Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Does anyone have any good tips to stop a dog from barking excessively? Every day, my dog Bailey eagerly waits for my mom to come home from work, and she barks at EVERY SINGLE NOISE AND MOVEMENT, inside & outside, from right about 5:00pm until my mom gets home, which is usually between 6:30 & 7:00pm. I cannot get her to be quiet. I've tried working on training her or playing with her to distract her, but that doesn't help. She just ignores me and the treats and the toys the second she hears a new sound. I've tried crating her, but then she barks continuously, instead of giving me the occasional 30 second break here and there that she normally does. I tried muzzling her once, but she got so upset and was trying so hard to shake the muzzle off that she knocked her head REALLY hard on the edge of the coffee table, started bleeding....oh, it was a mess. We don't have a fenced yard, but we have a tie out so she can be out with us when we're outside, so once I tried putting her outside for a few minutes (literally, I'm talking 3-4 minutes), but when I went out to check on her, I found she had wrapped the tie around a tree and a bunch of weeds and had essentially hung herself. (Thank God I checked on her as quickly as I did. That scared me to death! So she will NOT be outside by herself again.) And our house is an open floor plan, so there's not really a good room to try to close her up in. Plus, I can't take her out for a walk during that time, because she doesn't go on walks. She refuses to leave the front yard. (The back yard is a whole other story, hence the tie out.) You try taking her on a walk and she freaks out, starts whimpering, and uses every ounce of energy she has to turn you around and pull you home.

I'm really just about at my wits' end. This has been going on for months. I dread the evenings, because I know I'm going to have to listen to her barking for at least an hour and a half. And we have four cats, who also get restless about that time, and they start playing and banging around upstairs, which just gets Bailey even more wound up from the noise. She is such a good dog otherwise, and she doesn't bark like this at any other time of day, and I love her to death, but this is getting rediculous. Please, if anyone has any suggestions, no matter how small or goofy they seem, please let me know. I'm willing to try anything!

Thanks!

Well, I think you have a few things that are going on and seperation anxiety seems to be a contributing factor. That's a tough thing to work through. A few suggestions I have heard are:

1) When your mom gets home, she should actually ignore the dog for a while (approximately 15 minutes or so), but the idea is to let the dog settle down emotionally before any attention is given to her. That takes some of the pressure off the dog to be "on patrol" for her arrival. Also, departures should be no big deal as well. Sometimes a Kong toy filled with frozen chicken broth and kibble really helps as well for easing departures.

2) Teaching the dog to bark on command and stop barking on command. There are books that cna help you out here, but overall if the behavior is on command, they get to still do it, but in a controlled way. Dr. Ian Dunbar has some books and I think the book "Don't Shoot the Dog" goes into how to do this.

3) Crate training the dog might also help. Most dogs are pretty lazy in their crate once effectively crate trained. It's more complicated than just putting a dog in the crate and leaving them, they actually have ot like the crate as well, so again a Kong toy filled with goodies or frozen yougart.

The not wantin to leave the yard for walks- that's a very atypical behavior. Is this dog very insecure? A smaller breed that gets carried around often? I highly recommend goign to a positive reinforcement training class that uses clicker trianing. This type of training really teaches a dog confidence and overall, that kind of sounds like if you solved the confidence issue, the other issues may just work themselves out. Good luck and keep us posted.
-----
Chelle and the rest of the crew including, but not limited to Kita and Taiko (the shiba inu wrestle maniacs), Adi (reserved and dignified tabby cat), and all 28 reptiles

Thnaks for the suggestions. I think a lot of her issues may stem from when she was a puppy. I hand-raised her from the time she was about 12 hours old, and she's an only dog, so she hasn't had a lot of socialization with other dogs. She's a Border Collie/Retriever/Chow mix, about 40#. But she's always been scared of any other dog, no matter what size. (She once hid behind me from a Yorkie we met in the park. What a sight.) I've been trying to socialize her with other dogs, and we're slowly coming along. She's gotten to a point where she'll actually sniff other dogs, rather than immediately run away from them. People are a whole different story though. She loves people. They are great and wonderful.

I think the idea of having my mom ignore her may help. Usually my mom walks in and lavishes attention on her. She probably looks forward to that all day. (Wow, saying that, and then saying we won't do that anymore almost kinda sounds cruel.) That could be a big factor. My mom says she rarely barks when I'm not home, but when I come in, I give her a quick pat on the head, then go about my business. Apparently, she does keep an eye out for me, but she doesn't bark constantly.

Could some of this come from her Border Collie side? When we take her out, to the park for example, she'll run around us as we walk, kinda herding us together. Do you think some of it may be that she feels part of the herd is missing?

>>I think the idea of having my mom ignore her may help. Usually my mom walks in and lavishes attention on her. She probably looks forward to that all day. (Wow, saying that, and then saying we won't do that anymore almost kinda sounds cruel.)

-It's not really cruel- you can lavish attention on her, but use it as a reward once she's calmed down. Leaving and coming are emotional times for a dog and they don't need extra emotions added to the mix. Just wait a bit. You've already seen it works with you. Try it for a month, if it doesn't work at that point even a little, then something else has to be tried anyway.

>>Could some of this come from her Border Collie side?
-Border Collies are intense dogs and the other dogs in her mix ar no dummies either. She might be a bit bored as well as being a bit low in confidence since she was a singleton. Ever thought of doing a dog sport with her like agility or rally obedience? It does some amazing things for confidence building.
-----
PHReign
Email me: HReign@pethobbyist.com" target="_blank">PHReign@pethobbyist.com
Dear dog,
I can not buy anything larger than a king sized bed. I am very sorry about this. Do not think that I will continue to sleep on the couch to ensure your comfort. Look at videos of dogs sleeping, they can actually curl up in a ball. It is not necessary to sleep perpendicular to each other stretched out to your fullest extent possible. I also know that sticking tails straigt out and having tongues hanging out the other end to maximize space used is nothing more than doggy sarcasm.