Barking issues

[Carly]

Hello

I have a 10 year old cross breed dog. I am not entirely sure which breeds he is crossed with but at a guess I would say a boxer with some kind of spaniel / other gundog.

This is quite a long story, so please bear with me.

My family got Spencer when he was a puppy at 8 weeks. He lived with us but really took to me. We had another dog at the time, a shiz tuz as well (though the shiz tuz was about 4 years older). Now, he has always had some barking issues, always when there was no one in the house and it was quite bad. FOr this, my mother would usually leave the radio on for some comfort though I am unsure to how much this helped and there was always the other dog for company.

When he was 5 years old the family brought another dog, a sprocker. This allowed Spencer to release his energy with the puppy and did help. The sprocker puppy was also brought about 2 weeks before I left for university.

Now, I only returned for holidays and when I finished Uni I got a place of my own and Spencer stayed at my mothers home.

Since leaving Uni my sister has had a baby and Spencer did not take well to this change. It was this as well as the barking that my family came to the decision to let him go. Now, I could not let my childhood dog go to a pound so I took him. That was last July. Since then he has been living with me in Wales. I also have a cat, but she is very independent and likes to be left alone.

When I first got Spencer I decided that going back to square one would be a good idea and gave me a chance to restablish that I was in charge. So we went all the way back to basic training with 'sits' and 'wait' and recalling.

All that has gone so well but his barking is still a problem. He barks when I am out and doesnt like to be left alone. I am unsure whether this is S.A or for many reasons. I know he has gone through alot, especially within the last year, but he settled here really well. Also, I dont unecessarly fuss him at all.

I am a post gradaute student atm so currently I am either working or I am in my study upstairs (where he is not allowed to go) studying. When I leave I just grap my bag and go and when I come in its a quick hello the cat and then to Spencer.

Because I decided to restart the basics I left his barking alone for a while (and my neighbours are unstanding people thank goodness) but for the last three months I have been trying with no avail. In two months I will be moving back to Bristol and I need to sort this out before then otherwise I will have housing issues.

I am not going to give up on him yet and really need some help.
So far, I have tried the following:
- Using a treat ball when I leave the house - This worked for the a while in the beginning but recently has not been working, with me coming home to find it either still full, or the cat eating the treats instead.
- Using a Kong for breakfast / just before I go out - This does work but Spencer seemed to have worked out the best way to get whatever is in the kong as fast as possible and then just barks afterwards. I dont know whether I have the wrong size kong or what I use (usually something like chicken paste) is the wrong thing to use.
- I have tried the training technique of telling the dog to be quiet, then rewarding. I have done this, but as soon as I dont have a treat in my hand, then he doesnt care and therefore this wont work for as long as no one is in the house.
- I have recently been using a sound collar. These work by feeling the vibrartions off the dogs neck and issueing a ultrasound noise that is meant to distract the dog from barking. From the reviews I read these work about 50% of the time, so I wasnt particiluar hopeful. I was hoping this would work because Spencer does not like loud noises but this doesnt seem to be working.

I understand that he is never going to be silent and I am happy with that, but I am concerned about housing with I have to move and of course that he is happy too. If this is infact S.A then I assume that he is very unhappy whenever i leave the house.

Also, he is very very clingy. Anything to suggest for that as well?

Any comments will be useful, I really want something to work!

Carly.

[nick_j007]

Sorry this has gone unanswered.

What is the current situation please?

Nick

[annecsmith09]

my dog doesn't bark that often. should i be worried?

[Eugine]

Confined dogs can quickly become frustrated by people on the other side of a fence or beyond the reach of their leash. Sometimes children or neighbors will threaten or yell at a barking dog, which makes things worse. This sort of barking can be corrected by bringing your dog inside or providing a kennel area shielded from view of the sidewalk.

[nick_j007]

Originally Posted by annecsmith09

my dog doesn't bark that often. should i be worried?

Considering how much time I spend getting dogs to stop barking I'd be quite happy if I were you