Got a few suggestions now. I'm going to try them. Please lock

So, my dog barks a lot. We take him on walks and he barks at people/other dogs walking past, he is in the car he barks at people going past the car, he barks at people walking past the house and when he is out the back he barks at the neighbours.

We've tried ignoring him, squirting him with water (which he hates), taking him out a lot to try and get him used to it, but he still keeps doing it.

We are moving on Monday to a quieter area and we cant have him doing this there, especially in the yard. My parents said if he doesn't learn we have to get rid of him.

I love him to bits and really don't want to lose him. The council hires out citronella collars that spray in their face when they bark, but I'm worried if that backfires like it did with a friend - she got one and her dog liked it and kept barking.

I really love him, I don't want to get rid of him and never see him again. My other dog loves him too. Does anyone have any ideas? :(

i would NEVER give up my dog, no matter how annoying she was to me or other people. your parents shouldn't consider a solution like that, that's just mean :(

my dog likes to yak her head off when she's outside, but so do all the other dogs on our street. everyone's gotten used to it, except these semi-new neighbors that look a lot like highschool dropouts and have swarms of kindergartners running up and down the street all evening.

they're a favorite target of my dog when she manages to get away from me. and i guess it's ruined our relationship with them, even though we'd apologized profusely every time. the funny thing is they also have a little dog that runs away from them, towards us, and barks until its voice goes hoarse. ;)

just be patient with him. wear him out when you take him outside, play high-energy games and jog with him and stuff. he'll eventually get so tired that he won't bother barking. if you keep doing it, he should straighten up pretty quickly.

EDIT: oh, i forgot! my dog doesn't bark nearly as much when i'm outside with her, since she's a kind of alarm dog and yaps to warn us of strangers. it might work with your puppy, too.

I think the collar is worth a try. You can always take it off if he likes it too much ;)

Have you tried praising him for barking? Our golden retriever only barks when there are people at the front door who don't ring the bell or at strange cats in our garden. So it's like her way of telling us somethings up.

Try googling the 'dog whisperer' it's a tv series were they deal with problem dogs, you might find the help you need ^_^

they said they dont want to give him up but are worried about the neighbours. I think its mean too :(

I've being going out with him more but he loves going to bark at the neighbours x.x I hope we can get him to stop. I feel mean making him but I'd rather be able to make him stop barking than lose him, especially if the neighbours complain and the council takes him :(

You should watch ''It's Me Or The Dog'' on Animal Planet sometime. That woman has the answers to all your dog issues.

CLICK

I can submit an email if you want and see what the response is to your problem. Although I'm sure you can do it yourself.

I just think it's a silly reason to get rid of your dog, when all it needs is proper training.

What Bikuu said. I notice that everything in this topic has been coming at the problem from the angle of punishing dog for barking. This seems to be a human instinct - I have a dog training friend that calls it 'angry monkey syndrome' - and it IS a hard thing to break oneself out of mentally.

However, dogs learn a lot better and faster with positive reinforcement - this means encouraging him to decide to be quiet, and then rewarding him for quietness.

If you watch your dog carefully you can usually identify the point just before he starts making a horrible noise. Catch him right then and ask him to do something else instead - take him away from the thing that's stimulating the barking, ask him to to sit or down quietly and reward him like crazy for it.

If you use a particular word at this moment (for my dog it's 'Enough') he'll understand soon enough that that word means "I'll be given treats any minute if I don't bark' and as long as he isn't so desperately overexcited that he can't HELP barking he'll react accordingly.

I have an easily-excited, very barky dog myself and while he's never going to be a peaceful, quiet person to be around I have managed to gain some control over it.

I found this site very helpful as well. It's amazing how quickly a dog responds to calming body language from their human. That article is mostly about how dogs calm each other, or how they try and stop you being angry at them, but you can also translate that to the body language you're using at your dog. He's much less likely to feel a need to bark his head off if you're using your entire body to tell him 'it's okay, nothing's wrong, no need to shout.'

Good luck. I do know how maddening it is and it's HARD to stay calm when your dog's having a maniac bark fest in the street, but it DOES work.

For the barking in the yard I'd say just call him indoors every time he starts.

Edited to add: Take a look at the articles on this site as well. I don't think there's one about this particular issue, but they're a good introduction to the way of thinking I'm talking about, and her book is, IMO, the one single book anyone who ever loved a dog should read.

Edit 2: While I was typing this my dogs saw a strange cat outside the window. Spike is still staring at it but he isn't barking. Before I started working on this issue he would have exploded. I had to break off typing to pet and give him chicken jerky for being good.

Your dog barks beause you dont give it enough attention.

Simple.

Go play with it. he/she loves you and wants to get your attention because it's bored.

When it doesn't get your attention, your dog does annoying things, like barking, pissing in your shoes, destroying personal belongings.

Dogs arent retarded. They are just like little kids, they're cute to look at but they NEED you and your disipline.

I know dogs aren't retarded. I'm not stupid. He barks when I'm playing with him and walking him. I walk him around the block and he barks at everyone who walks past, or anyone who happens to be in their yard when we go past. He gets attention.

He is also mainly an indoor dog so is never locked away outside with noone to play with.

Anyways, I'll check those sites out, and try the suggestions people have posted. I can't wait that show though, we only get animal planet on pay TV which I don't have =(

It sounds like he's fallen into the habit of using his voice to express happiness and excitement - which is pretty normal for a dog and especially if he's a naturally barky breed like a collie or a sheltie or one of the guarding breeds.

I would deal with that by immediately making his life boring when he barks. If you're playing, STOP as soon as he barks, and then when he stops barking, reward and start playing again. Don't let new people make friends with him or give him attention unless he's being quiet. You see what I mean?

With my dog my biggest issue is him barking out of my window at things he sees. He knows I don't want him to, but sometimes his excitement level is so high that he can't help it. So I immediately take him away from the window, ask him to sit quietly and don't let him go back to the window till he's calm. When I see him interested in something out of the window but NOT barking, I go and stand next to him and give him treats and tell him how wonderful he is.

...I hope I'm making sense and not repeating myself too much. I'm not a serious dog trainer like doing obedience and so forth, but I've worked a lot on this one issue myself, so I hope I can help.

I agree dogs aren't retarded but you seem to be. Did you even read her first post before you started telling her off?

This problem is even when she IS giving the dog attention.

Everyone has mostly been helpful but you have just been mean.