I recently started fostering dogs with a local rescue, and my most recent foster arrived about two days ago. He's a shepherd mix, about 30lbs full grown. He's very loving, doesn't chew, but my god this dog need to be muted. The second he was in my house, he was barking/whining, and it wouldn't be so bad if he didn't have one of those barks that sounds like he's being murdered. Anyway, it's frustrating because there is absolutely nothing that will make him stop, and ignoring him seemed to work, but turns out it's not really doing the trick.

I'm not entirely sure about one of those no-bark collars. He seems like one of those dogs that would be too reactive to it, he's just so jumpy and skiddish, I'm not sure he's really calmed down. He's crated sometimes, and I'll put something over it to try and calm him down, but it's a no-go. So I'll let him stay out, because he seems to be slightly less annoying that way. I tried looking it up on leerburg as well as google, but I'm not really finding anything that will help my situation.

Should I spring for the collar? I need a sort of "quick fix" as his barking is making me deaf, and gets my other dogs all wound up. Not to mention the poor neighbors.

And for a long-term fix type thing, what exactly calms a dog's nerves? He seems so anxious and all over the place, I'm not sure how to make comfortable enough to just, relax.

I apologize if this has already been answered and dealt with, I couldn't find it!

How much exercise is he getting, of the tongue-hanging-out type?

This would be my absolute top #1 priority. I would have him out all day tomorrow.

He gets his exercise, plenty of it. They're walked in the mornings for an hour, then I take them to the tennis court off the leash and play with them/practice OB for another 30min to an hour (depending on how much time I have), and before bed it's another hour walk. With three dogs, it's kind of more than necessary. lol

Does he just have way more energy than that? I mean, it seems like that should be enough.

p.s. What I meant by jumpy is that when he's pet or if someone walks too close to him/accidentally touches him, he acts as if he just got beat. He doesn't full on jump as a bad habit, just wanted to clarify.

Oh! And there's quite a few mini-walks/jogs in between. I can't stand when they're inside bored and getting into trouble/acting like jackasses, so I do what I can to prevent that.

You can always train the "hush" command.

When you have the one-hour walk (I assume a marching-right-along pace?) and then another 30-60 minutes of ob and play, and then go home, is there no effect on the barking level?

After only two days, of course, it's hard to assess what the dog will be like when he has settled in more, but even now, I'd expect that "tired" would equal less-energetic barking. So I'd probably be looking at other factors if I was convinced that he was really tired out and still barking at the same level.

Is there something he's reacting to in his crate? That is, is there an uncrated dog approaching his crate? Or can he see and be seen by another crated dog who is giving him the stink-eye? No kids running/playing near his crate?

Maybe this is a clue: " ... ignoring him seemed to work, but turns out it's not really doing the trick", because it sounds like it worked somewhat but maybe given up on? That is, if ignoring him wasn't consistent, then he might have learned that "barking won't get attention unless I do it for a long time."

Give us an update in a few days, OK?

For the most part, I'm trying to build up to jogging and what not. But he does get worn out. It just seems like he was so wound up but you know what I did find out is that he's pretty much quiet if I let him be just out and about in the house. But I'm not comfy with leaving him out when I'm gone. Even tethered he's barking.

I was watching for that today actually, Connie. I even rearranged the crates just to be sure, but I'm just not seeing any dog-dog issues, and his crate is new, so I don't think there's anything in it that's bothering him, and definitely no kids. I don't know, I'll give it some more time and see if he settles in a little better.

We still ignore him, mostly because I don't know what to do about it, and it doesn't bother me TOO much. I'm mostly concerned about my creepy neighbors complaining, lol.

I'll check in in about a week with you Connie via PM if that's okay? Just to see if I could be missing something else/if I found the problem. Don't wanna post for something so minor! I've been trying not to, but his barking just had me stumped.

Thanks!

p.s. Faisal, I just might do that.

Just wanted to let you all know that Buddy's annoying, nonstop barking has ended with some more training and exercise. Though, he was adopted last week to a vet tech and her family. She fell in love with him the second she saw him. And now, I've got two huge, pure bred GSDs as fosters now.

Eight animals.. wish me luck! lol

Sheesh, Dannielle ... good luck with that. You'll be testing your pack leadership skills for sure!