AIBU to re-home my dog?

[Aw12345]

Please be nice because I'm very upset.

We have a 4 year old schnauzer, lovely dog, very very good with out toddler (14 months) but we have 1 massive issue... Barking.

It's come to a head today because DH is away with work and DS slept badly so has been shattered today poor little guy. Having a breakdown about everything because he's so tired. Anyway he fell asleep at about 11 and was woken up not long later by barking from the dog

I've driven for ages to try to get him back to sleep but he's too hungry to sleep, too tired to eat. Poor little guy.

This has happened loads of times before too, also we've only tried to go out once since having baby but babysitters arrival triggered barking, which woke baby

We have paid a behaviourist but her advice hasn't stopped the barking, dog gets 2 walks a day and goes to doggy daycare regularly so he's got loads of stimulation and doggy time.

I don't know what else I can do, we cant go on like this

Sounds tough OP. Could the day care be attributing to the barking? Would it be an option to not send him?

What’s be barking at, anything in particular?

What advice did the behaviourist give? Barking is relatively easy to stop

An ant-bark collar should solve that. Why the heck would you rehome a dog before trying that?

Try everything first op, defo try an anti bark collar

I can't believe you'd consider dumping your dog for barking. If your child is 14 months then the situation won't go on forever.
My dog barks when anyone comes to our house, and my children (2 and 4) have learned to sleep through it.
What have you actually tried to stop the barking?

Op I feel for you because these threads always go the same way and you will get flamed.

We have tried an anti bark collar but it didn't work (well it did at first but not for long). Tried one that emits a high-pitched noise and another that sprays them with water when they bark.

Behaviourist advised training 'discs' that you throw on the floor and distracts them from the barking, again these worked at first but not for long

He didn't go to doggy daycare when I was on mat leave because we couldn't afford it but sadly the barking was just as bad

I love him so much but my poor baby is literally severely sleep deprived and I have to prioritise him

What is your dog Barking at and has he always been like this

He barks at almost anything, and sometimes we have no idea why he's barking. Mostly when people come to our house.

Whilst you are trying to address the barking, is there anything you can do to minimise the effect on your DS - extra soundproofing or white noise?

You need a better behaviourist! training discs, anti-bark collars etc. are all hideously outdated aversives which will just add to his stress and make the barking worse. I'm horrified that any practising behaviourist would still suggest such a thing. Have a look here to find other behaviourists in your area and make sure they use positive training techniques.

Schnauzers do bark a lot. There are anti-bark collars with vibration, with vile-smelling citronella stuff, and with electrostatic shock. One of them will work if you use it consistently for a while.

Ok so your dog barks at people coming to the house. Surely their running on the bell etc will wake your son anyway?

Or is he constantly barking. Does it wake you up at night etc? I’m a bit unclear why it’s suddently an issue now.

Please please don't get rid of your dog can it not be that your dog is bored and that's why he barks can you not take him out more than twice a day or even get a dog walker if possible

You’ve not bothered to train the dog, and now you want rid.

I think you’re irresponsible but if you can find a decent home it’s best alround.

I'm old school and believe a dog is for life. So suck it up is my response.

Having a dog that barks is very tiring - or a dog who is a squeaker or is demanding. However, you can't just rehome him for that, it's not fair. How much exercise does he have? Is he bored? And is he understimulated?
My suggestion would be to try clicker training, find a better behaviourist and see if you can put the tv/radio for the dog to distract him from barking.
My dog barks a lot when people come to the house and it gets very wearing but there's no way I'd rehome him. If he is a rescue maybe you could try speaking to the place he came from. If not maybe speak to a breed specific rescue to see if they can recommend a good behaviourist in your area?

Well, schnauzers are very vocal dogs - while you can probably limit the barking, you're never going to get him to stop completely. I sympathise on this - we have a beagle and he can be very loud when he wants to be - however exercise, training and brain games help massively.

How long are his walks, and are you sure they're stimulating enough? Are you taking him to new places and giving him enough chance to run about off-lead and let off steam? Does he have enough time to sniff and wander and just be a dog?

What do you do with him in the house? Does he get any training or brain games or chews to keep him occupied, for example?

Ours has a minimum of 90 minutes walking a day, either on a run with DH, or off-lead at the beach or nature reserve with me. Three days a week, my FIL takes him out for another 90 minutes early afternoon. The other four days, he's home with one of us and gets chews or training sessions to keep him busy.

I've trained him to do lots of random things - he knows the name of his toys, he can do things like roll over, spin around, walk between my legs/around me in a circle. Nothing especially "useful" as such but it tires him out and keeps him busy, plus it's great fun watching him "click" when he figures out a new trick.

Barking when someone comes to your house is normal - but you can desensitise him to it. Victoria Stilwell has some great advice on door manners and her videos are free on YouTube.

Please, OP, anti-bark collars are horrible devices – don't electrocute animals for doing what animals do.

First thing is to check out whether it's boredom barking, defensive barking, alarm barking... what specifically is triggering it, and what are his patterns? Noticing these will help you tackle it in a positive way, especially since it does seem odd that it's only just become a problem now.

Then get clear on what you want to happen when that trigger starts.

For example, do you want him to go to his bed and sit down when someone approaches the house? Come and get you?

Just punishing the behaviour won't work – you'll just end up with a scared or resentful dog (and rightly so). You need to train him into doing something else to replace it.

This will take time and energy, though – with my rescue it was 3 months of daily work, first teaching her that good things happened when there were noises outside (by good things I mean peanut butter), and then teaching her to go to her bed when the doorbell went.

She was coming out of trauma, though, so it took a bit longer than I'd have expected with a well-adjusted dog.

Those anti barking citronella collars have saved my sanity. Our dog is a sweetheart, calm and placid - until night time when he goes into 'guard' mode and barks at every tiny noise.

I didn't sleep for weeks, then the vet suggested the collar. It simply sprays citronella into the air whenever he barks and it distracts him and he stops. Immediately. Now if I know he's gearing up for a bad night I'll put it on him and he knows not to bark. It's completely humane and saved him from the pound (not really)...

It's completely humane

How would you like to be sprayed in the face with a foul-smelling liquid every time you spoke? It's not humane at all - it's an aversive training method and shouldn't be used.

It works because your dog is now scared of barking, not because he's learned to do something else instead.

So thus far you have tried punishing the bark with nasty smells, punishing the bark with a nasty sound, punishing the bark with pain?

Punishing the bark isn't working, nor will it, because it does not address WHY he is barking, nor does it teach him to do anything as an alternative.

What training and mental exercise does your dog do?

I suggest scatter feeding twice a day and food dispensing toys several times a day.

Also, block his view of passing pedestrians/traffic/cats etc by using frosted window film on windows that offer such a tantalising and frustrating view.

Teach him that the door bell is a cue to go to his bed, its quite simple, because all your trained cues like 'sit/down/come' are simply sounds just like the doorbell is a sound.

Get a new remote doorbell, before you fix it to the door, pair the sound with the action of sitting in his bed, so you ring the bell, chuck a treat in his bed, ring the bell, treat in the bed.. when he runs to his bed from no matter where he is when the bell sounds, you can start to increase the time between getting to his bed and getting the treat. When he can go there AND WAIT.. then fix the door bell to the door and instruct people to use it.

Meantime, stick a note on the door saying you are training your dog, and may take some time to answer the door -t his means you can stop rushing, ask the dog to go in his bed for a treat and answer the door calmly.. and all that reduces the stress and arousal that triggers barking.

You can also teach a bark on cue/shush on cue (you teach both at the same time with the treat presented almost UP his nose whilst you say SHHH.. very few dogs can sniff and eat a treat AND bark so he WILL shush (because he was barking because you asked him to) and eventually you can also use that to shut him up when necessary.

Dogs bark for a reason, unfortunately one of those reasons its that its enjoyable to do. You need to meet his needs, remove his stress AND ensure he has more enjoyable things to do than barking.

None of the punishment based gadgets or methods will achieve this.

Carry on down that route and you'll eventually need to give him a jolt off the mains electric to shut him up and that still won't work and likely will cause other behaviour problems to arise.

Stop punishing your dog for being a dog.

The behaviourist you saw... is not a behaviourist, was it bark busters? Chucking the discs simply interrupts the barking, pairing the discs with the removal of reward is how they are meant to be used... and is a devastating psychologically damaging experience for many dogs, hopefully you didn't do that.

Btw, citronella collars are a LONG way from humane.

Imagine someone squirting lemon essential oil directly up YOUR nose, what about epsom salts, right up your nose... those would BURN.

A dogs sense of smell is far superior to yours, and so citronella and other scents are not simply unpleasant but physically painful.

In addition, the discomfort and pain from that squirt lasts for ages, potentially punishing the dog for hours after, making it cruel AND a really ineffective punishment.

The breed barks a lot. My friend has one, he knows me well, I pet sit regularly and he still barks when I arrive.

If you want to tackle the barking you need a better behaviourist. If you're not prepared to invest time, effort or money you're failing the dog you took on.

OP we have a Schnauzer. She reached the top level of obedience and is a gold award kennel club good citizen. She loses her mind if anyone she doesn't know comes into the house. The noise is something else. They are a watch dog so this is their nature.

Is yours crate trained? Mine goes in hers to calm down. Otherwise I think try and separate them as much as possible during nap time. I knew schnauzers were a 'chatty' breed but if I'd know how much I may well have chosen differently. I'm not even sure distraction works with them, I once gave mine a Kong full of peanut butter and chicken scraps and she still left it to come and bark at the visitors.