Dog barking when i leave the house

slipthru

My 18m dog barks constantly as soon as i leave the house and is disturbing the neighbours.

I'm unsure if it is seperation anxiety as she is quite happy left alone in a room by herself while i am in and happily sleeps in the hall downstairs each night.

I try to take her for a long walk when possible before leaving her and i also leave her with a frozen stuffed kong which she usually empties, plus her toys and chews but she ignores these until i get back. I also leave the radio on for her but it makes no difference.

I have reached the point where i might try the citronella bark collar, but it is not really somthing that i am sure is good as it's punishment for barking.

Does anyone have any advice? something else that i can try, i generally try to only leave her when taking the children to school and picking them up which is around half an hour at a time, but sometimes i need to go shopping and am unable to take her with me as i don't have a car to leave her in and she would just bark outside the shop.

Johnny_Dangerously

Hmmm, it's a tricky issue to resolve as it can be difficult to understand why she is doing it. One thing I'd say, is definitely don't go down the bark collar route. Much better off going down the positive reinforcement route first, and they can be pretty distressing for dogs which might just set you back further.

What breed is the dog by the way? Some dogs tend to be more vocal than others which can help gauge the problem.

Now, I'm not a qualified behaviourist, so if there are any on here, then take their advice over mine. But I would go with the following.

Step 1 - Start day 1 of with a really, really long walk or heavy exercise. To the point where you know the dog will be really pooped.

Step 2 - Plan to be able to leave the dog for a short amount of time, leave with the kong. Leave the house and stand outside within earshot for around 10 minutes. If you don't hear any barking, re-enter and give the dog some praise, a treat etc.

Step 3 - repeat the above as much as possible, and extend the time gradually. The key point here is to try and keep returning back before any barking happens so that the dog learns to break the association with you returning when it barks.

Key notes: Don't react in any way if you return when the dog is barking. In fact, completely ignore it until it is calm and how you want it to be. By telling it off in any way, you are likely to validate the attention it might want by barking, even if it's in a negative way. Keep praising for coming back in when it is quiet.

I'd also stress that exercise is likely to be a key factor here. Again, not knowing the breed it's hard to recommend. The key point I've always tried to get to with my boys is that when I go to work, they should be tired enough that they look forward to the time to rest.

Hope that helps a little.

pawsies

Get a neighbour to look after her or drop her off at doggy daycare so she is never alone whilst you work on the issue VERY gradually.

http://www.dvgrr.org/docs/education-training/separation-anxiety.pdf?sfvrsn=2

Even though she is fine in another room in the house the key thing is she knows you are around somewhere. When she sees you leave that is it to her omg something awful might happen!!!
Build up her confidence by opening the front door- treat. Open door- treat. Open door- treat. Keep going until she doesn't care about the door being opened.
Then take a step into the doorway- treat etc again until she doesn't care. Then take a step out of the door, leaving the door open- treat. Then door closed for literally a second.
This will take weeks/months of hard work.
Build up the time so you close the door for 1, 2, 3, 5, 10 seconds then minutes.
You need to do this criteria every day for probably several months to see progress (like I say it is hard work!) and when you have to go out like I say leave her with someone else.
Luckily it doesn't sound like true separation anxiety but more like separation issues which is less severe. Also consider medication (see a vet behaviourist, not just your regular vet) if you think she needs it there are plenty of options for anxious dogs nowadays

slipthru

Thanks for the advice, she is a jack russell x cockerpoo. I got her when she was 15 weeks old and she came from a house with 6 other dogs and her two siblings plus a few cats, i do wonder if this may have something to do with it plus of course the age when she came to live with me.

I do already leave her with a friend when i'm out for more than 2 hours at the moment, but unfortunately this is not always possible plus it can add an extra half hour journey time to get there.

I am unable to walk her each morning before the school run, as i don't have the time due to getting the children ready on my own, but take her out around 10am and get home around 11.30am and then go off to pick up my youngest from nursery. I used to walk her round the block a couple of times before picking up my eldest but found it made no difference to her barking.

She is a very high energy dog, she usually tires out one dog and then moves on to the next at the park, she also doesn't like to play fetch that much, i end up picking up the ball instead of her bringing it to me, which means unless she sees a dog that wants to play she hasn't had a good enough walk.

She is equally happy moching around at home just as long as i'm there.

Johnny_Dangerously

Yeah the JR and have a spaniel in there will give you some high energy.

Very difficult without seeing the dog, but I'd still be tempted to say exercise may be a the potential solution. Some very good points in pawsies document there, particularly videoing it if you can just to see what triggers it, where she is barking etc. If it seems to be at noises outside, then you may be able to address her territorial response, wheras if it's just general howling for attention, then the posts above are probably a better approach.

The other thing I thought the document pointed out well, is the potential for getting a second dog:) I always say two dogs isn't double the effort of 1!

slipthru

Thanks, i haven't videoed it but did leave a phone voice recording and its barking and howling pretty much non stop for the half hour i was gone, although i haven't done this when i have left her after she has had a walk will do that tomorrow.

I have reordered some pet remedy refills instead of the citronella bark collar as i am sure she was a bit calmer for the month or so that i left it plugged in, she certainly wasn't barking howling as much when i got home, now i hear her when i'm walking up the drive.

At the moment it is just us walking out the door without her that triggers it as i had to take my eldest to the drs and had no time to walk or leave her elsewhere, she didn't even touch her kong this morning.

I'm going to try the walking out the front door and coming straight back in this evening as it's something i can do straight away and will move on to all the other excercises in the coming days.

Raksha

An Adaptil plug in may help too

krlyr

A video would be a good way to get some more info on the situation. You may find, for example, that there's an external trigger causing or contributing to the issue.

I recorded mine when a neighbour told us about hearing barking during the day - it did turn out she had separation anxiety (later found out she had hypothyroidism - which seems to present as anxiety, including contributing to the separation issues) but I did notice some triggers, there was a particular time of day she'd start barking and it turned out it was the time my nan was arriving home (she lives opposite) and Kiki was recognising the car engine. Shutting the windows at the front and keeping the blind closed helped. Also, the postman or any leaflet droppers arriving set both dogs off, and she'd then be unsettled after that. They were things I couldn't stop, but it at least helped me identify a few of her triggers.

If it is separation anxiety, two books I'd really recommend are Nicole Wilde's "Don't leave me" and Malena DeMartini Price's "Treating separation anxiety in dogs". Both pretty detailed and outline treatment plans, and both pretty reasonably priced as Kindle books.Working with a behaviourist is a good idea too - separation anxiety is a pretty tough thing to deal with by yourself.

KMR1984

Our golden retriever was similar, he would bark and howl when we were out - it was separation anxiety. About 3 months ago we invested in a Motorola Scout cam - video is streamed to your phone and you receive an alert, like a txt msg, if they make a noise. When he makes a noise we're able to talk to him directly and we've found that on doing this he doesn't make a single peep afterwards, he'll quite happily settle in his bed until we return. Its been hugely successful, whether we leave him for 30 mins or 4 hours. We can take a peek at him whenever we like, check room temperature and play calming music to him if desired. Would highly recommend to anyone, even if only as a way to keep an eye on their behaviour.

slipthru

Thanks, i have been lazy in getting the video camera out and charging it, will try this when i leave her after her walk.

Johnny_Dangerously

There is a little voice in my head telling me the camera is going o get chewed? put it up high!