Expert: Have4Paws - 10/14/2009

Question
Iv started to train my beagle(clyde) who is 11 monnths old to not be in hi cage when i go to work-he is left roughly 5 hours-everything was going well until he learned to open the dinning room doors and get in the dinning room and sit on the stairs howling-the stairs are rite next to our neighbours livingroom and they hear him howling and now they are threatning to report us to the local authority about his noise-every time we try to train him since we got him at 11 weeks he has howled and the neighbours have conctantly complained they dont seem to realise his howling will end when we have trained him but just wont give us a chance-i am at my wits end the local authority will take my dog from me and keep himm because our neighbours wont tollerate his noise until he is trained-they never say any complaints to my face just send me a txt message then when i see them face to face they say nothing! what can i do to stop him howling-please help-he cant stay in a cage all his life when im at work, i dont feel its fair!
Robyn.

Answer
Hi thanks for writing. I am so sorry to hear about your issues with your neighbors. I have been in the same situation with one of my beagles. The neighbor was suing us for his howling/barking despite the fact that her grandchildren produced half the barking by running along the fence and teasing him. Luckily we moved away right when we found out about it and as with you she never said one word to our faces about it!

The unfortunate part of this is that beagles in apts are not usually the greatest fit.  They are definately very vocal dogs and this is a breed characteristic. The only way you are going to beat this is to get a trainer to come in right away and work with you on the training. They can get this under control much faster than you will with non-professional techniques. This is going to take a lot of work and committment. I would suggest making contact with someone right away and then approaching your neighbors by saying "I know this has been an issue for you and I want you to know that we are taking your concerns very seriously and employing a professional trainer who will be working with us starting on _____ and ask that you please be patient. I will let you know after the trainer comes how long they think it will take to get this under control and I am wondering if they have any ways in which you can help if you will be willing to do so since we have common walls" If you can hold back your anger and say this to them with a sincere and calm voice it may stave off them calling anyone.

Good luck!