Now that we've got the housbreaking thing mainly under control, Bart has decided to grace us with yet another annoying habit - barking incessantly, usually in his crate. He's only 17 weeks old, which, I assume, is too young for a bark collar. Not to mention we don't want to squish his bark completely and I don't want to leave a collar on all the time. Plus he's teething, so I know that may have something to do with it. He's always barked some, but would normally quiet down with a firm but quiet "settle" command. Now, that doesn't work at all. He barks almost all the time when he's in his crate and we are at a loss as to what to do. It reverberates off the tile floor and walls until it literally gives me a headache. All I know to do for now is try to ignore it until he does tire himself out enough to be quiet, then acknowledge the quiet. But it doesn't seem to be making a dent and my husband in particular is getting quite annoyed - we cannot watch tv or work on the computer without the little snot outside or loose in the house, or else he's barking trying to get our attention. We play with him a lot when we are home (almost to the detriment of our other dog, who doesn't get as much attention because Bart demands so much) and the two dogs get to play together some, but if we are not actively paying attention to him and he's supposed to be spending down-time in his crate, he's barking. OR if Bodo is out and he's not, he's barking. Does anyone have any advice for us? It's funny, because my husband's chief complaint when we adopted Bodo was that he didn't bark! I guess you have to be careful what you wish for...huh?!?

Our dog went through a phase like this from 8 - 9 months. It was a really unpleasant time in our household. At 3am, conversations like this would occur:

"I'm going to kill him."
"Maybe he just wants water."
"He has water! He went out right before I put him in there. He's going to die."
"You're not killing the dog."
"Fine, then I'm selling him on eBay." (actual transcript)

Nothing we did really helped, we ignored him when he barked and he just kept barking. For hours. We praised him when he was quiet and it made him start barking again. He grew out of it very suddenly, and hasn't had a problem since.

A few things that were suggested to us (which didn't help):

Does he have a wire crate? Try draping a blanket over it, to make it seem more Den like.

Make sure he's getting enough exercise, it sounds like he has a lot of rambunctious puppy energy that he just needs to burn off. At this age you have to be careful about the type of exercise he gets, you don't want anything too strenuous while his hips are developing. Swimming or nice, looooonnnggg walks are probably best.

You could always sell him on eBay.

If you know that all of his needs are taken care of, then the best course is to IGNORE it.

My pup isn't typically a barking dog, so if he barks I pay a little bit more attention.

In his crate, my pup barks ONLY if he has to Go Potty.

Outside on his tie-out he'll bark if he gets tangled up in the tree stump branch roots.

Both of these barks seems to be be different and have a certain urgency to them.

Then there is his "testing" single WOOF, that he uses, to see if I will pay attention to him, usually when he is on his tie-out and I'm busy in the house. He'll do a little woof-woof. I'll do a discrete check and then ignore, then he goes and gets his bone and lays down with it. I KNOW that if I actually responded to him... it would create a life-long pattern of barking to get my attention.

Even when he does his distress bark, I don't take him out of the crate, or untangle until he is quiet.

I would suggest covering the crate with a blanket ... playing a radio (classical music is supposed to be good) ... running a fan for both ventilation and white noise purposes.

I always run a fan near my pups crate when he is inside it.

Also, does he have anything to chew in the crate? My pup doesn't own any toys, but he does own lots of bones. And occassionally I will fill up the GREEN BALL with little ZUKES, for his to get out. That allows him to CHEW, Problem Solve how to get the treats, and reward him with FOOD.

I rotate different items, like FROZEN Cream Cheese in a Bone, Frozen Apples, Ice Cubes, Treat Ball with Treats, et cetera.

Also, during Non-Crate Time, it might help to leave the door open and have treats in there for the pup to find. Back when my pup owned Toys ... I used to keep his toys in the crate ... :-)

Thanks for the suggestions so far - I figured the ignore it route was probably the best - but it's SO HARD!!!! )

Bart has a smaller kong and a hard rubber ball in his cage to chew on. I've filled the kong before but he doesn't seem to overly interested in licking stuff out of it - maybe I'll try some other food. Right now he's got a hoof in there to chew on, but I won't leave that when I'm not around - it still scares me a little. I will try a crate cover or a blanket, and maybe some classical music in the background. Hopefully he'll grow out of it; maybe it's one of his insecure phases.

yes, try different foods ... :-) My pup doesn't like peanut butter, but he loves CHEESE ... hard cheese, soft cheese, "easy cheese", cream cheese.

he also loves apples & craisins. I'm sure that you can find something that the dog likes.

My pup also loves FROZEN CHICKEN BROTH Cubes (using the ice cube tray), as well as regular ice cubes.

There are so many things that you can give them. have fun experimenting.

I am a newbie and don't know a lot about dog training so this might have been a bad thing, not sure, but it worked for me. I had tried all these things suggested to get my pup to quit his incessant barking in the crate and was getting desperate. He would get stressed doing it too. Finally in desperation I squirted him with a water bottle. I never said a word, just a quick squirt and walked away. It would startle him and he would quit barking. He didn't like it at all. It only took a few times and he would bark no more. He is now a well adjusted pup who loves his crate and often naps in there.

Starbuck does the exact same thing as Louanne’s pup.

She is 25 weeks today, I guess it’s safe to start counting in months now She just lost her last puppy tooth on Sunday night. Overall she didn’t seem to act any different while teething. I gave her plenty of carrots and ice rags. She started teething on 7/2 and finished on 8/26.

We had two crates in the house for a while, when she was too loud then she was put into the garage, so I didn’t have to listen to it. I’m not sure if that will fix your problem or not. If the pup is barking to get attention then it might help. If he is barking to hear himself bark, or responding to a neighbor dog that you can’t quite hear then I doubt it will help much.

 Quote: Shody Lytle

I am a newbie and don't know a lot about dog training so this might have been a bad thing, not sure, but it worked for me. I had tried all these things suggested to get my pup to quit his incessant barking in the crate and was getting desperate. He would get stressed doing it too. Finally in desperation I squirted him with a water bottle. I never said a word, just a quick squirt and walked away. It would startle him and he would quit barking. He didn't like it at all. It only took a few times and he would bark no more. He is now a well adjusted pup who loves his crate and often naps in there.

I've used this method with CATS and keeping them off the Kitchen Counter ... :-)

I can see no harm ... I just wouldn't want my PUP/DOG to associate ME with the Water Squirting. :-)

 Quote: Keith Larson

We had two crates in the house for a while, when she was too loud then she was put into the garage, so I didn’t have to listen to it. I’m not sure if that will fix your problem or not. If the pup is barking to get attention then it might help. If he is barking to hear himself bark, or responding to a neighbor dog that you can’t quite hear then I doubt it will help much.

That's a good point ... and if it turns out to be something like he just likes the sound of his bark, then you might need the Anti-Bark Collar thing later on. But as a Pup, I would continue to try to IGNORE. I know it is hard ... and like Keith said, if you can put him in a Crate where you can not hear him bark, then it would be easier on you. Garage, Basement?

Kameron, I personally, just for the heck of it, don't like squirting a dog in the face with a water bottle. To confirm my total distaste for it (I kind of feel it's disrespectful and somewhat unfair since the dog doesn't know why the heck you're doing it), I tried it just once with my dog in the crate when he wouldn't settle (at about 5 months old). He turned into a savage beast, barking and spit flying, ripping at the crate to try and get out to kill the bottle. That did it for me, never again. Now, when I'm trying to clean windows or walls with the squirt bottle, he gets enraged. Very hard to clean around my house.

Just for your info, you decide what you want to do.