I have an 8 year old Golden Retriever. She's a great dog and is very sweet
but she has an extremely annoying problem. She barks at every little noise
she hears outside, such as a neighbor closing a car door, someone talking on
the phone outside, or another dark barking. Sometimes she'll bark at things
we can't even hear. It's not constant barking. She'll bark loudly a few times
and then will usually calm down after that.

It started out as a minor annoyance but it's gotten extremely irritating
lately and now we have a baby she so she inevitably will wake him up with her
barking a few times a week.

She gets lots of attention. She goes on a walk every day, sometimes even
twice a day. There's only one day a week where she's home by herself. She
goes outside with us a lot because we enjoy working in the yard and she
doesn't bark that much out there.

We've yelled at her, tried to distract her with treats, and even spanked her
(not hard), although we haven't done that in a long time because I don't
think it's very effective. Now we just yell at her because we don't know what
else to do. This will usually shut her up but she'll just bark again next
time she hears a little noise outside. What can I do to get her to be quiet?

"Deuteros" wrote in message
...
I have an 8 year old Golden Retriever. She's a great dog and is very sweet
but she has an extremely annoying problem. She barks at every little
noise
she hears outside, such as a neighbor closing a car door, someone talking
on
the phone outside, or another dark barking. Sometimes she'll bark at
things
we can't even hear. It's not constant barking. She'll bark loudly a few
times
and then will usually calm down after that.

It started out as a minor annoyance but it's gotten extremely irritating
lately and now we have a baby she so she inevitably will wake him up with
her
barking a few times a week.

She gets lots of attention. She goes on a walk every day, sometimes even
twice a day. There's only one day a week where she's home by herself. She
goes outside with us a lot because we enjoy working in the yard and she
doesn't bark that much out there.

We've yelled at her, tried to distract her with treats, and even spanked
her
(not hard), although we haven't done that in a long time because I don't
think it's very effective. Now we just yell at her because we don't know
what
else to do. This will usually shut her up but she'll just bark again next
time she hears a little noise outside. What can I do to get her to be
quiet?

Yelling at a dog, administering punishment, and getting upset when the dog
is barking is a sure-fire way to reinforce the behavior, because the dog
interprets this to mean that you are also alarmed about the disturbance and
you are also barking (in your own way) to scare off the perpetrator of the
perceived threat.

The best way to reduce unwanted barking is to reassure the dog that all is
OK, and you might have to actually go with your dog to investigate the
sound to prove that you really are OK with it. If your dog sees you as a
leader, your calm reaction will be respected and he/she will react in kind.

You should be glad your dog is giving some warning. Muttley has gotten used
to most of the normal sounds in the neighborhood, and is very good at
distinguishing my neighbor's car door closing versus that of a strange car
parked nearby. And he has also learned to "muffle" his barks under some
conditions. When I am sleeping, he emits just a little "rrruff" sound
unless it is something really disturbing. And when he spent the night in a
motel room with me and a friend, and he heard other guests come and go in
the hall, he also used restraint in his vocalizations, which I praised
heavily, and he was fine.

You should also look into positive methods and clicker training. Ask your
question in the forum at www.victoriastilwell.com, and they will tell you
how to click on the times when your dog reacts appropriately to a noise.
Once the dog starts going nuts and barks "WooWooWooWooWoof!", you must wait
until a quiet moment and then click and treat, or simply reward with a
"Good Dog" pat on the head. The timing is critical, so it might be best to
consult with a trainer, but it's not rocket science. You have to learn to
understand how the dog thinks.

Paul and Muttley

Deuteros said in rec.pets.dogs.behavior:

I have an 8 year old Golden Retriever. She's a great dog
and is very sweet but she has an extremely annoying
problem. She barks at every little noise she hears outside,
such as a neighbor closing a car door, someone talking on
the phone outside, or another dark barking. Sometimes
she'll bark at things we can't even hear. It's not constant
barking. She'll bark loudly a few times and then will
usually calm down after that.

I have a dog who will alarm bark every time someone with a dog
comes near my house. This is annoying, especially when I'm
reading on the couch with him lying on top of me.

The normal advice is to calmly go and check out the alarm
source, calmly tell the dog "thank you, I'll handle it from
here." I gave that up after about 4 years. Now, I move him to
a different room, put him into a down, and give him a few
minutes of time out. We're a year into this method and it
doesn't work, either.

The only positive advice I can give comes from dog owning
friends with young children: Don't go out of your way to make
your environment quiet for your infant.

--
--Matt. Rocky's a Dog.

In article ,
Rocky wrote:


The only positive advice I can give comes from dog owning
friends with young children: Don't go out of your way to make
your environment quiet for your infant.

Agreed. Kids can learn to sleep through almost anything if you don't
spend your time tiptoeing around when they are napping.

--
Janet Boss
www.bestfriendsdogobedience.com

On Sun, 03 May 2009 09:11:17 -0400, Janet Boss
wrote:

In article ,
Rocky wrote:


The only positive advice I can give comes from dog owning
friends with young children: Don't go out of your way to make
your environment quiet for your infant.

Agreed. Kids can learn to sleep through almost anything if you don't
spend your time tiptoeing around when they are napping.


very true when mine were babies, I would put laundry away in their
room and slam drawers and vacuum in their room.

of course when they are teens they sleep through everything when you
train them this way...
Nessa
--
trying to be the best human she can,

On Sun, 03 May 2009 09:11:17 -0400, Janet Boss wrote:
snip
Agreed. Kids can learn to sleep through almost anything if you don't
spend your time tiptoeing around when they are napping.

For the first years of my son's life, we lived just blocks from live fire
artillery ranges on the military base, and right by the airfield. There
was no such thing as quiet there; artillery fire rattled the windows most
days and nights, while low flying choppers passed over toward the
airfield.

He slept through it all, and is still a heavy sleeper.

--Susan

On May 2, 8:45*am, Deuteros wrote:
I have an 8 year old Golden Retriever. She's a great dog and is very sweet
but she has an extremely annoying problem. She barks at every little noise
she hears outside, such as a neighbor closing a car door, someone talking on
the phone outside, or another dark barking. Sometimes she'll bark at things
we can't even hear. It's not constant barking. She'll bark loudly a few times
and then will usually calm down after that.

It started out as a minor annoyance but it's gotten extremely irritating
lately and now we have a baby she so she inevitably will wake him up with her
barking a few times a week.

She gets lots of attention. She goes on a walk every day, sometimes even
twice a day. There's only one day a week where she's home by herself. She
goes outside with us a lot because we enjoy working in the yard and she
doesn't bark that much out there.

We've yelled at her, tried to distract her with treats, and even spanked her
(not hard), although we haven't done that in a long time because I don't
think it's very effective. Now we just yell at her because we don't know what
else to do. This will usually shut her up but she'll just bark again next
time she hears a little noise outside. What can I do to get her to be quiet?

None of that will work for two possible reasons, one-you are being
inconsistent and two- the noises still bother her. Generally I have
found that dogs that bark as you describe are dogs that have low
confidence and these little noises are startling to the dog. Start
doing noise training with your dog to build her confidence. Start with
noises she can handle and reward her for not reacting. Keep upping the
noises and rewarding for not reacting. Take her to places where noises
happen and reward for ignoring the noises. The rewards can be treats,
toys, play, etc...... Mis up the rewards so it's not always the same.
Have a person go outside and make a noise and reward for not barking
at the noise. As she gets better make the noises louder and louder.

When she's up for it take her to places like Home Depot where there's
a whole lot of noises and reward, reward, reward for ignoring noises.
The more noises she is exposed to the better (taken slowly though as
she can handle it).

Lauralyn
Raw fed agility dogs
Shylo, Cheyenne, Lakota, Apache