Dog barking/yapping all the time.

Does anyone know if there's anything I can do to stop my Westie yapping/barking all the time?

We have neighbours either side of us, one of them sometimes goes to work at 6am, so she starts barking her face off then.

At the other side, we have new neighbours moving in, so they go in and out their house a few times from 9am, and every time they go in or out, or someone knocks on their door, she barks then.

I've tried telling her off, but she just wont stop! I think I've stopped her, leave the room and she starts doing it again.

I know one of the neighbours is going to complain soon, it's annoying me and it's MY dog, so I don't even want to know what their thinking! Especially as I don't think the new neighbours have a dog themselves, so they're probably least likely to understand!

I'm tempted to find a deaf person who lives in the middle of no where, so I can give her to them and then she can bark all the she wants!

Apart from that, is there anything I can do to make her stop it?

I've waited to see if she stops in the end and how long it takes, but I don't think she would stop, as when I did this she was barking for 5 minutes and still hadn't stopped so I had to go distract her!

So when we're out, I don't even want to know how long she barks for, and that must really really annoy the neighbours as we have no way of stopping her if we're out!

And it's so loud, it's probably not even just our neighbours that can hear her!

I don't want to get kicked out just because she wont shut up!

Help?!

(I loved her when she was a little puppy, she never used to bark, just cry!)

I have the same problem with my GSD. He tends to bark more when he knows the dogs from next door are being taken out. No idea how he knows, but he does! When my daughters friends call for her in the morning for school, the dogs in the lounge with me, barking like mad. The barking drives me MENTAL!

Is there no way to stop it?

I'm thinking of the neighbours mostly, it's not nice for them just moving into a new home and having an annoying dog barking everytime they go in or out their house!

I've not found a solution. I try the water spray in the face trick which works straight away but if a leave the room or walk away from him, he starts again. I feel sorry for my neighbours too - specially the side that has no dog

I have 3 westies, we have tried for a long time to get something that works & we have finally done it !!

A tin, similar to a tobacco tin - 3rd full of nuts & bolts, tape it up.

Very horrible noise when shook quick.

One quick shake accompanied by a firm 'NO' and soon she should get the picture.

If she is at the bottom of the garden going mad then throw it to the side of her, it will distract her. She should soon get the hang of it.

Good Luck !

Molly (my GSD) is gradually losing her barking (yay!) and one of the ways that we've got there is to say 'shhhhhh!' and reward her in the moment as she draws breath between barks.

This has extended from a millisecond to a whole second, then up to more than a second as she's got used to what 'shhhh' means.

She's also very good at using hand signals and doesn't actually need most of the commands (I've also done practice with her that involves no commands at all, only the hand signals that are naturally part of my body language with her) so now as long as she can see me, 'shhhh' works just with my finger to my lips.

Yesterday she was in my sister's garden and shouting for attention during my nephew's birthday party in the house. I made eye contact with her from inside the house and did the hand signals for 'shhhh' and 'down' and she just lay down in the garden.

Her preferred place of barking inside the house is just inside the front door, so another management technique that has helped is sending her to her bed and rewarding her for lying calmly when we hear bark situations approaching, like someone coming through the front gate.

Of course, part of the issue is that terriers and GSDs are naturally 'bark first, ask questions later' type of breeds....

I have 3 westies, we have tried for a long time to get something that works & we have finally done it !!

 

A tin, similar to a tobacco tin - 3rd full of nuts & bolts, tape it up.

Very horrible noise when shook quick.

One quick shake accompanied by a firm 'NO' and soon she should get the picture.

If she is at the bottom of the garden going mad then throw it to the side of her, it will distract her. She should soon get the hang of it.

 

Good Luck !

So it's a Westie thing? Now I know why people sometimes call them 'yappy little dogs'!

I'll try that, hopefully it will work! Is there anything else I can use if I can't find some nuts and bolts?!

Thanks for the help, I really hope it will work!

we've been using gravel in an old cocktail shaker, but not for barking just for when she bites or chews at something she shouldn't. you can see her thinking about doing it now, bless

Pebbles are just as good but after a while of shaking they will turn to dust !!

I've not found a solution. I try the water spray in the face trick which works straight away but if a leave the room or walk away from him, he starts again. I feel sorry for my neighbours too - specially the side that has no dog

we tried alsort but this does work and Badger is a yapper of the 1st degree so we do understand but like you we don't want to upset our neighbours

Have you tried the antiboistop citronella bark collars? expensive but VERY effective.

I tried the bark collar but that made ours worse if anything lol the reason we use the water spray is because the shaker thingy was seen as a game not a deterant , the water spray is the last thing we have tried as a last resort