How the heck do I stop my dog barking??

[BarkBarkBark]

At the end of my tether.

Have a 2ye old dog and a new pup of 14 weeks.

Older dog has always been grumbly. If he hears a noise he will sort of buff under his breath, unless it's the postman then he barks. No big deal.

But since new pup arrived its like they egg each other on.

The older dogs quiet buffing kicks off the little dog barking, which then makes the big dog bark fully.

For instance this morning, around 5am one of the kids gets up for a wee. Older dog does an inquisitive buff and shifts in the bed, little dog goes mental barking at him, then the kids, big dog joins in.

Happens again when kids get up for school.

I don't know what to do or how to stop it kicking off

I have grumpy neighbours and I'm scared they'll report us to the council or something.

When you find the answer please let me know (not helpful at all).
Mine does the buffing thing, drives me just as mad as the proper barking.
I love him to bits but he's a gobby little git.

It sounds counter-intuitive, but you can teach your dog to bark on command first, then once they're doing this reliably you can teach them a different command to not bark (e.g. "quiet" said calmly with a finger to the lips - dogs pick up on body language signals often quicker than verbal cues). Practice it when everything is calm and there are no triggers - so separate training sessions for older dog and puppy. And never shout at a barking dog, however tempting; they'll just think you're joining in and it will egg them on to bark more.

How would I teach him to bark?

You'd set up a scenario with something that would normally trigger him to bark, but with you in control of it - say ringing the doorbell. You ring the bell and a split-second before he barks, you say the command you want to use (e.g. "speak") and give him a treat when he barks. Gradually he'll come to associate the command with barking rather than the trigger (doorbell) IYSWIM?

Plenty of vids on youtube teaching them this trick. Definitely quite easy for a young dog to learn but maybe seperately or they're both just going to go nuts!

Definitely separately! (TBH all training should be done separately as a matter of course or they'll focus on each other rather than you, or you'll miss the right cue to reward one dog for something because you're looking at the other etc etc.)

Praise him when he’s not barking then as someone else said teach him to bark on command.

My command was ‘speak’ clicker/treat & well done

Then when they were barking out with being told to ‘no noise’ was command and it works well and yes don’t train together but if you train pup well enough first your older dog might just do his little woofs as before. My dog is 11 and I don’t think I could be bothered training a puppy now but it’s very rewarding if you manage to successfully train him

Leave a radio on? It sounds like the noise upstairs is waking your older dog and the buffing sounds like a guarding bark. Otherwise sleep both dogs in separate rooms so the buffing doesn’t disturb your pup who then feels the need to join in? This only needs to be temporary until the behaviour stops and you can reintroduce them together.

We play classical music to our dogs at night, this buffers any sounds and has the added benefit of being good for them, apparently. I get up early and don't want to wake them (creaky, old house).

They both sleep in my bed so it's extra annoying. I put sleep sounds on sometimes but DH hates it so I cnat leave it in all night.

I'll try the barking technique

if I were your neighbour I'd be grumpy too. Visit them, apologise and say that you are working on solving this as you don't like it any more than they do.