My dogs are driving me insane

[lightningbanana]

We have two small terriers, both bitches. They don't shed hair, they are loving and adorable, don't need hours and hours of excessive, adore the children and have never chewed or toileted in the house. They are perfect in every way except for their barking. I've had them both for 8 years.
I've always worked full time while hubby wfh.
This year I have been able to work from home for the first time ever and do so about four days a week and their barking is driving me absolutely insane. They bark every time a bird flies over the garden, when a car drives onto the street, when people walk down the road behind our house and whenever a delivery arrives. It's not just a little bark and then they stop, they go absolutely beserk and their barks are ear piercingly loud and don't stop until I charge into the room and yell at them! When I'm on zoom work calls it's absolutely mortifying and so unprofessional when I have to leap up to stop them barking so I can hear what's being said!

I'm at the point where I really really resent them both and I'm at my wits end because otherwise they are wonderful pets. It's making me miserable!

They never used to be like this at our old house but that was in the middle of nowhere so no traffic or people to trigger them. Our new house is in a town with lots of activity around which I know they're not used to...

What can I do?

can you get a dog behaviourist in to help you?

Are they barking at the sounds of people walking by, or can they see out?

I'd start by having blinds at those windows where they can see things that trigger them, and having a radio or tv on in the room where they are to try and muffle any outside noise.

They can see out on all sides but they also bark at noises too. I've tried closing the curtains so they can't see out but don't want to live in the dark!
I did have blinds on all of the windows but they ruined them by going mental and getting all tangled up in them!

This won’t go down well on here by I’ve used a bark collar on my dog who rather likes the sound of his own voice and patrols our massive garden gobbing off at all and sundry for having the absolute temerity to exist. It doesn’t shock him, it just beeps loudly and then vibrates. I tested it on myself and it doesn’t hurt. It cost £7 from Amazon and has absolutely solved the problem.

How does that work?

Have a look at click the trigger. It really works very well for noise reactivity.

It gives them an electric shock

No it doesn’t. As I said - it beeps and then vibrates. I’ve worn it myself!

E-collars have been banned in the UK, I believe.

Citronella collar might work. When they bark is squirts them in the face 😬

Bark collars do not give an electric shock. They vibrate and beep. No shock involved. We have several very responsible dog owners where I walk who have them and they have been life changing.

I am responsible dog owner with a lovely well trained, perfect pet dog who just happened to think gobbing off in the garden is a great hoot. Training quiet in the house is easy - training quiet in 1/3 acre garden, not so much.

I don’t want to listen to barking and I’d imagine my neighbours don’t either. The bark collar stopped it immediately. I think it’s just a distraction from getting in to the full gobshite woofwoofwoof flow. If we hadn’t used it he wouldn’t be able to spend much time in the garden which would be pretty shit for him!

I made a mistake in my first post; it was £17, not £7 and money well spent imo. As I said - I’ve worn it and shouted my head off; it doesn’t hurt and it certain doesn’t shock. I adore my dog and i’m not a monster!

If my dog ‘gobs off’ in the garden she comes in. She soon learnt that barking = end of garden fun. No scaring or unpleasant sensations needed. Just management on our part. Of course most barking is alert barking so using click the trigger stopped most of it very quickly again with no scaring involved. We’re just left with excitement barking which the above bringing in has stopped.

Ok lets think this through

You put a bark collar on both dogs - the collars are activated by barking. Dog 1 barks and both bark collars go off. Dog 2 has no idea why he is either being vibrated or citronella is squirted in his face.

He is either upset by this and becomes stressed and just on edge waiting for it to happen again or he thinks wtf and carries on regardless as there is no reason for the action of the collar.

Bark collars are never great but in a multi dog household they are horrendous.

Citronella collars - your dog barks and get squirted with citronella the dog stops barking but the citronella smell will stay for ages and ages even when the dog is quiet - what does that teach the dog?

My dog gets barkier if she doesn't have long walks, so perhaps your dogs do need longer walks, but not for the reasons you'd think? They might be bored and have excess energy.

A tired dog is a happy dog.

"5 Best Shock Collars for Small Dogs – PetsTEK" https://petstek.com/blogs/petstek-blog/best-bark-collar-for-small-breeds

Quite a variety

Your poor neighbours. We live next door to several digs including a beagle. The barking was nonstop until there were complaints. I don’t know how they did it but the barking stopped overnight

Luckily for us we are detached and neighbours both sides are very deaf!

I’d start by reducing the triggers as much as you can, for your sanity and so they aren’t keyed up all the time. To prevent them seeing out (without living in the dark!) you can use this type of stuff (just on bottom part of window if they’re small dogs): https://www.purlfrost.com/frosted-window-film/ I’ve used this (for the same reason!) and it works really well, and comes off window with no fuss if you decide you don’t need it any more.
Playing some music or white noise to drown out sounds and tiring them out with more walks/training/sniffing games might help.
Then this seems a sensible training approach to tackle it longer term https://www.battersea.org.uk/pet-advice/dog-advice/how-stop-your-dog-barking

Train them not to. Start by as people have said, removing as many triggers as you can. When they are barking give them the command eg: quiet. When they take a break from barking reward them. Repeat. It does take time and commitment.

most terriers need lots of exercise and mental stimulation so could try upping that and see how it goes. Try distracting them so their focus is on you when the noise is happening is something else you could try. Failing that, see a dog trainer for a few sessions to see if you can get some advice. Good luck with it all

I don't recommend the vibrating collars when you have two dogs, because we tried them on ours and they kept setting each others off which really wasn't fair. Also hated how older dog looked so frightened.

@IngGenius the citronella collar works by the vibrations when the dogs barks. The sensor sits on the throat.

Another dog barking won't set it off.

Stopped my terrier barking at every little thing really quickly. Then I just put a normal collar on.