Episode #236 Backyard Peace: Teaching Your Dog Not to Bark at the Neighbors

Is your dog the neighborhood watchdog—barking at every person, pet, or noise that dares pass by your fence? In this episode, we’re tackling one of the most common backyard behavior challenges: excessive barking at the neighbors.

Join Amy as we explore why dogs bark in the yard and share simple, force-free training strategies to help your dog stay calm, quiet, and focused—even when the world outside gets busy. You’ll learn how to:

• Understand the root cause of your dog’s barking
• Teach a reliable “Quiet” cue
• Use positive reinforcement to reward better behavior
• Set up your backyard for calm success
• Create fun and focus outdoors with enrichment activities

Whether your dog is guarding the fence or barking out of boredom, this episode is packed with practical tips to restore peace and quiet to your outdoor time—without punishment or frustration.

🦴 Tune in and take the first step toward a more peaceful backyard!

Chapters

• 0:00 Understanding Backyard Barking
• 2:09 Six Training Steps for Quieter Dogs
• 7:32 Creating an Engaging Backyard Environment
• 8:53 Handling Unsupervised Barking Issues
• 9:29 Final Tips and Episode Wrap-up

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

Today we are talking about something pretty common with most dogs. When they're outside in your backyard and they see somebody or they hear something, they might alert bark, need a little help with this. Today's episode is all about it. Welcome to the Puppy Training Podcast. I'm Amy Jensen, founder of Baxter Bella, the online puppy school. Here we are all about helping you create the best possible experience raising a puppy, from training tips to practical tricks, all aimed at fostering a happy, well-behaved dog who truly feels like part of the family. So if you are ready to enjoy the journey and strengthen the bond with your dog, let's get started. Hi you guys, welcome. I'm so glad you're here.

Speaker 1: 0:45

I like to give you just small, bite-sized pieces of information that you can use and remember so that when you're going through your day and the behavior crops up that your dog does and you don't really love that behavior, you can think back. Oh yeah, I remember we talked about this on the podcast. So today's episode is one of those bite-sized pieces of information about barking in the backyard. Whether it's someone mowing the lawn or kids are playing or the neighbor simply wants to walk to their car, barking can become frustrating and a little bit embarrassing, I know. But don't worry, I've got practical, positive strategies to help bring some peace back to your yard.

Speaker 1: 1:20

Now, first of all, let's start out with why dogs bark in the backyard in the first place. If we can understand why our dog is barking at the neighbors, then we can help change it. So most backyard barking falls into one of these following categories. It's either number one territorial barking hey, this is my space. Number two alert barking hey, did you hear that? Someone's here? Number three boredom barking hey, I've got nothing else to do, so maybe I'll just bark. It's kind of fun. Number four frustration barking, often triggered by not being able to reach what they see. There's a fence or a barrier there, right, and that can be frustrating. Number five fear or anxiety-based barking. If your dog feels unsecure or nervous, or maybe they're scared of what's going on around them, then they're going to probably bark. Now, knowing the why helps us choose the how when it comes to training. So step-by-step training to reduce backyard barking includes number one.

Speaker 1: 2:14

We want you to supervise backyard time. So if your dog is practicing barking over and over again with no interruptions, the behavior gets stronger, it feels good to them, they're taking action. So supervision is key, at least during the training phase. Don't leave your dog alone to self-entertain if barking is an issue. Now here's a training tip for you Keep your dog on a long line or a leash during supervised yard time so you can guide their behavior more easily. If they start to bark, we can simply pick up the line, say let's go turn and walk away, and they have to come with us, so that'll give you a little bit of extra control over the situation.

Speaker 1: 2:48

Number two is teach a quiet or enough cue. So start inside, away from distractions. When your dog barks, say quiet or enough in a calm voice. The moment your dog stops barking, even for a split second, you can say yes and then pay them. We want to increase how long they need to be silent before the reward comes. So it's great to teach them a cue that way. When your dog's already barking, we need a way to stop it. But I'm also going to teach you some strategies next on how to get in front of the behavior to get rid of the barking in the first place. But if they are barking, it is important to have a cue that says hey, that's enough, I need you to stop. So that's the quiet or enough or whatever you want to say. And that's how you can do it is wait for the bark, say the cue, then when the dog is quiet you can mark yes and pay them, and then we lengthen out how long they're quiet until they get that food reward. So once they understand the cue, we can start using it outside when they bark at neighbors. But we want to teach them what that word means first.

Speaker 1: 3:47

So number three is to redirect and reward. Now, before your dog has a chance to bark, can we redirect their focus? If I see my dog staring at the fence, they've alerted to something quietly. Now's my chance to redirect them to something else and a more appropriate behavior so they don't go into barking. Okay. So bring a favorite toy, a food pouch or even a sniffy mat outside and if your dog notices a neighbor but doesn't bark, immediately pay them. Get them engaged in play. Play is super powerful. We can also use high value food rewards that they only get during this training. Maybe I cook a cheap roast, dice it up into baggies, put those baggies in the freezer and I'm pulling one baggie out a day using for backyard barking training.

Speaker 1: 4:29

Now here's a pro tip for you. We want to reinforce the behavior we want, so quiet observation or checking in with me, instead of reacting to what we don't want. So if I'm always waiting for the barking to start and then the barking happens and then I do something about it, the barking is still part of the behavior pattern. If I can notice my dog alerting to something like their head orients in a certain direction or they're looking at a certain thing, um, then I can interrupt and redirect and show them oh, do we just walk away from that? And then they're not barking, they're just walking away. And that's how I'm paying them for that behavior. Does that make sense? Okay?

Speaker 1: 5:04

Number four would be using visual barriers. So if my dog barks at what they see, can we limit their view? Can I add privacy fencing? Can I plant some shrubs? Can I even just use temporary barrier fabric or something that can take away their visuals to help with this process? This one's a little easier inside. If my dog looks out the window and barks because they see the mailman every day, or they see a bird and they just get into the pattern of entertaining themselves by looking out the window and barking, we can simply use some blinds to close the window or we can gate off that room so they don't have access to that area. So there's some management tools we can use here as we're training to help them choose better behavior.

Speaker 1: 5:45

Number five is to create backyard engagement. So make our yards more than just where they go to the bathroom, right, make it a fun and enriching place. Maybe we can hide some food rewards in the grass for a find it game, or you can use containers or boxes. We can practice obedience drills or tricks, right, what does your dog know how to do? And can we do that outside? We can set up obstacle courses for them. We can put ball pits out there for them to dig in. There's lots of ideas that we can do to make our backyards a little more enriching, so they're not just looking for that. Next thing to alert to, we can provide them with puzzle toys, lick mats or, you know, shaded places to chew their favorite chew.

Speaker 1: 6:24

Bored dogs bark more. Dogs with a job bark less. So if we give our dogs something to do, their brains are occupied on a task rather than okay, who can I find to bark at? Number six is set them up for success and all of these kind of tie into that. But here's a few more tips for you. So time backyard play for when the neighborhood is quieter right, are there times of the day when there's not a lot of chaos going on.

Speaker 1: 6:47

As we're starting to teach our dogs not to bark in the backyard, a calmer time is a better time to be outside. We can exercise your dog before backyard time. So maybe we take them on that walk or, um, we'd go through a training session in a quiet, non-distracting place first, so that their brains have been active and they're um, they don't have as much energy, and then keep sessions short and positive. So when we do head outside, we want to be prepared, have our food pouches on us, maybe that long line with a harness that we talked about, so you have some reinforcement. And then have that plan. My dog sees or alerts to something hey, puppy, let's go. We turn and walk away and I'm rewarding them for coming with me, and then we're going to engage in play so that their brain changes channels.

Speaker 1: 7:27

All right, here's a question that came in from one of our listeners what if my dog only barks when I'm not outside with them? This is a great question. That's a sign that your dog isn't ready for unsupervised backyard time. We want to teach the right habits first. Then we fade supervision slowly. You can also try a camera to monitor behavior when you're not out there with them and see what they do. But if your dog's practicing the barking, remember that that's kind of working against you. So if you're doing all this training of getting them not to bark in the backyard but then we leave them unsupervised out in the backyard to do what they want, that works against us. So we want to make sure that during this training phase that we are supervising them in the backyard.

Speaker 1: 8:05

Okay, let's wrap up with a quick summary Understand, remember why your dog is barking. If you can understand what is causing the barking, we can work to change that or help them do a different behavior. We want to supervise and interrupt unwanted behavior early. Don't wait, do it right away. We want to teach a cue like quiet, uh, to reward calm behavior and to get them to stop doing it. If they're currently doing it, we can use things like visual barriers and enrich the environment as management to help with the barking, and then we can practice redirecting attention and rewarding success.

Speaker 1: 8:39

Now be patient, you guys. It takes consistency, but progress will happen. Remember dogs learn in patterns and that takes repetitions and that takes time, which requires patience. So that's it for today. You guys. Thanks for tuning in. I hope you feel a little more empowered to take back your backyard and hopefully these barking battles will go away. Remember, your dog isn't trying to be bad. They're communicating the only way they know how. With a little bit of training and a lot of love, you'll both be enjoying peaceful yard time in no time at all.

Speaker 1: 9:10

Thanks for listening. Don't forget, forget. If you liked it, hit subscribe, share this with a friend and leave us a review if you loved it that much, so we'll see you next time. Happy training, thanks for tuning in to the puppy training podcast. I hope today's tips help you feel more confident and excited about raising your dog. Remember, with a little patience and consistency you can create a loving bond and a well-behaved pup who's a joy to have in your family. If you found this episode helpful, be sure to subscribe, leave a review and share it with fellow puppy parents. For more resources, visit Baxter and Bella online. Until next time, happy training.