Barking - not sure how to go about it!

[DoesItWearingWellies]

Our lovely (and still young) 9yo boy is a barker. He barks at the phone, the oven and microwave timers, the doorbell, the outer front door opening, the front gate, the neighbours gates, our cars, car doors opening/closing if he thinks they are ours and the toaster when it pops. If he's heard us say something like "Daddy's on his way home", he grumbles the whole time then goes bananas when DH opens the outer front door until he comes into the house.

For DH/DDs/me coming home, when he hears either the car/gate, he will run between the front door and whoever is in the house "telling" us the other family member is coming home.

He also barks at DD1's guinea pigs and rats if they are being held or talked to (which I feel is jealousy, but feel free to correct me if I'm wrong).

He only started barking at about 2/3 years old. We have tried ignoring him, tried rewarding him for stopping, tried rewarding him when he stopped for a 'no' or 'quiet' command, tried distracting him and have tried consistently for the past 6 years (!) and are just not sure what to do as he has actually got worse to the point where my parents don't like to have him for the day if we are going somewhere and can't take him, as they can't stand his barking and grumbling.

He was such an easy puppy to train and is otherwise impeccably behaved, so I can't understand why he's just not getting that we don't want him barking.

Can anyone help me please?

TIA

[alice15]

One way of dealing with this is to train them to bark on command - should be quite easy if he barks that much - wait for situations when he's going to do it anyway, give the command as he does it and praise him lavishly for it. You can then move on to giving the command at times when he wasn't going to do it anyway, praise (and reward) him for barking when you told him to, and then praise him for stopping when you tell him to. Once he starts and stops on command at times of your choosing, you can then move on to giving the stop command when he's barking when you don't want him to. If you are going to do this, you have to remember to lavishly reward stopping, as you have done before. If barking is so addictive that it's more enjoyable to him than any reward, then this method may not work; but if it's really that he doesn't understand, it can be a good way of getting the concept across.
Disclaimer: I have had 2 dogs (among my many) that I have trained to bark on command, but in neither case was it so easy to train them to stop. However, it didn't make barking at other times worse, and I do know people who have been pleased with the method above!

[DoesItWearingWellies]

Thanks, alice. He does bark on command for "call" or "tell" and will stop when we tell him, which is partly why I don't understand why he won't stop when he's barking because he's reacting to a noise.

I'm a bit worried that by distracting him from barking with a bit of broccoli stalk, then give it to him when he stops, that we are actually rewarding him for barking?