# Growling/Barking at EVERY noise...sigh



## fostermom (Sep 6, 2007)

> God forbid that we actually have anyone come to our front door (or even when me or another family comes home after a 5 minute outing), he will growl at the person (the more he loves you, the more mean and scary the growl is) and then followed by DEEP, really mean sounding barking. At the same time his body is doing the happy tail wagging and dancing around that he is soooooo excited to see you.


This is actually a vocal greeting and though it sounds like a growl, it's not.

I totally understand wanting to get this barking under control before you add your new puppy. It's terrible when you have multiple dogs barking at everything. Honestly, if I closed a cabinet and my dog started barking like crazy, I would call them to me and open and close the cabinet over and over. I wonder if he's feeling protective of you and that's why he's barking at everything. Maybe have his ears checked by the vet?


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## Angelina (Aug 11, 2011)

Cannella wants to bark and growl at everything too and I taught her the word 'quiet'. It took a while, I talked calmly to her to settle her down when she was in the barky/ growly mode and when she was quiet would say QUIET and praise her like she was the best thing on this earth. She learned 'uh uh' (but never in a loud or mean voice, just low) and she would look at me and be quiet I'd say 'quiet', and praise her. Sometimes I would pretend to look for what she was barking at, open the door, look and tell her its ok, no problem, quiet and if she was big praise. She is pretty good about it now.

Your dog may feel it needs to be defensive of its territory, needs to be the leader and will carry that tension with it. You showing it that you are paying attention and taking away that role will help it to destress. But you have to do it smartly, with lots of patience and kindness and not get angry at it.

Good luck to you. Having two dogs do it can be sooo much worst so try and nip it now if you can...


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## Charlie's Mom NJ (Sep 22, 2011)

I should have mentioned but when Charlie was younger, he went on daily walks with me, puppy kindergarten, obedience training, dog park, dog beach, people parks, doggie daycare, etc. I went to great lengths to socialize him constantly in his first 18 months. In the past few months, the walks and "fun dog outings" are pretty infrequent. These days, I do all of the hard exercise right in our fenced in yard for an hour a day. The only time he leaves the premises is via our daily car rides to pick up the kids from their activities. I've been cheating and counting that as a "really high speed walk" since he's already being exercised at home. 

Could the barking be out of boredom of his surroundings or something along those lines? If so, the good news is that I'll soon be out and about again constantly socializing our new puppy and Charlie will be tagging along with us every chance I'm able to swing bringing two dogs at once.


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## Angelina (Aug 11, 2011)

I think so. My dogs get left alone quite a bit and the more they are home alone, the barkier they get. Also they HAVE to have exercise or the energy is so high...Cannella especially gets on 'high alert'. So it is a combination of all of those things...

But for me they have to know what you want; which is to not bark and why it is essential they learn the meaning of quiet. Otherwise they just get tensed up not knowing what you want and it escalates...


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