I came here awhile back for advice with my dog, Ruby. The info people gave me was really helpful, and she became a pretty good dog. Unfortunately, at 11 months she became ill and we found out she had PKD. She lasted about another month and a half, barely making it past 1yo, with lots of sub-q fluids and hand-feeding special foods, and meds, but finally her quality of life just went away and we had to put her down. Her breeder offered us the choice of another pup, and that's how we come to have Stewart.

Stewart actually has a better disposition all around than Ruby did. She's been a handful from day one, but nothing really bad. She's not quite as wild, she loves people, housebroken from day one, easily crate-trained. She would be dominant if we let her, and she keeps testing, but that just goes along with being a bull terrier. Right now she's about 17 months old.

Around the first of the year she started barking excessively. We figured we could just wear her out (walks, playing), and it would help. It didn't. We finally ended up ordering the Tri_Tronics bark collar. It didn't faze her until we worked up to 4, then she stopped barking so much. She seemed much calmer all together; before, the more she barked the more whipped up she'd get. She's get started, I'd put the collar on, and we'd have a couple of hours of peace. She was also quieter once the collar came off. After a few weeks, she went back to barking again, even with the collar. So I bumped it up to 5. That stopped the crazy barking again for a few weeks, then she got used to it, I guess. Now she barks right through it again, and snarls when it zaps her. At this point, it just seems to be agitating her.

I'm back to tethering her to me when she's out of her crate, I pop the leash and correct her if she starts up. That stops her for a second, but she goes right back to barking. If she stops for a couple of seconds, I give her a treat and say "good quiet." I take her out for walks (she doesn't bark on walks) she can only go for about 20 minutes in this heat, and she's pooped, but as soon as she gets her breath back, she's back to barking. For a couple of nights she was really interested in a ball, but then she just lost interest in it the next night and decided to bark instead. She barks at everything and nothing. She doesn't usually bark outside, just inside. She'll just sit beside me and bark into the air. We ignore her when she starts that demanding barking, and if she starts up in her crate (usually after being asleep, something wakes her up and she starts; she doesn't mind being in her crate at all) she does not get out until she's quiet.

Here's an example: I'm in the kitchen doing dishes or something, and she's lying behind me. She'll be barking on and off, and when she stops for a few seconds, I pop a treat in her mouth and tell her good quiet. Sometimes when she's barking I'll yell quiet loud enough for her to hear me, and if she gets quiet, she gets a treat and praise with good quiet. I also use a clicker, and click and treat when she gets quiet for longer than 4-5 seconds. But then she goes right back to barking. And sometimes she'd rather bark than work for a treat.

I have an appointment with the vet coming up this week just to make sure there's no physical problem. I've read all the posts I can find searching here, that's how we ended up ordering the bark collar.

Any suggestions are appreciated. Thanks.

I'm sorry about Ruby.

What's Stewart's usual daily routine? Can you run through getting up, potty, then what amount of time spent on what?

Now that it's summer, I usually go to bed around 2-3am, and she stays up with me. When I go to bed, she goes in her crate, and normally goes right to sleep. She stays asleep until about 11am most days. If she wakes up earlier, my husband or I let her out to go potty, then she comes back in a goes back to her crate to sleep. Sometimes she wants to lie in the sun for 5-10 minutes, then she comes in and goes back to sleep. She's almost always awake by 11am, but if she's awake before then she seems content to just lie in her crate and watch what's going on.

When I let her out at 11, we go outside to potty, then she comes in and hangs out with me in the kitchen. I keep a small bowl of treats on the counter, and we run through sit and down every so often (she's all ready starting to bark about now). Lately she's been tethered to me so she can't prance around the kitchen barking her head off. She seems to know we don't want her barking like that, if either one of us turns and tells her to be quiet, she lays flat down on her belly. But as soon as we turn back around, she's barking again.

When we have lunch I feed her in her kennel area right next to the kitchen (about 6x10 area in back room). Sometimes she eats, and sometimes she wants to stand there and bark. Sometimes she'll go in her crate and sit and watch. After lunch (and when she stops barking) it's out to go potty again, then she's back out with us. Some time after that I'll take her out for a walk, and she loves most of it until we hit about the 20 minute mark, then she's head down and panting like crazy and ready to go back inside. From talking to people in a bull terrier group, this seems to be pretty common with the breed.

After that she's happy to lie on the tile floor in the kitchen for 15-20 minutes, then she's back up again, and usually barking. Then we spend the next part of the afternoon with her being okay for a bit, then jumping up barking at any sound, or the TV, or someone coming out of another room, or a car going by, or whatever. If I correct her by popping the leash, she'll look at me, then turn around and after a few seconds start barking again. I can quick give her a treat when she stops, she'll swallow the treat, then turn around and start barking again.

She's with me in the kitchen when I make dinner, then I feed her again in the kennel area while we eat. I clean up, let her out to go potty, and then we hang out watching TV or getting the kids ready for bed. The last few days she's been playing with her ball in the living room until she's tired. I'll take her out later when it's cooler, and she'll walk longer then (but still just about 30 minutes). On the 3-4 nights it's just me here with the kids, I can't take her out then.

Right now she's just lying next to me chewing on her ball. I take her out 2-3 times in the evening to make sure she doesn't need to go potty, but she doesn't need to go that much. If she does need to go (and she's off leash) she'll go stand at the back door. She'll typically doesn't want to hang out in the yard like a lot of dogs. She'll hurry and go potty so she can get back in. I always go out with her, and if I don't shut the door all the way, she'll push the door open and leave me out there. If I have some reason I need to put her in her crate around 11:30 or midnight, she'll go to sleep most of the time.

Our schedule changed some when school let out, but the barking started before that. It'll change again at the end of August when they go back. But it doesn't change a whole lot for her.

Over all, she's pretty good. She practically came housebroken, she was easy to crate train, and she's not nippy like Ruby was. She's been pretty quiet tonight, but she's gone into these spasms of barking every 15 minutes or so. Usually it's more than that.

I'm a little brain-fried right now, but I think that's about a typical day. Sometimes it's a little different, we head to the store, or next door to swim for an hour, and then she's in her crate. We don't hear her bark until she hears the key in the door, so she doesn't seem to be going crazy while we're gone. We don't have a problem with her alerting at someone walking by outside, or barking when she hears other dogs, or things like that. The problem is the loud, insistent bark that goes on and on, about nothing in particular. Just sitting in one spot, barking. Sometimes if she's barking in her crate or kennel, and we're ignoring her, she'll finally stop and just lie there grumbling. Literally lie down with her head on her paws and grumble. When she gets quiet, and I go to let her out, sometimes she starts barking again, and I have to walk away until she's quiet.

There was a period from around December to February where she wasn't getting walked, because I was sick. I'm not sure if the barking got worse during that time, it's only been driving us really crazy about the last couple of months. Once I got better and got to walking her again (and hubby agreed to chip in and walk her sometimes) I thought it would help a lot, but it hasn't. It helps only until she catches her breath.

Okay, now she's just sitting there barking at me. Not an angry bark, just a really loud insistent bark. She just went potty a couple of minutes ago, and she's got her ball, so I don't know what it is she's going on about. I'm ignoring her, so she's going under the desk. She did stop barking, though. Sometimes she keeps going...

Thanks for your time.

I have no advice to give right now, I just wanted to say that she is super adorable!

Some dogs are just barkers. My brother's sheltie barks when she's happy, when she's sad, when she is walking, when she's running, and yes, when she sleeps. She is by far the yappiest dog I've ever encountered but again, she's a sheltie. I'm pretty sure barking is in the breed standard.

From what your describing I don't think this is the case of a dog that is just barky. I think it's a dog that just needs something to do. From what you're describing she's barking when she's left idle to do her own thing or as a way to gain your attention. I would suggest pre empting this with activity that will occupy her brain and relieve her need for activity which from the description seems to be lacking. An old treadmill can be a great help for this if you can't go out with her every day. If you have the space in the yard maybe you can get her started on a springpole. Clicker games are also useful.

She's at the age where she needs to be tired to keep out of trouble.

Handing her a frozen, stuffed Kong will keep her mouth busy for 20-30 minutes! (Other than that, I wish I could help you. I really hate it when my dogs bark unnecessarily - I like my peace and quiet).

I sure do agree with others here. I am reading what I pretty much thought we would read when I asked about the dog's day.

The dog is bored.

QUOTE: She's at the age where she needs to be tired to keep out of trouble. END

And it's a pretty long age, so I'd really start to address it now before the barking habit is any more entrenched.

I didn't see anything about training. Do you know anything about the fun you can have working her lil brain with marker training? And you mentioned swimming: Can that be more frequent?

I have to say that it's pretty straightforward. Even my more senior dogs need/want/get a lot more stimulation than that.

Good luck! I think you'll work this out. Post back if you want some training hints.

WOW!

I had never heard of spring poles before. After looking at some youtubes... damn do terriers seem to enjoy these things.

Maybe I should consider making one to keep my JRT busy. I've been looking for ages for something that can occupy him for more than 5minutes. He tears apart any toy that I let him chew, and can go through a frozen kong faster can I can fill it.

While this certainly cannot replace marker training, if it could be something that he enjoys doing on his own it would be fantastic.

Is this something that you always let available for him to tug on, or you only install it now and then to increase his excitement toward it ?

And also, more importantly. Is there a chance that he will learn to tug things around the house that are NOT his spring pole ? The last thing I want is him to gain bad habits like pulling on the table cloth or something.