We have had some complaints from the neighbour whose house is on our back fence about our dogs barking. They couldn't tell us who was barking most or what they were barking at, or even when specifically, just that they were making a lot of noise. I assumed they were barking at each other over bones, and that maybe they were bored. So we took the bones out of the yard and have been taking them for longer morning walks before we both leave for work. They've also been getting things like Kongs to keep them busy. Today I have a day off so we put the dogs in their daytime yard as usual and I sat in the house to listen to what happened. They had bottles with treats in them that kept them busy for the first ten minutes or so. Then they barked at each other over them a couple of times and swapped bottles and whatnot. Then Penny went and sat at gate and barked on and off but mostly on for the next 30 minutes. When she wasn't barking at the gate she was barking at Kivi, who would bark back. An hour of this was enough to drive me nutty and I went out and opened the gate and 15 minutes on we have blissful silence.
Problem is, the whole point of that gate is that there's a pool on the other side of it. The pool has a skamper ramp in it, and I know for a fact the dogs can climb out via the stairs at the shallow end, but we have put both dogs in the pool to try to teach them where to get out and have so far been unsuccessful. I think we have fixed it so that Penny can get out, but I haven't tested it. Kivi has only fallen in once when he was a pup and has since been pretty careful around the pool, but if he went in he would just cling to the side and scream. If our neighbours were home they would come over, but if they weren't, he could well drown.
The whole point of putting in the pool fence was to keep the dogs away from the pool. However, because of how close the pool is to the house, the fence blocks access to the house and the deck where the dogs like to be when they are outside when we are home. Half the point of getting another dog was that they could keep each other company during the day when we weren't home. So what can I do? We have been putting Penny in the yard away from the deck and the pool for over a month, now, and she still hates it enough that she will sit there at the gate and bark as loud as she can for half an hour or more. I don't know how long she goes because I couldn't stand it anymore. Our neighbour's house is VERY close to that yard, and a little higher. I can only imagine how much worse it is there. But aside from the noise, Penny is not habitually a nuisance barker. I can only assume she is quite unhappy back there away from the house. We have never let her out while she was barking, but it doesn't make any difference to her. She just wants out. She doesn't understand why she should be there. I don't think she barks like that every day, but I also don't think she will get any better if she is still doing it more than a month on.
At this point, I am thinking a pool training session is in order. I tested the waters in the pool yesterday and it's almost warm enough to swim in finally, but you'd want it to be a short swim! Penny loves swimming and she will keep her head if she falls in, but Kivi doesn't like water and I don't want to force him in until he's comfortable enough that he won't panic. I still harbour hopes of turning him into a swimmer. It took 6 months of coaxing to turn Penny's terror of water around, but I'm so glad I put in that work because now she loves it so much.