Help me keep my dog and my house - temporary sound reduction for limited time

[Dogdaydawn]

I need to reduce sound transmission in an area of a room temporarily but keep ventilated.

Hi appreciate you are not a pet forum but I have a physics degree and basic knowledge and I was hoping you would be the group to help me out. Dog backstory below. Problems:

1. I need to reduce reverb. Dog pitches till it bounces well.

2. Neighbor sound transmission through floor, wall and fireplace. (Dog crate does not touch wall)

Would really appreciate a heads up on what below is nonsense and what might help. Also anything I’ve missed. Cheap and temporary. Crate already covered to keep dark.


Thinking:

Option 1: free

- someone gave me acoustic foam panels. Appreciate these seem to be agreed to be useless but I think I could get the refurb down a bit. Position on boards and by trial and error, angles and guesswork work out how best to use. Maybe hang one of the boards with the tiles from ceiling with tape.
- use some spare normal curtains/blankets to muffle reflective walls
-double rug and use all my exercise mats to elevate dog crate.


Option 2: spend a bit of money but undertake no carpentry beyond a staple gun

- mass loaded vinyl matting on floor and one side of crate
- might as well use the free panels but get some other acoustic panels with mass for neighbor walls
- do something with the corners. Maybe rock wool insulation in tube taped up?
- maybe buy soundproof curtains.

Option 3: go ambitious but without contractors. Same as 2 but
- decouple the crate from insulated floor by lifting on to a homemade platform with hollow triangle feet like the dry wall spacers. (Keep away from walls
- could use green glue and mdf and mass loaded vinyl to make larger dense wall panels than I could afford




Dog backstory (tl;dr - she barks at 4am & needs to bark it out and I share a wall with neighbors.)

I have a an anxious dog who has learned due to a period of illness that if she barks we will come. She now wakes up with the birds and barks… she will bark for an hour if we let her. She also does this if she hears the neighbors or a fox or a car at 3am. (And once a burglar)

Have tried dog behaviorist led and vet led solutions (they have confirmed no longer need based.)

The main solution is to unlearn. Which means she needs to bark it out in her home environment. This could take a month or so and we share a wall.

Also I live in a country without Climate Controlled homes and house is over 100 years old.

 

[Keith_W]

You could use a anti-barking collar for your dog. If it detects barking, it emits a noxious stimulant - e.g. a static electricity discharge, an unpleasant smell, a loud ultrasonic sound, or vibration. These are pretty effective - a friend stopped his dog from barking within a few days.

 

[JSmith]

I have a an anxious dog who has learned due to a period of illness that if she barks we will come.

You could use a anti-barking collar for your dog.

Maybe not the first step though if it's due to anxiety;

Barking

Barking is one of many forms of vocal communication for dogs. People are often pleased that their dog barks, because it alerts them to the approach of people to their home or it tells them there’s something that the dog wants or needs....

www.aspca.org

Anti-bark collars are punishment devices and are not recommended as a first choice for dealing with a barking problem. This is especially true for barking that’s motivated by fear, anxiety or compulsion. Before using an anti-bark collar, please see our article, Finding Professional Behavior Help, for information about finding a Certified Applied Animal Behaviorist, a board-certified veterinary behaviorist or a qualified Certified Professional Dog Trainer for guidance.

JSmith

 

[Soandso]

If the issue is to stop barking sound transmission through the common wall into neighbors dwelling then that is about sound proofing. To soundproof you essentially need to have another wall with treated space between it and the original wall.

You believe the dog's behavior will change in a short while and it is already accustomed to being in darkness. Maybe wood carpentry an oversized plywood box spaced around the dog crate with an adequately vented interior circulation fan which you then place as much of your sound absorption materials on and around as you find needed.

 

[kemmler3D]

If you need ventilation and soundproofing then you need a baffled, decoupled space for the dog. Options 1 and 2 will help but probably won't solve it.

I am not sure if it is the best option, but if you build a soundproof box for the dog's crate, it will work. The other solutions might help some, but if the neighbors are complaining, they will still be able to hear the dog.

So don't soundproof the whole room, just make a crate-within-a-crate for the dog?

If you are willing to do this, you could build a box for the crate with a baffled door or vent. Baffled means there is a maze-like structure so the sound can't just go straight out, but you can still get air. You might want to have some small fans to make sure the dog gets enough air, though.

You could even have a plexiglass window on the side for the dog's comfort, I guess.

You will want it to be double-walled and decoupled from the floor somehow also.

This will not be very cheap but should not cost as much as soundproofing the whole room.

 

[Penelinfi]

Don't forget you can also search Google for sound proof dog kennel to get some ideas

Not sure if it helps but maybe a noise generator of some sort so the dog "hears" less things to bark at .
Give it a chew toy perhaps

 

[sigbergaudio]

I suspect sound proofing enough to effectively dampen the sound of a dog barking is not very realistic. Perhaps not the advice you want, but have you considered having the dog in your bedroom with you as opposed to in a crate in a different room to reduce the anxiety? While dogs can be trained to be in a crate all alone, it's not ideal.