Barking

[Henrietta]

Hi everyone.

How do you figure out the cause of excessive barking whilst you are away?

Here's the scenario. Haven't had a great deal of trouble, until yesterday I was walking home from work for lunch. I heard Abby barking. As far as I can tell she wasn't barking at anything.

It had me a bit worried so I asked the neighbours. Apparently she had barked for two hours!! :rolleyes: They were wonderful about it, they don't mind apparently but it's not fair on others that my dog barks and I was completely mortified.

Have never had barking issues before so this is new to me.

The only other times she barks is when I am training my other dog out the back or if she is 'greeting' the neighbours. I am still working on this by making her recall at random times and rewarding her so she will come to me even excited. But is that helping the barking? Oh, it's a bit hard to do this when I am training/playing with my other dog.

This is where I think the problem stems from. Due to the nature of my mum and dad's and my work schedule it is rather rare that my dog is home alone completely and for a long time. Away from me - yes, but normally someone else is home. Unless we are all working, we might all leave the house, but we aren't usually more than half an hour.

But having said that, I would be hestitant in saying it's separation anxiety though, because she isn't a clingy dog - quite the opposite, she seems to me to be rather independent in nature. I mean she enjoys my company, but doesn't need to be with me 24/7.

I'm so confused, but I do want to help her with this problem, for her sake, the neighbours and my sake too. Any ideas?

Edited to make sense.

Edited July 20, 2007 by Emmala