I live in the middle of a small block of townhouses with a narrow shared path out to the carpark. I am grateful that we can't really see into the neighbours' spaces but it's like running the gauntlet every time we leave the house.
George went through a very fearful phase of not wanting to leave the house for a few weeks. That's probably another blog post 😀
Being in the middle of the row, it's not too difficult to visually block triggers - I have a solid door and blinds he can't reach at the front, and curtains at the back. At the back, we have ranch slider/patio doors (depending on which country you're in). The trainer advice was to cover these glass doors with film. I didn’t end up doing that because the curtains and a strategically placed ottoman ended up being a pretty good blocker for George but that is generally advised.
So we spent a lot of time in the dark. But it was worth it to give him that stress-break. At the time of his hyper-vigilance, he was constantly pacing and on high alert.
The upstairs spare room is a favourite place for him to run and bark in because he can actually see neighbours. So I blocked that off and only open the blinds when the child gate is up (we have a child gate preventing George from running upstairs unattended - I often leave it open now that he is older but it is sometimes pushed to).
There is a friendly (quiet) dog living next door. George used to constantly look through a gap in the fence and cry when he couldn't get to his friend. We blocked up the gap so he couldn't see through. I felt a bit guilty but his frustration reduced.
Noise is a whole other issue. I will write a separate post about that.
Deliveries - he loses his mind every time. To be honest, at the moment, it's not a high priority to focus on. Although we have done some work on playing the Ring doorbell sound at a low volume and rewarding when going to place.
I bought a sign saying "Please don't knock/ring bell. My dog is learning his manners" but it doesn't seem to have made a difference
In summary, block everything off if you can to remove any visual triggers and work on counter-conditioning/desensitisation.
Leaving and returning to the house (running the neighbour gauntlet) is one of the most stressful parts of my day. I know that meeting a neighbour in that narrow space will provoke an extreme reaction. So I took the slightly weird step of looking at times my Ring Doorbell registers people, logging it over a number of weeks, and trying to identify the 'best' times for us to leave the house. I didn't care or note who the people were, just that there was one there.
Turns out it's a pretty busy thoroughfare. So, we spin our heads left to right before stepping out and hope for the best.
George went through a very fearful phase of not wanting to leave the house for a few weeks. That's probably another blog post 😀
Being in the middle, it's not too difficult to visually block triggers - I have a solid door and blinds he can't reach at the front, and curtains at the back. At the back, we have ranch slider/patio doors (depending on which country you're in). The trainer advice was to cover these glass doors with film. I didn’t end up doing that because the curtains and a strategically placed ottoman ended up being a pretty good blocker for George but that is generally advised.
So we spent a lot of time in the dark. But it was worth it to give him that stress-break. At the time of his hyper-vigilance, he was constantly pacing and on high alert.
The upstairs spare room is a favourite place for him to run and bark in because he can actually see neighbours. So I blocked that off and only open the blinds when the child gate is up (we have a child gate preventing George from running upstairs unattended - I often leave it open now that he is older but it is sometimes pushed to).
There is a friendly (quiet) dog living next door. George used to constantly look through a gap in the fence and cry when he couldn't get to his friend. We blocked up the gap so he couldn't see through. I felt a bit guilty but his frustration reduced.
Noise is a whole other issue. I will write a separate post about that.
Deliveries - he loses his mind every time. To be honest, at the moment, it's not a high priority to focus on. Although we have done some work on playing the Ring doorbell sound at a low volume and rewarding when going to place.
I bought a sign saying "Please don't knock/ring bell. My dog is learning his manners" but it doesn't seem to have made a difference
In summary, block everything off if you can to remove any visual triggers and work on counter-conditioning/desensitisation.
Leaving and returning to the house (running the neighbour gauntlet) is one of the most stressful parts of my day. I know that meeting a neighbour in that narrow space will provoke an extreme reaction. So I took the slightly weird step of looking at times my Ring Doorbell registers people, logging it over a number of weeks, and trying to identify the 'best' times for us to leave the house. I didn't care or note who the people were, just that there was one there.
Turns out it's a pretty busy thoroughfare. So, we spin our heads left to right before stepping out and hope for the best.
In summary, block everything off if you can to remove any visual triggers and work on counter-conditioning/desensitisation.
Leaving and returning to the house (running the neighbour gauntlet) is one of the most stressful parts of my day. I know that meeting a neighbour in that narrow space will provoke an extreme reaction. So I took the slightly weird step of looking at times my Ring Doorbell registers people, logging it over a number of weeks, and trying to identify the 'best' times for us to leave the house. I didn't care or note who the people were, just that there was one there.
Turns out it's a pretty busy thoroughfare. So, we spin our heads left to right before stepping out and hope for the best.
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