My dog (Otto the Rescue Pittie) barks at squirrels and the squirrels sit just out of his reach in my backyard trees, chittering and mocking him. Which makes him bark even more wildly.
To keep him from barking, I usually go out and grab low-hanging branches and shake them vigorously, chasing the squirrel off. No squirrel. No barking. Happy neighbors.
But it’s reached the point where the squirrels are onto my game and now they just sit there with whatever nut they have in their mouth, looking at me, chittering and not moving.
The squirrels have won, finally. As they always do eventually.
