We've had quite an increase in the amount of barking and mwuphing from Holly over the last couple of weeks. Originally it would happen when she was in the garden (smallish front garden next to public path unfortunately) and a dog would come past with its owner. Now it's cars, people, cyclists, birds and foxes in the trees opposite even if we can't see them and will also happen if she's inside and can see something through the glass doors. This change in behaviour does coincide with a change in our days as we're at home all day now rather than being at work. She still gets her 3 walks a day so exercise is still being kept up. We can distract her and bring her back inside with various treats but we are straying close to rewarding the barking rather than teaching her to not bark at every single little thing! Any suggestions on techniques we could try?
How about not having her in the garden, and restricting her view through the glass doors? If you don't want to cover the whole doors, you could use quarter height curtains on shear curtain wires or something like that. I think it's really about removing her from the things that make her act like this really. Although you might be surprised to hear a suggestion restricting access to the garden, it's easy to cope - she can just have an extra short walk or two, or a couple of extra training sessions instead and she won't come to any harm. There is an article here: http://www.thelabradorsite.com/how-to-avoid-your-labrador-barking-at-passers-by/
