Hi our 7 month old black lab barks at every sound when in the house. When my son or husband come home he barks until he can see them, if somebody makes a movement upstairs he hears them and starts. If the doorbell goes or he hears people outside, quite often the neighbours he starts. The worst was last week when my son brought friends home after school - they all came into the living room to see him but then went upstairs and he could hear them talking and moving about so constantly barked - eventually I had to ask the boys to stay in the xbox room and try not to move!! I did manage to distract him playing with his inside ball for a while but got fed up with that after half an hour!
What do you do in response to your dog barking as there are various ways of dealing with barking. Does he bark in the same way each time as dogs don't have just one type of bark? For instance the bark for your husband and son arriving home is not necessarily the same as say someone coming to the door.....
At the moment try talking to him to reassure him everything ok as not sure what else to do. Same bark if someone at the door. He does have a louder one if out for a walk and somebody tries talking to him but he decides he doesn't like them.
Our chocolate lab is two and we've had him two months. He too barks at neighbors in their yards, working men, and people coming in the door (also jumps on them). When walking he would go nuts if he heard another dog barking or, heaven forbid, actually saw another dog. But I've been trying to distract him with little treats on the ground the minute I hear a dog barking. I say, ready and hold the treat where he can see it and then throw on ground and say get and do this over and over as we walk past the dog. Just this morning he heard a dog bark and for the first time looked up at me as if to say where's my treat? I haven't tried the treat distraction inside yet, but it might work.
Tatze does 'alert' barking, but if I get up and 'check what's there' and tell her "it's fine, I've got it now' she settles straight away. It's worth the little disruption and works for all noises. If I don't go and see I think she thinks I haven't heard her and just barks and barks! Now that she's a bit older (3) she often just huffs instead of barking, but if I don't 'check' it turns into a bark. ...
Harley does exactly the same. I used to have a problem with barking in the garden, but after posting on here I done as suggested by Boogie and it has worked for us. She still barks at someone coming to the front door, but in all honesty I don't mind that as she stops as soon as I get to the door.
