Excessive barking

Kelly

Kelly

New member
Hi everyone, I'm technically not a newbie on here. I was very active on this forum when my newfie was younger. Owen is going on 10 in a few months and I was hoping someone might have a suggestion for his excessive barking. I should say up front that I take full responsibility for this nuisance behavior. I created a monster. As a puppy he was very vocal about his needs. If he was hungry he barked at his food bowl. If he wanted a cookie he barked at his cookie jar. (at the freezer for ice cubes etc...) I used to tell everyone he was brilliant because he learned to tell me his needs. Now fast forward 9 years. I have a newfie I love dearly that I truely think has caused me to have a hearing loss. He barks constantly. If his needs are not met immediately he raises the decibal of his barking and he doesn't give up. Family and friends don't like to come to the house. I have grand babies that are startled by his loud, excessive barking. I can't have a conversation on the phone because he barks until I get off. If hubby gives me a hug Owen barks out of jealousy. I put him in the garage and he barks at the door for an hour (or more). I did try a barking collar at one point. It didn't work well with all his hair. I tried shaving a spot for the prongs to sit but it still worked inconsistantly. He barked and barked and every once in a while he got a shock. It scared him horribly and I haven't had the heart to try it again. I might add that Owen does not bark when someone comes to the door. I love Owen to pieces, but this barking is driving me crazy. I would never give him up. He's a member of the family. Is it too late? Is he too old to change this behavior? I might add that he has very bad hip dysplasia. He is not very active because of that. He has pain meds as needed. Any suggestions anybody has would be greatly appreciated. Thanks you.
 
ajcooksey

ajcooksey

New member
Our trainer told us to say quiet and if he didn't listen to squirt lemon juice in his mouth. Unfortunately my dog likes the taste of lemon juice so that method didn't work out for us. We are still new on here but I hope the more experienced ones will have some good advice for you good luck!
 
charlieinnj

charlieinnj

New member
Does he bark when you're not there? If not, my suggestion would be the moment he barks, he gets verbally corrected and you immediately leave. He *may* bark for a bit afterwards but once he's quiet, you return. Then, the moment he vocalizes again, you leave. It will seems like endless leaving for a while but I'll bet once he starts realizing that his barking causes you to go away, he'll get the message.
 
Brandie&Maggie

Brandie&Maggie

New member
Maggie has always barked as her "potty" signal, which was fine. I like that she tells me this. Recently she started doing it just for attention/play. She just wouldn't quit until we stopped what we were doing to pay attention to her. We tried ignoring, leaving the room, time out, etc. None of that worked.

The thing that finally worked was redirecting her attention with work if she didn't stop after 1 correction. I make her site/down/stay, or whatever is feasible at the time. As soon as she does that, she stops barking. When she stops barking and turns away from me, I then reward her. Now she's getting to the point where she will stop with just a correction ("quiet").

I'm no expert, just making things up as I go along that seem logical...Good luck!
 
DAWNMERIE

DAWNMERIE

Active member
Zeke was a bad boy when he was younger...I went through an awful barking stage he even went as far as to spit in my face on purpose when I ignored him. I tried everything with him. Maybe you could teach him to whisper, maybe ol' dogs can learn new tricks;) I now use that trick if I ever need to tone things down a notch.
 
Brandie&Maggie

Brandie&Maggie

New member
DAWNMERIE said:
Zeke was a bad boy when he was younger...I went through an awful barking stage he even went as far as to spit in my face on purpose when I ignored him. I tried everything with him. Maybe you could teach him to whisper, maybe ol' dogs can learn new tricks;) I now use that trick if I ever need to tone things down a notch.
Click to expand...
Ok, how on earth did you teach that? I get "speak" and "quiet" but whisper? Please enlighten me. :kgo_027:
 
DAWNMERIE

DAWNMERIE

Active member


They both are pro's at this now...maybe I should update the video. I figured if you could teach them to speak why not whisper and looked up another that had done it so I knew it wasn't impossible.
 
M

MMtnmom

New member
gracie has ratcheted up her barking since Lucky died...gracie is 7. She apparently doesn't like staying outside without Lucky. Sometimes she gets barky when I put her in her crate. It's been pretty aggravating the last couple of weeks. A couple of days ago two strange men came to the front door. I didn't hear the doorbell, the front door was closed, but I saw them walking down the sidewalk back to the street. Gracie had been sniffing the front door, but not a PEEP or a WOOF out of her! What a waste of dog food! Protector...NOT. Love her anyway.
 
ElvisTheNewf

ElvisTheNewf

Active member
Awww i LOVE the whisper! We taught the lab we had growing up how to sneeze on command, but that was easy because she knew how to speak on command but for some reason would always sneeze first before barking. We'd just say "No, that's sneeze, now SPEAK" to get her to bark. Eventually we were able to say "Hey Lucy! Sneeze!" and she would.

Sometimes Elvis throws a barking tantrum, and I know we're not really supposed to do this - but my husband yelled back at him and he stopped dead in his tracks. We were trying to ignore him, but my husband had had enough and finally yelled "WHAT?!?" at him. Elvis stopped, turned his head, and laid down. He didn't seem to be pouting, he just went down and started chewing his antler that happened to be there. He hasn't had a barking fit since, so we don't know if this was a one time fluke or not. It might have been just the fact that I'm usually the rule enforcer and my husband is a softie for those big brown newf eyes and had never raised his voice at him like that before.
 
mulenag

mulenag

New member
Does he bark on command? Have you named that behavior? A lot of times if a dog is doing something you don't like and you teach them to do it on command, then you have a bit of control over that behavior. Teach him to "speak" when you ask for it, then if he does it when you don't ask for it you can tell him no speak.
 
DAWNMERIE

DAWNMERIE

Active member
I was reading over the weekend and one of the chapters mentioned excessive barking, what kinda struck a chord and I thought about this post, is that maybe he's got something going on, in his mouth or some other part of his body and he's trying to tell you....just another thought for ya.

Also wanted to add that maybe he's frustrated because of the lack of mobility/being non-active and maybe he needs some brain work?
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top