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.