Barking Puppy - Some Ideas Please?

[Katdogs]

Puppy is about 6mo, obtained through rescue about a couple of months ago. Is going to be a BIG boy based on his feet, looks like a GSDxHusky but acts a bit Kelpie-ish and actually looks a lot like a Bernese Mountain Dog puppy!

Anyway, I met him at training today and his owners are desperate for new ideas. He's a barker. He CAN sit quietly, and doesn't bark all the time, because I saw that today. But if he's feeling a bit bored, or ignored, and apparently especially all night at home, he barks. He keeps the owners and neighbours awake. He barks all day when he's left alone. He's not destructive, he barks instead. It actually sounded a bit like Husky-talk today when we were talking over his head, but it can also get quite shrill and is certainly intrusive. It's not a psycho-thing like some habitual yapper/barkers that I've met, but might become so.

Nice owners are trying very hard with exercise and training, but are getting very frustrated.

It will be interesting to hear whether the socialising and training today makes a difference to whether he sleeps tonight. Also praise when he's quiet, and more 'thought' training and less 'stimulating exercise' training was suggested. And a water-spray, they haven't tried that.

Apart from citronella collar (which apparently he'd love, he likes citronella), what other ideas could they try? He's very smart, it was his first day at training today and aced every command and knows many others. He has lots of toys, and time and effort from his owners, but has anyone had a chronic barking puppy?

[Nekhbet]

why not try an e=collar. Start with one that self adjusts from low to high depending on how persistent the barking is. Make sure he has plenty of toys, treats etc so he can redirect his energy when his barking is stopped.

[Prydenjoy]

I'd be teaching a quiet command, Berri gets a bit barky at times and now when I say quiet he is (usually) quiet.

Start by interrupting the barking with the command quiet, and give a reward straight away. Gradually lengthen the time between the command and the reward. At training, if he is barking at something, use a body block and a watch me command, works with Berri, he looks at me, gets treats and forgets about what it is he was barking at.

As for night time, I'd be buying a crate and crate training for night time. During the day, plenty of stimulation in the way of stuffed kongs, a dog bungee, a digging pit and large raw meaty bones, as well as maybe some squeeky toys and rope like toys. The owners should spend plenty of time playing with him with those toys when they are home so that they are very valuable to him. Also, rotating them will keep them new and interesting.

Hope that helps!

[Nekhbet]

I've found that if a dog is focussed on the bark first then toys wont distract. Settle the barking and have toys about the dog will stop, a large 6 month old is fine to have something like an innotek bark collar on.

As for barking for attention, he needs to be ignored and sounds like the owners need to be a little tougher with him. IF he has GSD in him he could also have weak nerve, a bit of husky means he is a talker and you get a really quick to talk dog.

Also look at the dogs diet. If he's on a highly artificial colour/flavour diet or very high protein diet change it.