Post Punk Kitchen Forum

My dog's barking is so annoying! I can't even let him out for 5 minutes to go to the bathroom. I have to stand there and watch him or he wakes the dead!

He is maybe 8 months old now. At the shelter, he was such a quiet puppy. When all the other dogs were barking barking, he just walked up to the front of the cage, sat down and stared at me. He was so calm and quiet in all the chaos. What a deceitful little guy he was!

Just wanted to vent a little. Anyone else have trouble with a barking dog?

You get used to it. I mean there are tips and tricks others will have, I'm sure, but you'll probably plateau eventually where you have a dog that barks more than you'd like, but still...there are hardly any silent dogs. Last night I had the freakin scare of my life. It was like 2 in the morning and Chester was just bark bark barkin away at something, so I get up and let him out of my room and go back to sleep. Like 2 minutes later I hear my kitchen cabinets being opened and Chester is back in the room with me at this point and silent and not at all looking menacing or threatening like I'd hope when an intruder is intruding. Apparently one of my friends had come over to crash and not called or anything first, but let me tell you - not what I was expecting. Moral of the story is that sometimes your dog barks to warn you about real stuff and you don't listen and you could be murdered.

I have a super quiet dog and an obnoxious barker. The only thing that works with the barker is to ignore him completely. It's really hard but it works. I learned it by watching the quiet dog. When Riley starts barking to get attention, Miranda turns her head and pays zero attention to him.

Fee - I hate when dogs bark at nothing because you figure they have this great dog intuition, and if they're barking then something must be horribly wrong, so you get freaked.

Pretty much only the rescue dog barks, but she is pretty sensitive so if I glare at her just right she knocks it off.

Haha, that's what my other dog does! Although she does bark when someone is at the door, which I am okay with. But sometimes my puppy just wants to bark at my other dog and she's like, "whatever, I don't know you." I will try more ignoring. I've tried it before, but I think I am too impatient with the ignoring.

Oh my gosh, that sounds so scary! How long until you knew it was your friend? I can just imagine being petrified in my room!

Yeah, some dogs are just barkers. Mine is (which is a super common breed trait for collies), and I have to stand out in the yard with her if any of the people in the surrounding houses are out and about. If not, I let her out on her own, but bring her in as soon as she starts barking. When she does manage to go outside and remain quiet the whole time, I praise her and give her a treat.

Sable was also completely quiet in the shelter. It was because she was so nervous there that she basically just shut down. She showed zero of her true personality (or really any personality at all) until she was settled into our home.

I'm reviving this thread because I just got an email from my landlord that our dog is barking incessantly during the day, annoying the neighbors above us, next to us, and across the hallway. I'm afraid we might get kicked out because of the "nuisance barking". I'm not sure what the change is, as he rarely barked (except when someone knocked on our door) until about a year ago. Has anyone had to deal with this and do you guys have training tips to keep dogs from barking non-stop?

I would try to distract him, turn on a fan and/or the tv/radio so he can't hear other noises as well, maybe some new toys? My father-in-law's dog barks at every outdoor sound when he isn't home, because she thinks it's him pulling in. So if I want to take a nap I turn on the fan and put on his roku with a Pandora classical station.

Also, Fawkes was totally emotionally numb at the pound and now he is the most obnoxious dog on the block. He barks at my neighbor whenever she's trying to garden, so sometimes i'll pass him over to her and he'll run around her yard and get pets and then we exchange him again and he'll start barking again. And he does. Not. Stop. He also has a good memory so if I make him go in because he's barking and then let him out after she's inside, he'll immediately run over to the fence and look for her.

Oh Couroupita, I'm so sorry to hear that. I hope you an figure something out before you get kicked out! Have you searched around on the net for any tips? I have no help, but lots of support.

I wonder if it could be anxiety? I wouldn't guess that for most barking dog issues but since it seems like such a change... Maybe try some of that anxiety medicine?

couroupita - could he be bored? Is he getting enough exercise? If you have the funds maybe you could take him to a doggie day care where he could play all day, at least a couple times a week. Otherwise you might try a well stuffed kong that will take him hours to get through if he is a food motivated dog.

our first dog did not become a barker until we added a second dog.
when we had only one he was so quiet, we would actually encourage him when he "talked" to us and made funny roooooo noises.

now that we have two dogs the first dog spends a large amount of his time BARKING REALLY LOUD at the other dog.

first thing in the morning too when he wants us to get up he barked incessantly at us. then when we get up he barks even louder.

sometimes he just barkbarkbarkbarkbarks and all i can think of is it must translate to "THIS AS LOUD AS I CAN BARK"

silly pooches

When I first got my dog he never barked - literally. I had him about 2 mths before he barked at my cat, it scared the bejeekers out of me - I didn't even realize until then that he never barked.

Then about 6 mos later I introduced dog #2, she's a barker, taught dog #1 to bark at everything. Now dog #2 only barks if dog #1 isn't around to do the barking. Apparently, things need to be barked at, she doesn't care who does it, as long as it gets done!

We had to move our dogs from where we kept them because they would hear more noises. Also, we tried white noise machines but they broke. There are white noise mp3s though or you could leave the radio on. You could try a kong with frozen peanut butter or dog food in case it is boredom.

We had our first dog for 4 months before she barked. Now she is a hell hound when it comes to UPS. Not sure if her exposure to other dogs taught her how to bark or what.

Well you guys certainly got me thinking. I stayed home yesterday to get an idea of what's going on and I'm pretty sure the baking is territorial. Any time someone walked through our hallway, barking for 30 min straight. Any time he heard someone out on their patio, or someone walked behind our apartment, or a squirrel or bird perched on our balcony, barkbarkbarkbark. Hackles up and everything! Even after the offending party passed by he keeps going for ages, I guess to ensure they're gone for good? And then he stalks around the house woofing and turning back to the door or patio to make sure everything's clear. In a way it's really funny, but probably not so much for our neighbors! I don't really understand why the territorial thing has gotten so bad lately. Maybe he's lonely? :(

So we'll try more exercise to wear him out a bit but I really think we're going to have to find some white noise to block things out. That didn't occur to me as a solution. We do already have a lot of those "smart toys" that you put treats in and we give those to him every morning to relieve anxiety when we head out. I guess we'll run through radio, fans, and white noise machines and hopefully one of those will work out!

Thanks for all the support!!

Have you tried crate training? That also helped with cutting the barking down for us.

No, I've never done crate training. Does that help with barking by encouraging them to settle down? And then how long do you leave them in?

you shouldn't leave a dog in their crate for longer than 8 hours, we usually do about 7 hours max. Both of our dogs were taught as adults but it takes some time.

They tend to feel safer I guess in their crates. Plus it stops them from roaming around to other places where they may hear noise.

I crate my dogs at night because the smaller one barks at every damn thing in the universe. He's taught the larger one how to howl. Now when I leave or a siren goes off, they howl together.

I should note that I live in a house and that my neighbors think the howling is hilarious.

First, my dog is still an annoying barker, but not as bad as he used to be. The duration is much shorter!

What helped us for a while was using a citronella spray collar. It was pretty funny when he would bark with it on. My husband put it to his own neck and barked and got sprayed, which was even funnier. Anyway, it broke and we haven't had it for a while. I kind of wish we still had it, but I think his barking is at a level where it isn't worth the hassle anymore. But it really did help, but not cure, the barking situation. At least our neighbors probably don't think we are killing our dog anymore.

I agree with more exercise, white noise, & crate training. You can stuff Kongs with peanut butter and freeze them to keep them busy for a little while but I'm not sure it would be enough of a distraction in your case.

Also have you ever thought about daycare a few days a week? If you buy a package you can usually get a better price and they are worn out when they get home.

If my dogs roamed the house they would be just like that. When I'm gone I put them in the bedroom, we used to keep them in the kitchen cause we could shut the door. It kind of works like crate training because they know they are only responsible for watching that room and not the whole property.

Have you tried a thunder shirt? I have seen those things work wonders with some of the dogs in our rescue! It is a shirt that provides consistent deep pressure around the torso to provide a calming sensation.

i agree with ramping up the exercise.
if he is more tired then he may sleep longer and bark less.

i know on days when are dogs dont get a walk they are more crazed.

the white noise thing may help too to block out outside noise or i know people who leave the tv or a radio on for their dogs.