the second and $500 for each subsequent violation."

I wish someone would do this to my landlord. Her fucking dog is outside all day barking at anything that walks by, and lately he's been waking her up at night because he wants to go out. So instead of HER being woken up by the dog because you know, it's HER FUCKING DOG, she lets him outside so he starts barking at 2-3am and it wakes OTHER people up. I fucking hate my landlord.

[The Ponzzz]

This may not be the answer you want, but I think you need to stop leaving your dogs unattended since they obviously don't behave without supervision.

Yeah, I actually have them locked in the office with me right now. They aren't happy. The trainer said that doing this is bad though and will cause more anxiety to want to bark when they do have access to the window though.

I just don't want to kennel them, because they are good boys and it took a lot to get them to be as good as they are now. (no shitting or pissing when unattended. No stealing things off the table. No begging. No destroying shoes or furniture.)

[War Angel]

Before we moved, we had 2 ceiling to floor windows, which had 2 sets of indoor wooden shutters. They had a latch on them, so you could keep the top two open, to let the sunlight in, and keep the bottom 2 closed. They were similar to THIS. (http://www.shutterland.com) They were effective for dogs, and small children. Good luck with your doggies! :)

[Mighty Nikkisaurus]

[QUOTE=Narcissiia;945696]This may not be the answer you want, but I think you need to stop leaving your dogs unattended since they obviously don't behave without supervision.[QUOTE]

Yeah, I actually have them locked in the office with me right now. They aren't happy. The trainer said that doing this is bad though and will cause more anxiety to want to bark when they do have access to the window though.

I just don't want to kennel them, because they are good boys and it took a lot to get them to be as good as they are now. (no shitting or pissing when unattended. No stealing things off the table. No begging. No destroying shoes or furniture.)

I only think crate training is bad when you're inconsistent.. otherwise it's provides structure and control over your dogs. We've never had problems with begging, potty training, destroying stuff, etc and we've had them crate trained the entire time.

Part of it I think is teaching them that it's not about what they want. We used the "Nothing in life is free" method, which basically enforces that if they want to do anything, they have to earn it. Regardless of us being pretty strict with them, they're good dogs.. well socialized, happy, good members of the family.

So while it's ultimately up to you, just keep in mind that crating isn't going to revert your dogs into little monsters!

[Numbers]

While we're on the subject of dogs and windows, somebody please explain this to me:

http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=372_1243563675

[The Ponzzz]

While we're on the subject of dogs and windows, somebody please explain this to me:

http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=372_1243563675

LOL!

To Narc: Oh I understand. But as the trainer said, the crate training will not take away the want/need to bark outside the window. They listen, when we are around. And they don't have the house to themselves when we are gone, they always go into their kennel cages. The trainer was saying that it would just create more anxiety to the noises coming from outside and/or seeing things to want to bark at. Crate training won't stop barking, ever.

I should have clarified the destroying of the shades/blinds. They didn't purposely destroy them, they just stuck their heads through them to look, which ultimately destroyed them.

But as I said, they understand the commands and the clapping. I'm just talking about when we aren't in the room with them. They understand barking is bad.

[Tisket]

While we're on the subject of dogs and windows, somebody please explain this to me:

http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=372_1243563675

omfg, I hope that was real and not staged. LMAO.

[Ashlander]

lmao that was great

[Ignot]

Ok, hoping someone here has some advice I haven't thought of to solve an issue I have with my house. I have a low window in my living room that goes from the ground almost to the ceiling. It's a great window that lets a lot of sun in. The issue is that my three dogs like to window bark at everything that moves outside.

We had shades and blind up, but they've destroyed them. The curtain is dark but they just get on the other side of it and continue to watch outside the windows. The barking is driving me nuts though. There is a house for sale across the street and people are constantly coming and going from there, as well as we have a heavily used sidewalk that people seem to jog/walk their dogs on.

We have talked with a trainer about it and tried all the tricks he gave us. We have the water bottle tactic. When we are in the room, they seem to be ok about it, once they get going, a simple clapping of the hands and a no will do the trick. We've rearranged the living room once to block the window off, but it didn't work, as they could still peek out. But if we aren't in the living room, it gets horrible.

Here are some things I can't do:

* Blockade the living room.
* Keep them outside.
* Keep them locked in a room.
* Kennel them.

I fear that if I can't stop them, that the neighbors are going to start calling the ASPCA or Police. Neither are really warranted, but I heard from one of the neighbors that the previous owners had a dog that would bark in the morning from 8am-noon when the owners were at work and eventually, they had to get rid of the dog. My neighbors on each side of my place are both old. And the people in back of us seem to hate us because we put a fence up.

Are you sure that if you block the window they will stop barking? My dogs can't see outside but they still bark at everything that goes by. It can be really annoying but I think sometimes they can't even control it. I mean, they are dogs, dogs bark. :shrug: I hope you can find a solution.

[Kyra231]

LOL!

To Narc: Oh I understand. But as the trainer said, the crate training will not take away the want/need to bark outside the window. They listen, when we are around. And they don't have the house to themselves when we are gone, they always go into their kennel cages. The trainer was saying that it would just create more anxiety to the noises coming from outside and/or seeing things to want to bark at. Crate training won't stop barking, ever.

I should have clarified the destroying of the shades/blinds. They didn't purposely destroy them, they just stuck their heads through them to look, which ultimately destroyed them.

But as I said, they understand the commands and the clapping. I'm just talking about when we aren't in the room with them. They understand barking is bad.

Could you try the blinds/curtain combined with a scatt matt under/in front of it when you're not in the room? It's not some huge electrical jolt, the one we used was like a good static electricity zap but it was enough to stop our mastiff & terrier mix from wrecking the blinds trying to see outside.

We didn't have to keep using it forever either, within a few weeks they both just quit going over there.

http://www.safepetproducts.com/scat-mat-for-cats-and-dogs.html

[Jayvn]

Dude just get some of those stick to the window darkshade things... fuck letting all that sun into your house.

[The Ponzzz]

Yeah, if they can't see who's outside, they are good. I normally try to distract them hardcore when the ice cream truck stops in front of our house with like 2897439057390750397503857039572 kids rushing it. I hate Summer Song.

[Sylvan Dreams]

If you're crafty/handy, you could faux stain glass your windows. Craft stores like Joanne's, Michael's, or even Walmart sells a brand of paint called Gallery Glass. It is a paint that you can apply to your glass and peel off when you're tired of it. If you're feeling creative, their book sections will have books with patterns and color guides. If you're not feeling that adventurous, you could just get the color "Crystal Clear" and squiggle it all over your glass. Your glass will still be translucent, it will just look like frosted glass, so you won't lose your light. The dogs won't be able to see clearly defined shapes through the glass. If you want something more opaque, they have other shades of white and even other colors you could try.

A little 2 ounce bottle covers about 2 square feet of glass. The 8 ounce bottle covers about 4 square feet of glass.

[Gan]

While we're on the subject of dogs and windows, somebody please explain this to me:

http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=372_1243563675

:rofl: