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How scary! Don't pull him out. He's hiding because he's afraid. Sounds like afraid of your yelling at him. Why do you need to have him come out from his hiding spot? Have you tried keeping him in the house for the hour or so when the neighbors generally come home?
I hate my dogs barking at the neighbors too and they have to come inside if they start up. When we are gone the dogs are in the house so if they do bark at least it's muffled.
I have little yappy dogs, see my avatar. A dog's original job was to bark to alert to something going on so I've worked to get the dogs to come to us which stops the yapping. A couple alert barks are allowed but nothing more than that. Change your thinking from dog is being scary to dog is announcing. Dog is praised to the skies for the alert AND coming. Unsure which the dog thinks the praise is for, one is never quite sure how the dog mind works. Yesterday the dogs caught a squirrel. I blocked off the dying animal and called them into the house. They happily came for a cookie which they richly deserved for coming away from a super fun toy. If they hadn't had all the rewarding for coming in for barking I doubt they could have left something as exciting as a squirrel. Neither dog has particularly high prey drive but still.
The way it works best here is when I'm moving around the door is open for dogs to be outside. When I sit back down the dogs come back inside so they are allowed outside about half the day. This means if barking starts up I'm already up so able to get them inside to stop the barking faster and they must miss plenty of fun reasons to bark when inside.
I hate my dogs barking at the neighbors too and they have to come inside if they start up. When we are gone the dogs are in the house so if they do bark at least it's muffled.
I have little yappy dogs, see my avatar. A dog's original job was to bark to alert to something going on so I've worked to get the dogs to come to us which stops the yapping. A couple alert barks are allowed but nothing more than that. Change your thinking from dog is being scary to dog is announcing. Dog is praised to the skies for the alert AND coming. Unsure which the dog thinks the praise is for, one is never quite sure how the dog mind works. Yesterday the dogs caught a squirrel. I blocked off the dying animal and called them into the house. They happily came for a cookie which they richly deserved for coming away from a super fun toy. If they hadn't had all the rewarding for coming in for barking I doubt they could have left something as exciting as a squirrel. Neither dog has particularly high prey drive but still.
The way it works best here is when I'm moving around the door is open for dogs to be outside. When I sit back down the dogs come back inside so they are allowed outside about half the day. This means if barking starts up I'm already up so able to get them inside to stop the barking faster and they must miss plenty of fun reasons to bark when inside.
