Please please tell me how to stop my dog from barking. It is going to break me.

[SilentBoob]

She is a year old.
She is a rescue dog.
She is very challenging in many respects and I am fine with that - she has not had an easy life and she'll get there. I can cope with the weeing and the mouthing and the chewing and leaping on the children and the stealing food and the total lack of recall and the refusal to stay off the couch.

But I cannot cope with the barking.

It is fucking incessant. She barks from inside the house. She barks in the garden. She just LOVES it. She is so happy when she is standing shouting obscenities at all and sundry. She has many anxious behaviours, but this doesn;t seem to be one of them - she is just happy when she is barking.

She had an excruciating bark - a very loud yapping. All. The. Time.

I have had such a day of it. I can't cope with it. Help me with this, please.

A couple of times today I have honestly felt like bloody walloping her. I wouldn't. But please give me some advice.

I had a dog like this. He was a sheltie cross. very noisy

I never really got him to stop. I could do it while there was nothing else going on around him, but if I spoke to someone over the fence or on a walk etc he would just bark incessantly beside me. As he got older he went deaf and stopped barking. It was lovely and quiet then.

I can only suggest you try training him to know the command quiet.
Do it little and often, as soon as he is quiet for a moment give him a treat. Then introduce a command like quiet. It will be easier with a clicker device.

If you do it often enough he should come to learn that not barking means a treat and you should be able to extend the time he has to be quiet before he gets a treat.
However it is very difficult to stop them when they are excited or enforce it when you are distracted so don't try it in these situations at first, as you will be almost training him to fail iyswim!

I've got an ex yapper. When he's barking, I say 'enough' in a loud firm voice, and when he looks at me in that second I say, in the sweetest voice I can, 'Thankyoooo' :)

it doesn't always work for long, but we all fall about laughing at the puzzlement on the dogs face and how daft it sounds. So if nothing else, trying this might give you a laugh too!

He also used to dash outside to bark at the world, and one day I discovered he knew the word 'in'. I think he must have been booted up the bum in his previous home as it works immediately and he scuttles back in, tail between his legs. So now I just open our side window and shout 'in' and he comes back, and so does my other dog too now! He's gradually learning that we really aren't that pleased about him barking at everything.

Have you tried that spray stuff? It's just air in a can but they don't like the hiss and it stops unwanted behaviour.

May be controversial on here (not that I care) but it's the only thing that helps my OCD dog with some of her bad habits.

Pet corrector I think it's called..

I would try fruitshoot's technique. Give command eg 'quiet', if he stops barking for a second click and treat. Repeat ad nauseam.

I think clicker training may well be the way forward with this dog. I just need to do some research and find a clicker from somewhere.

My dog goes nuts any time an animal comes onto the TV and gets a really angry, wild look (well, as angry and wild as a cavalier king charles spaniel can get). TV animals only escape his wrath if they're wearing clothes, so meerkats are ok... We're pretty sure he views the tv as some sort of portal so barking is necessary to stop a load of animals jumping through into our lounge.

He is also attempting to enforce a no-fly zone over our garden so anytime a bird flies over (or some low-flying aircraft) he starts shouting at them. Although he will be quiet when we tell him where garden-barking is concerned. With the tv, the only option is to change channel or switch it off.

We resorted to the pet corrector hissy spray. It worked at first but then he just started ignoring it. So I will watch this thread with interest to see if anyone has any tips!

Definitely try clicker training. Although I've used the same technique without the clicker, for Mouse, on the basis that I keep losing/misplacing the clicker

A voice command/noise seems to work just as well, for us. Out on walks, we use one of his smaller squeaky toys - squeak and treat

I believe the correction has to be immediate, and certain to happen every time, to work (same with people "If you smoke cigarettes then in forty years you might get cancer" doesn't work, but "If you light up a cigarette in this office/bar/restaurant you will have to leave" does).

I know some people who use a sound-sensitive device that hoots loudly (in a dog-audible way) whenever it hears a barking dog, and they say it works, though it upsets their other (non-barking) dog.

dashing out but will pop back with some training ideas to help.

Stay away from aversives not only are they horrid but they will make the barking worse.

I know that the aversives are deeply horrid and very frowned upon but I have to say it worked for us.

Our dog is also a barker for fun. She is not anxious, not guarding and just enjoys a great shout in the garden. We got one of the spray collars. It makes a little pffft of air when she barks loudly. It took her 2 or 3 barks to learn and now she has massively reduced her bark rate. She hardly ever wears the collar now but if she gets a bit of a bark in her we put it on to miraculous effect. we don't even have the batteries in it any more. She has learnt to do a more muffled woof that doesn't set it off but its not as irritating as her loud shrieky yap.

It has made the difference between getting on with the neighbours and dh or neighbours at war. Worth it.

I would say that you could only use this with a happy confident dog though - a rescue dog could well find it a bit more frightening.

ok well you mentioned, jumping at children, mouthing, chewing. she shouldnt be doing any of that without getting disciplined and it can all be related due to nerves, stress. its hard to say how anyone can help without actually seeing the dog. maybe you should speak to your vet or a trainer? is she panting/drawling when she barks? does there have to be noise when she barks? do you know her background?

I saw Cesar Milan dealing with this the other day and he started by training the dog to bark to a command, which I know is counter intuitive but if you can then train it to stop. I know he's contraversial but I seem to remember it was done with a positive approach.

have a look

I have two barkers! I also have a 4mnth old baby. It is doing my head in.

I have no advice though sorry I just end up shouting at them in a loud whisper sort of shout

I think the baby will learn to sleep through it before the dogs learn not to bark at the door/the neighbours dog/kids playing/a butterfly daring to fly past the front door......

First you do need to generally bring down all the stress levels.
I would get a DAP collar and see if this works

I would also get her a quiet safe area and start to get her more chilled in the house. I would increase the exercise slightly but not mad rushing about, steady walking. More training will tire her out and stimulate her without getting her hyper. I know this can be hard when she is doing your head in but it will help!

Re the barking go for prevention as much as possible (I can hear you sigh and get exasperated with me - hang on in there!).

If she barks at people or looking out of the window etc prevent her from getting into those situations.

The minute she barks remove her from the situation. Ignore her and put her in another room. She will probably carry on barking ignore this for a while.

See what happens with this - she may get worse before she gets better. Do this for a day or two if it does not work there are 100s of other methods to use.

Bark collars do not train dogs to stop barking - it may stop a dog to change his bark whilst wearing the collar but if the battery runs out or the spray runs out the dog will bark again. Aversives with an already nervous emotional dog will just make things worse or give a different but equally challenging behaviour.

Stay away from Cesar Milan methods - unless you want more trauma on your hands.

What type of dog?

can i hijack and get some advice from minimuu please? I have an ABD female just over one year old and a staff cross ABD male 2 1/2 years old.

as far as I know there's no anxiety, we've had female from pup and male from 7 mnths but its her thats the problem not him, (although he's starting to pick up on it) she will not stop barking, its when people come to the door, male will bark once or twice but female doesn't stop, the whole time someone is there talking on doorstep/coming in. this only happens while they are crated, if not crated they will stop barking as soon as someone steps in the house but some people are scared of big dogs so I do need to crate them sometimes or for strangers like delivery men as they aren't coming in dogs will continue barking.

hope that makes sense, if you have any advice I would appreciate it :)

Keep your chin up,you sound a lovely person doing a great job in difficult circumstances.

cesar milans methods works best i think, weve always had guarding breeds of dog and terriers, both which can tend to bark alot. though cesar milans methods are really for people who are quite strong minded and who are persistant in seeing it through so you have to be in the right frame of mind. other wise look up someone like victoria stilwell. though if nothing works it is best to see a vet as could be stress related, lots of dogs have to take tablets for nerves. hope something works for you, sounds like your at the end of your tether

This post will make me sound bolshy but here goes

misslala1987 how do you know that CM methods work best?

His methods do not work long term, they will always cause an alternative behaviour which is generally worse than the first behaviour.

Aversive methods do not work in dog training.

can I call you Dany! It is a stress response to visitors. The reason she does not bark when out of her crate is that she feels more in control eg can walk away if she needs to. Can you set up the situation have a friend come for a milisecond and immediately walk out of the house again. If she is very quick the dog may not start barking click and treat. If she does bark she will stop the minute the friend walks out click and treat, gradually build up the time the person stays and click and treat the minute there is a break in the barking.

Oh so many posts and so much advice. Thank you all.

I can only speak for my dog and I truly feel that any kind of punishment training would be counter productive for her. I want her to relax and calm down, not add to her worries. I have not heard of Cesar Milan - will google, but will bear in mind criticisms.

She is an extremely anxious 1 year old Saluki / Collie cross with a very unsettled background. Everything about her is nervy. She is all elbows and desperate to please and unpredictable and unsure and mostly can't do right for doing wrong.

We live in a country where her options are us or nothing. No rescue places, government culling schemes, little vet support, no training support.

It's not ideal for anyone, but looking at her now curled happily exhausted on her bed with her toys she is definitely better off with us than not.

Re the barking. Well, I posted at the end of my tether on a particularly bad day, and I thank you all for the sympathy and support and advice. I have started reading about clicker training. I have also found that telling her a firm, quiet "Enough!" and walking away is effective - though not all the time of course. Either she has been better since I posted or I have not been on my last nerve quite so much.

I love the idea of a DAP collar and will try and get hold of one next time someone flies out to us.

I am also going to work an extra walk a day into her routine. She enjoys her walks and is beautifully behaved on the lead.

As for the other behaviours... well. One thing at a time. I simply cannot be on her case for every little thing. It would make her life and mine miserable. I tend towards prevention at the moment. It's just easier.

Oh, she has a crate in a quiet spot which she happily sleeps in, but she never ever goes in there voluntarily during the day. I used to out her in it when we had visiting children, but she started barking when in there. She likes to be with the people.

The next thing I need to work on is her inexplicable recent pooing and weeing habits. She has pretty much constant access to the garden and has been praised for weeing and pooing in it, yet she will hold off going for HOURS and go to extraordinarily sneaky lengths to wee and poo in the children's bedroom. Obviously I keep the door closed, and have put a baby gate on the stairs - she shouldn't ever be in there in theory. I can't tell you how often I stand looking at ANOTHER puddle (or sometimes a squeezed out couple of drips) or a pile of poo scratching my head and wondering if she squeezed through the keyhole to do it. It's like she is on constant alert to seize any opportunity to wee or poo in there. She does it elsewhere in the house too (3 carpets currently at dry-cleaners). But this mission in the kids room is something else. Baffling to me. She is very anxious about her toilet habits. I think she was shouted at for weeing in the wrong place with a previous family. So I never see her do it, and obv never tell her off for it. Just praise the good and ignore the bad. Any ideas about this one?

Hi Silentboob,
I just wanted to say hi really. I totally know how you feel. We have a saluki cross too (possibly collie/GSD/retriever in there somewhere as well). I suspect you are in the Middle East too? It's such a hard place to have a dog isn't it?

We didn't actually choose our dog - we kind of got stuck with her, after we took her in for emergency fostering and then failed to find her a forever home. It's so hard when dogs are not welcome ANYWHERE in the country and training opportunities, equipment, support etc are so few and far between. Because we never actively went to get a dog, it's made it harder for me to cope with her, I guess.

Ours is a barker too, maybe it's the breed? Salukis (including ours) are incredibly nervy and I must admit to losing my rag with her more than once when she was a puppy - I really regret it now as I can tell it's damaged our relationship.

Anyway I know how you feel. It's hard, especially here. We have made HUGE progress with ours and she is coming on so, so well. Salukis are apparently very challenging dogs to own and train, so I feel proud that she's come on so well.

Re: the peeing, I think you're going to have to put her on a house line and take her outside like a puppy every hour and give treats. I know it's hard when she won't pee in front of you. Maybe start with walking her on a long line and showering her with praise when she eventually pees, even if out on a walk. That should eventually get her over the 'can't pee in front of a human' thing. Then have her on leash in the house and try and encourage/force her to go in the garden (ours once got funny about going in the garden and I eventually ended up sitting out there with her for 8 hours until she finally caved in and went - that was a fun day....) and shower her with praise and treats when she does. If you can be there for EVERY pee, you might crack it in a couple of weeks.

Best of luck :)

PS Look at why she won't pee in the garden any more - ours refuses to pee if the gardener has been in there watering the soil, or if she has been burying food out there. We had to put an end to both!

Should change my name to hopetobeadogowner

But, watched its me or the dog the other day where 2 sisters had 3 bichon frises who yapped & barked all the time. Victoria got some chicken & everytime they barked she said SHhh & as soon as they did she treated them. Within minutes they grasped the concept & then of course it was over to the sisters to keep it up. Which they tried really hard with, but managed.

I was impressed & there was no air in the face spray which I've seen her use on aggressive dogs.

(I have been the dog sister of a naughty westie so interested in training practises)