Just a grumpy dog ?

Legacy_user

My crossbreed terrier has always barked when people come to the door or something comes through the letterbox , increasingly he's finding other things to bark at like whistling on adverts , the early morning birds twittering and at 1-45 am today a cat outside ! These are all things he's never had issues with before.

Is he just becoming a grumpy old man ? He is 8 yrs old .

sheramber

Does he get attention by barking? Reacting and telling him to be quiet can be seen by a dog as you joining in and confirming to him there is a reason to bark.
I found whispering to my dog quietened him as he had to listen to hear what I was saying.

Does he get plenty of attention when he is quiet.? Do you praise him when he is quiet to reinforce his good behaviour, and to teach what being quiet is. We do tend to ignore our dogs when they behave as we want.

krlyr

No such thing as a "grumpy dog" IMO - that's anthropomorphism to me.

Dogs bark as a form of communication. They're hungry, they want to go outside, they want attention, they're scared, they're playful. They want to guard your property and barking "makes" the postman go away (well, it works every single time!).

Finding the cause of the barking allows you to address it, should you choose to - for example, changing their emotional response so they're not scared (so no longer need to bark) or teach them a more rewarding behaviour (I get a treat every time I sit on my bed when the doorbell rings so I'm going to do that instead of bark).

However, with any sudden change in behaviour, especially in a slightly older dog, would warrant a vet trip to make sure there's no underlying health cause. While I don't see there being grumpy dogs, just as a general nature, pain or illness could cause some grumpiness to their normal personality, as they won't be feeling right, they may be feeling more sensitive/defensive, or in the case of something like the start of doggy dementia, they just may not be quite 'with it'.

If vet MOT gives the all clear then it's a case of training. Noise sensitization using CDs/YouTube/recordings and also a bit of management (playing the radio for background noise, putting blinds up so cats can't be seen when you're not training for an alternative behaviour, putting dog in a different room etc. - the more an unwanted behaviour is reheased, the more likely the dog is to perform it, so management breaks that cycle) would be the way I would likely be going about it.