Dog barking.

[deste]

Dexter is 17 months old, he barks at everything, other dogs, someone at the door, postman, birds, planes, window cleaner, in fact anything that moves. We have a large garden that he can play in but when he starts to bark I have to take him in. Im sure someone wise out there knows how to stop it. I can't even shout him in because he has absolutely no recall. This is my DDs dog and she has to go away for 11 months but it's only been 4 days and I am demented. He is a friendly dog, he sleeps a lot but when awake we get the barking. If someone comes in the house he speaks to them and then goes and sits down.

Firstly, is he castrated? wont help with the barking directly but will help him be more settled.

Some dogs bark more than others, mine go ballistic when the postman comes and it always crap myself, bloody terrier yapping goes through you!

What do you do when there is someone at the door? does he go to the door to greet with you? Maybe you can train him away from this - so if someone knocs the door, go to the kitchen, make him sit, give him a really high value treat, do this every time someone comes, make it all very calm but positive. He can then go and say hello to the guests - no barking though, also he can only get attention when he is calm - so ask your guests to ignore him, then call him over.

My rescue terrier used to go ballistic at other dogs, not aggresively, but just high pitched excitable yelling, the same for birds - i just ignored it and walked off, didnt punish the behaviour, im not sure if that is the reason why or the fact that he feels more settled now but it has pretty much stopped.

What triggers him in the garden? can you distract him when he barks? rather than trying to get him in?

Yes he is castrated, when I come in my hands are usually full and I just talk to him, no barking. When my DD or DH come in he goes mad running from the front door to the back. If I go to the door I hold his collar or put the lead on. The window cleaner came today and he barked. I took him out to speak to him, took him back in and he started again. It is the high pitched barking that gets me. If I lived in the country it would be no problem but my neighbour are elderly and I don't want to annoy them. In the garden he hears things I don't notice, it's like he is barking at imaginary things because I look to see if someone is there but usually not.