Puppy has found his voice... And boy does he like to use it! How do I shut him up?

[JulietBravoJuliet]

Pup is a JRT, 19.5 weeks old. He's always been a bit growly at noises, cars, bins, crisp bags blowing... etc, etc, but I went away on holiday last week and left him with a friend, and he seems to have found his proper bark while I've been away.

He goes out the door with his mouth open! Every single noise warrants a barking session, whether it's birds singing, a dog in the distance barking, my neighbours tv being on a bit loud, a bike going past outside. He's woken me up 3 times in the night barking at nothing.

Never had a barky dog before, so what do I do? I'm currently using copious amounts of treats, which work to a degree as he's very food motivated, but I have to stop treating at some point when we're outside so as he can do his business, and then the barking starts. It's driving me potty, so can only imagine my neighbours are going to get pissed off very soon :(

Help!

We have a guarding breed (mini schnauzer, so not massively noisy but not quiet) and when he found his voice I discussed this at his obedience class. The trainers had German shepherds (so knew about barking!) and they said you basically can't. You can teach dogs to bark on cue which helps a bit but you can't suppress the barking instinct.

The only thing that works with our dog is lots and lots of exercise - if he's tired he doesn't care if there are squirrels in the garden!

Fabulous! So I've potentially got 15 years of annoying the neighbours? Eek!

Every other dog I've ever had (variety of collies and collie crosses) have responded to a "Shh!" and I've never had one this reactive to every single noise. Moving house in a few weeks and the neighbours have two dogs, so I can imagine it's going to be noisy :(

I have a JRT mini and he barks like he'll never have another opportunity. Trying to shut him up causes more barking and I'm surprised our neighbours haven't complained. He's 13mo and the noise goes right through me.

Oh dear... Was hoping someone would have some words of wisdom

I've seen people mention kikopup on here a lot. It's basically a set of training videos on YouTube which people have found very helpful. I do sympathise as I've got a very barky terrier!

This is from a Facebook page called Dog Training and Behaviour

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There is always a reason to bark and yelp. Dogs bark to communicate, , sometimes they bark to alert you to noises, sometimes they bark for fun, or because they are excited, sometimes they bark because they are nervous or unhappy. Once you have identified the reason why, or the times she is going to bark you can then work with your dog to bring her barking into a more suitable behaviour.

Unfortunately dogs don’t grow out of a behaviour, they just get better with practice.

So how to stop the behaviour you first have to identify the cause:-

Is your dog excited?
Is your dog nervous?
Is your dog unhappy?
Is your dog frustrated ?.

Dont allow the dog to practice the behaviour,

And eliminate the trigger, if you cannot eliminate it manage it.

Here are a couple of links on helping you to solve the issues of barking
www.caninetlc.com/articles/threebarkrule

voices.yahoo.com/twelve-steps-end-mindless-dog...

I've also taught my dog to bark on cue and then the "shhh" command. I found a good tutorial on YouTube.
But my dog is also a mini schnauzer so she does have that "alert" guard dog breeding and to some extent I have to accept that.
At the moment I am trying T Touches to help her feel generally more relaxed.
I feel your pain!
Good Luck