Dogs and mail delivery people

There are so many things that are so much nicer and more convenient for me in my new house than the old one beyond just switching from a 2-story to a single story home.  So many things that were not apparent to me when I put in the offer.  One of those things is the mail delivery.  Mail is delivered to the house here in Oregon in the early morning whereas the California house was at the very end of the route giving us mail near 5 or 6 at night.  An important difference when you are anxiously waiting for something to come in the mail.😁

In my previous home, all of our mailboxes were grouped, 4 boxes to one post at the curb, meaning the mail person just drove up and serviced all four mailboxes, which happened to be in front of my house, and drove off to the next group, rarely getting out of his truck.  In this house, the mail is delivered through a slot in my front door, which is very handy for me, especially since it snows here.

In the California house, my dog frequently sat on the back of the big chair in the living room adjacent to two large floor-to-ceiling corner windows, giving him a view of all the happenings in the neighborhood.  The only time he would bark is when someone was walking directly up the steps toward my front door.  People could pass on the sidewalk and he would definitely pay attention, but would not bark.  And when the mail was delivered to the 4 boxes at the street in front of my house, not a peep out of him.  His bark was useful to me with my diminished hearing to know when a package was delivered or the Costco groceries were being dropped at the front door.

Since the mail here is delivered to each individual home, the mail person walks from house to house, going across people’s lawns.  And my dog still likes to sit on the back of that same chair that is now placed in front of a big window overlooking my front porch so that he can continue to monitor the happenings going on in the neighborhood.

Only now, he barks very frequently. He barks when he sees the mail truck park down the street.  He barks when he sees the mail person walking house to house across the street.  And he goes extra nuts when the mail person comes up onto my porch to deliver my mail through the door.  He will still bark when a package or the Costco delivery arrives, but nothing like when the mailman is in the neighborhood and I have no idea why.  Fortunately he is not barking at the many people walking past the house.  There are no sidewalks in this neighborhood and everyone walks their dog down the middle of the street.  And we have lots of dog walkers.

And how he can tell the difference between the mail truck and the myriad of other vehicles that come and go from this neighborhood?  You can absolutely tell the difference between his bark alerting that the gardener is cutting my grass versus the bark that the terrifying mail truck is parking in the neighborhood.  And the mail truck parks across the street and three houses down from mine, not in front of my house, which would help to explain why he goes nuts at the site of the mail truck.

And the most irritating thing to me, he was trained to bark loudly to get my attention when necessary, but when I reward him for letting me know, he is supposed to do no more than what I call his quiet bark, more of a funny growl and snuffle, after his warning bark had been acknowledged.  If he does a loud bark again, I have always been able to give him the command and signal to do his quiet bark and he always has obeyed that.  But not since moving here.  I have followed the same routine of reward for the loud bark and warning to do the quiet bark but he is still very agitated and I have to physically remove him to the back bedroom to get him to stop.

When I was first training him, I would go through his list of commands/tricks a few times a day and always again at night before bed to reinforce the lessons.  I have started running him through the list at bedtime again, repeating the loud bark/quiet bark commands a few times and he never fails to get it right.  I just hope he settles down to his normal routine soon because I absolutely hate a barking dog.  

The neighbors cannot hear him barking. I’ve asked.  Fortunately my house is extremely long with the three-car garages on one end and the rarely-used spare bedroom and hallway on the other side, buffering the main area of the house. I keep the door to the garages and that spare bedroom closed the majority of the time.  And the windows are double-paned glass so at least the only person getting annoyed is me.

So after my prolonged explanation, my question is does you dog bark like crazy for the mail person, noticeably more so than any other person coming to your home?  Why the hate for the mail delivery?  We get the retirement community newspaper delivered to our homes, through the same mail slot, delivered by a volunteer of the community and my dog will bark to alert me, but will immediately go to his quiet bark when I acknowledge that I see the newspaper sitting on the mat by the door.  How in the world does he know the difference between someone dropping letters and someone dropping a folded newspaper through that same slot?