Cockerpoo

[Sunrise12]

Hi all I have a 2 year old Cockerpoo and he barks at everything - when he is not the centre of attention, when someone walks past the house, when my neighbour comes and goes literally everything - we live on a road with loads of footfall. We have tried lots of different ways to stop him. He is a happy little guy not nervous but loves to bark. My neighbour has started to send me text messages saying the noise is becoming a problem they says he is worse when we leave him alone at home, yes sometimes he will bark for a short while but this is not the case all the time as we have a camera. I totally feel for my neighbour as there are a lot of barking dogs on our road including ours it’s a small community of terraced homes. What upsets me is they are saying he is distressed. The neighbour moved in 6 months ago and has two elderly dogs of there own, they are also a police officer. What can I do? I have a very low paid job as a TA so cannot afford doggie day care.

We had this issue with our youngest dog, she was definitely a barker. It started impacting all of our lives because it went from just reacting to stimuli around her, to barking all day and night for apparently no reason. Neighbours also complained about the noise when we left her alone. In the end I found a, now don't attack me MNers, a humane "shock collar". Which doesn't shock at all!!! Basically every time she barked it midly vibrated against her neck and made a loud beeeep noise, she would immediately stop barking and starting searching for the beep noise. She was never distessed with the collar. It was just a distraction technique after we had tried, like you say, pretty much everything else. We started using the collar while we were home and every time it worked we would give her a treat! In the end we only needed it on her while we were out, and the rest of the time the barking was hugely reduced!!

Oh yes let’s use a shock collar to make up for our piss poor training. No. PP should have revoked their dog instead of subjecting it to what most decent owners, vets and the dog community consider to be traumatic ‘training.’

Sorry, OP. But your dog sounds under stimulated and miserable. Happy dogs don’t bark when their owners vanish from the house. And just how long are you gone for?! You need to find a better solution than leaving your dog for ages. Unfortunately, if your dog is barking your neighbour is well within their rights to report it - it sounds ATM like they are genuinely concerned for your dogs welfare. But as someone who lived next to someone with a barky dog, that sympathy won’t last forever

What techniques have you tried? Just so other people won’t be recommending techniques you’ve already tried.

Cockerpoos are a mix of two energetic and working breeds so will require mental stimulation as well as physical exercise. How much exercise does he get a day and what games do you do with him? He sounds likes he’s bored.

We paid for multiple obedient training schools and we put everything into our dogs. We had 3 and the other 2 responded really well but our trainer said the youngest was just a lot more hyper and anxious, it was in her personality, she never settled, whether we were there or not. It was him who recommended the collar. As I said it wasn't a shock collar at all. Just a distraction technique, it would have worked just as well if I followed her around and pressed a beep button every time she barked, which many owners do as a training technique, with many different types of animals. Don't make assumptions off 1 small paragraph you read.

Is your dog getting enough exercise and stimulation?

@Mamofboys5972 i’ll make presumptions all I want, thanks - because I know how these collars work. Even if the US they’re considering banning them - which tells us a lot.

Some dogs can never handle being left alone, or living in certain conditions or a cannot do ABC. Whether you want to admit it or not, you failed your dog by using a training technique no ethical owner or trainer would ever advocate for. If you could not help your dog through its issues then you should have rehome.

All you have done is teach your dog that every time it expressed fear or terror it would be shocked. You can claim it was a training technique a you want, but it wasn’t. It was cruel and senseless and no one who loves their dog would willingly silence it when their dog expressed terror or concern. There is a huge difference between inflicting pain on your dog and use a beep button or a whistle - please do not compare the two.

Battersea, the RSPCA and a variety of animal charities called for years for them to be banned. And they are now (I just remembered). So not only are you advocating for something cruel, it’s also illegal. But please, enlighten us as to how it’s ethical and good.

@LandSharksAnonymousokay, you didn't read my post correctly. I used the term "shock collar" as its easy understood. But it only beeped and made a small vibration. You can't even buy shock collars anymore where I live. So there was no pain, no torture, no terror at all. We did rehome her in the end. But the new owners had the same issues, we kept in touch through local dog walks and trainers. You've assumed we were using rhe collar to physically harm our dog and I would just never do that. The beep is completely comparable to a beep button, because that's exactly what it was. Whether you believe that or not. There was zero shock element to it.

Yes they are illegal, and as I just said, you can't even buy them anymore. So that's not at all what I used 🤷🏻‍♀️

https://thewoofwhisperer.co.uk/products/stop-your-dog-barking

We bought something like this.

I absolutely agree. How long is the dog left alone? Cockerpoos are often highly strung anyway so in the long run I think this collar will make the poor dog worse. Barking is what dogs do and it's cruel to use these collars instead of training.

Out of interest why did you get a dog? And if you can’t afford daycare can you afford vets bills.

He sounds bored, we live next to a cockerpoo and the wo wo wo nature of his bark is a bit irritating but this little dog is walked twice a day and has acres of land to run around and he still barks quite frequently during the day.

I've also used a humane anti-bark collar with success. His breed is prone is barking and we use it when we have to go out (rarely and never for more than 2h generally). It will make a beep when he barks, we actually don't even turn it on now- once he sees it, he knows it's time to stop.

BUT it sounds like your dog might be being left for long periods of time? Are they being walked for an hour or so before being left? A tired dog will generally settle quickly.

Also, generally barking at passer by etc can be a training issue- do you follow the three bark rule, ie, they can bark three times, after which you interupt and redirect? Might be worth looking into.

Thank you. I have actually forgotten how toxic it can be on this forum. I did not wish to start a negative discussion between anyone.

How long is your dog left alone for?
It should be no longer than 4 hours at a time and preferably not just 4 hours with a quick walk then 4 more
However long it is your dog is not coping and if you can't afford any kind of daycare or a walker how did you think it was going to work?
Poodles are really clever and need mental stimulation and Cockers are hyper and need physical stimulation so a mix of those 2 is unlikely to ever be happy left alone for long

We are sorting it thank you.

Nearly every cockerpoo I know seems to do this. I think the poodle part is often underestimated by new owners and they need A LOT of brain games and stimulation. Sadly I know a few who got them purely because they are allergic to dog hair/dander and were quite possibly not a good fit temperament-wise for a dog that can get a bit neurotic. I think it is a huge character trait of clever dogs if they aren't busy and one small walk a day isn't going to cut the mustard. They need time off lead, playing games, lots of sniffing and decent walks where they actively socialise. I always see oodles being scooped up either because they get lairy around others or they can't seem to socialise well.

I always say to anyone considering a crossbreed imagine the worst traits of BOTH breeds and then imagine a dog with ALL of them, its entirely possible.
Cockerpoos are often a mix of the intelligence of a poodle and neurotic hyperness of a Cocker, not a great combination.
Its like Labradoodles, permanently hungry and smart enough to figure out how to steal food

@LandSharksAnonymous Happy stimulated dogs definitely can bark when their owners leave the house lol, stop catastrophising with the whole "one more hour of stimulation!" line of thinking that's become all too common. It's down to genetics and the personality of the dog, and how many dogs you own, and the neighbourhood you live in.

The OP says there are barky dogs on the street, this can make a dog bark when their human leaves either down to anxiety if those other dogs sound unbalanced/unstable or just joining in as their hearing is so good. Dogs are pack animals and being left completely alone is unnatural to a pack animal - you could spend 4h a day doing their breed specific purpose but if the dog is a neurotic kind it will be upset when their human leaves - sometimes even more so if it's stimulated properly as some dogs struggle to switch off.

Normal dogs with good genetics for being a pet can be left alone for a work day and deal with being a pack animal alone by snoozing or looking out of the window imo - plenty of people do it just fine but working breeds and highly strung breeds struggle with it because they lean more on the neurotic side to be any good as working animals genetically when what people should be buying as a pet is on the complete other side of the spectrum. OP has a cockerpoo which are two fairly switched on twitchy breeds - a gun dog and I'm assuming a companion breed so one neurotic, one clingy.

OP as hard as it is, barking is very hard for neighbours to deal with. It's less about how much he barks and more that they never know when it's going to start again. If you can't do doggy daycare and you have no family who can watch him during the day I'd have to say I recommend rehoming before you get a letter from the council and it escalates as SA is hard to train out of a dog who has it because it's a trait vs a bad habit. The collar might work if you want to try that first - they train the dog much more effectively than a human can due to the response time of the collar, but if you just have the one dog I disagree with the use as he's probably lonely and worried (and I'm completely fine with real shock collars in the right circumstance) vs being a dick.

@mapleriver I'm not catstrophising and I never said the dog needed an hour of stimulation a day...not sure where you got that?

Her dog does sounds utterly miserable and unfulfilled. OP says she is a TA - which I presume means teaching assistant - so she's likely out for 4-5 hours minimum at a time. OP has a dog well known for extreme SA, high energy, high intelligence and is unable to pay for day care, leaves it alone, and likely doesn't give it anywhere near the stimulation it needs. Sorry if that sounds blunt, or harsh, but it is almost certainly the truth.

The main issue with vibrating or shock collars is they are only addressing a symptom - the barking - and not the route cause. Sure you get a "quick" fix but it won't stop the dog finding other ways to vent any fear or frustration that has been ignored by the human - such as excess licking or ripping up the furniture.

I have a PomChi, she's reactive and she barks, but that's in her nature and there won't ever be a "stop" but she has slowly learned to calm down from her barking, snacks can help, she'll stop immediately when she's told she might get a biscuit if she settles down, this has led her to associate good things with the words "settle down" and has been working well. One of her biggest triggers is when next door's dog barks - he's not much bigger than her but much louder and much more consistent with his barking. It's very normal for dogs to react when they hear other dogs.

Dogs Trust have some positive-training based advice on their website here: https://www.dogstrust.org.uk/dog-advice/training/unwanted-behaviours/stop-your-dog-barking

@Sunrise12 I am sorry your thred has been derailed...
Things that have worked in the past for my dogs are to teach the speak command and and once your dog barks on command teach the silence command. If you use a cue word & hand signal it will be better for the dog to follow the instructions. Because if your dog barks and you are agitated by it, this will carry in your voice, sometimes dogs think you are joining in...
As for barking when you are out or at night follow this simple rule: exercise, food & sleep. You'll have to experiment with the exercise as different things will tire your dog differently.

I have barky breed (Tibetan Terrier) and I found some reassurance: yes Fido I did hear them too, but it's fine! & a pat works wonders!
I also have an energetic cookerpoo and in the end, the only thing that keeps her calm and manageable at home is taking her to a formal training class 3x weekly.... she's 4 now and mostly settled but God help me if I miss some! The combination of exercise (Spaniel) and brain work (Poodle) is what she needs and makes her happy & content.

So my advice is, try and find out what makes your dog tick and work with it, not against it!
But please be aware that these methods above are not a quick fix, they take time and consistently.

Ha ha ha I never added that up! It’s like super powering a lab… with brains.

Seriously I cannot get over how vile some people are. Don’t make assumptions without knowing all the facts. I was just looking for some advice that’s all! “Can you afford vet bills” …….

To others who offered some assistance without getting personal thank you for your sound advice - he gets good walks, there is plenty of stimulation and interaction and until my neighbour moved in with her two dogs very large Afghan Hounds there were no issues before. He sleeps well at night downstairs on his own for an good eight hours and as said I can see on the camera he is not anxious or barking all the time literally he hears a sound from outside and is triggered. We have tried so many different things. He is not left alone for long periods as my husband works shifts therefore it’s a couple of hours as we overlap. We did the whole thing from when he was a puppy of leaving him for short periods coming back then making the time span a little longer, this got him into a position of being able to cope with being on his own. I feel I have to give more background as I am being made to feel like I am not a reasonable owner.

I am contacting my pet insurance company who provides support regarding behaviour.

We had a cocker who also barked at anything outside (until he got old a deaf). He was rarely left alone, very happy, lots of walks and stimulation so happy dogs can be barkers.

we tried so much, we tried teaching him to “speak” as that was the main advice technique at the time, but he wouldn’t bark at anything else. It was literally just a normal dog behaviour of warning owners there was something outside that needed investigating.

we decided to let him be in the end (no neighbours to disturb though so slightly different situation.) it came in very handy when someone tried to steal our Land Rover from the front of our house! He was a great little guard dog.

Good guard dog then 💐

I have a one year old cockerpoo, he’s a ridiculously chilled dog but does bark at people coming up the drive or if he hears other dogs when he’s in the garden. I do follow the 3 bark rule - he can bark at anything 3 times and then we distract him away from whatever. It’s difficult because if he’s distracted he’ll just not hear me calling him so it means physically being with him offering a treat or a toy.

It does work though, he’s starting to get to where he’ll bark 3 times and then stops and looks for a toy or a treat. You just need to be really consistent.