Controlling an excitable dog and stopping excessive barking and "zoomies" when they scare the kids...

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Has anyone got any advice on dealing with excessive barking (while we are in the house, triggered by all sorts of things but especially by anybody at all entering and leaving the house - including by entering the house herself, after a walk or even after going out to relieve herself), more times than I can count through the day and continuing for some considerable time once she starts) The "zoomies" are also a huge problem - I appreciate that they are "normal" and not aggressive (or a sign she's actually permanently flipped :) ) but I need to be able to control her - she is a medium sized dog and charging around the downstairs part of the house barking at full volume, flying over furniture, scratching the kids with her claws as she runs literally over them, sometimes knocking them flying etc. just isn't on - and is making one in particular of my children, who has never been scared of dogs in his life, very worried about being inside with her unless she is on a lead, even when I am there too.

Any advice? Please? In this case I can appreciate it is normal behaviour, but I need a way to be in control as she is making the kids afraid to come home :(

Have you got a room or even a bit of corridor that can be fenced off with a baby gate ,that way if she starts to run around manically you can just stick her behind the gate . My dog is prone to over excited barking and biting / grabbing of legs and clothes and I just put him outside of the room for a few minutes and repeat as necessary - they soon catch on .

Thanks Floralnomad - her sleeping area (the hallway) is fenced off with stair gates on the stairs up and down from there and the 2 doors off it can be shut - the problem is it is the entrance to the house and has to be walked through to get from living room to kitchen, or either of the 2 to upstairs... so putting her in there makes us feel like prisoners in whichever room we are then "trapped" in! Aside from that there is no other fence-offable place downstiars, and when I do shut her into her hallway (where her water bowl and sleeping crate and chews are) she takes a very long time indeed to calm down - it seems to make her more worked up in fact, so that it can easily be half an hour til she stops barking and sits down in a corner, looking miserable :/

I have kept a lead on her this morning, and it is the best way I have so far hit on to keep things manageable, but it seems a bit of a make shift temporary option to make things controllable, not a solution.

What breed is she, how old is she and what is she fed on?

Hi Lilcamper - she's a rescue dog, a spaniel mix (its a matter of guess work - suggestions have included Brittany spaniel and a mix of King Charles and working Coker, but there is no way to know for certain as she was found abandoned). She is 2 years old and fed on vetconcept, which is a ridiculously expensive good quality "wet" tinned dog food and what she was on at the foster family.

Whilst in a puppy the zoomies are a part of everyday life, in an adult dog, I would question whether they are getting enough mental and physical exercise.
Ditto the barking tbh. Sounds like it could easily be a lot of pent up energy without an outlet. Try taking dog out for an extra long walk for the next few days and doing a couple of clicker sessions daily on top to tire her out and see if it makes any difference.

Have you taken her to any training classes yet?

My dog is very fond of barking (he's a dachshund, they're renowned for it) but telling him to come and sit, and then praising when he's sitting quietly helps. Obviously this only works if the dog knows (and does!) 'come' and 'sit'. The general idea is that you don't concentrate so much on stopping the undesirable behaviour as on giving them something positive to do instead - does that make sense?

Spaniels can be very high energy dogs - is there anywhere she can run outside - I'd guess she doesn't have yhe good recall needed to be allowed offlead though.

Thanks Whoknows and Errol - what you are both saying makes sense.

Tried a training class on Saturday Errol but it wasn't really very promising - it was billed as a "basics" course for adult dogs but was in fact all about socialising dogs with other dogs - useful for a dog who is hard to walk in public, not much use for one who waits to go nuts til she gets home! There wasn't really any obedience in the sense of teaching commands. The trainer asked me at the end of the session what my priorities for the course are and I told her, and she said basically "oh that's just her style" which left me rather depressed, feeling she had told me there is nothing much I can do about her barking and zoomies. Am looking into other options.

I have trained her to sit at home, before attending the class (lucky as it was assumed the dogs would all do that) just by rewarding her with food treats (she is quite obsessive about food), which is all well and good but she is only guaranteed to obey if I have a treat box in my hand, otherwise it's 50-50!

She keeps getting diarrhoea which I am starting to think is tied to giving her treats, which is making me reluctant to do much food reward based training :/ She has been wormed and checked by a vet and given a clean bill of health so I am suspicious she just has a "weak" stomach...

Her first "zoomy" episode was actually following a very long walk in the rain. As you say Errol she has to be kept on the lead for the moment, so maybe it was excitement at finally being let off Mind you she only flips out once inside the house - not in the garden, where we let her free as it is as secure as it can be. Its not a huge garden, but she could run in it, she doesn't though, she saves that for the house!

I guess we just have to keep looking for a decent/ relevant trainer. We had actually booked for somebody from the charity who rescued her to come to the house yesterday, but after we waited in for them we got a text shortly before they were due to arrive saying they couldn't make it, but would be in touch later, so we are going down a lot of blind alleys trying to address this!

Dogs do zoomies when they are wet...it's what they do.

If she works well with treats why not use them all the time? Tiny bits of roast chicken will be kind to her tummy.

This is a good read on using food rewards paws4udogs.wordpress.com/2012/09/10/lessons-from-shedd-when-can-i-get-rid-of-the-treats/

m.youtube.com/watch?v=wesm2OpE_2c&desktop_uri=%2Fwatch%3Fv%3Dwesm2OpE_2c

The above is an excellent guide to training calmness in a dog by a brilliant trainer. She has loads of others too, which I have used on my pup to great effect. Lots on mumsnet recommend her.

Food wise I am also cursed with a sensitive dog prone to the runs! What I do is divide her food into three portions. Numbers 1 and 2 she gets for breakfast and dinner. Portion 3 is used throughout the day for training,treats,mental stimulation,kongs, find it games on the grass in the garden etc etc.....all to keep her occupied and wear her out. She is a very bouncy 7 month old golden retriever, a breed known for their silliness as puppies but she is so knackered mentally exercised enough by all of this that she is calm and quiet in the house.
You might need to use a kibble (choose a hypo allergenic one) for that part of her ration though, wet food in your pocket would be pretty grim! Commercially produced treats are often full of additives and crap tbh. For extra tasty treats (essential for puppy classes and other highly distracting situations) I use tiny pieces of cooked chicken or liver, which her stomach tolerates well.

Hopefully the trainer from the rescue will show up - they should give you help. The class leader sounds pretty useless.

Read up on clicker training (I'm not an expert) - if you can get the hang of that it might wean her off the food treats.

Introducing some good-quality kibble (my dog has royal canin) should make her less loose too.

Errol, the click should ALWAYS be followed by a treat otherwise it loses it's effectiveness. It is a marker meaning something good is coming, if something good doesn't follow it is pointless.

Oh, I thought I'd read of people using it without treats. As I said, I'm no expert!

Neither am I but I attended a seminar yesterday where one of the subjects was clicker training so it's fresh in my head

Never heard of the food you are using (and cant find with google to look at ingredients list) so this could be completely left-field.......

If she is prone to the runs, it might be she is intolerant to something in the food. Behavioural issues can often be caused by something in the diet.
If it were me, I'd change (very gradually) to a hypo allergenic food. My preference is dried (although i feed it soaked to make a gravy for meals as pup likes it that way) as its easy for use in training but I'm sure there are some good wet ones too.

I think the OP lives in Germany so the dog food brands and training options will be different .

Ah - yes the clue's in the name!