Dog Barking Problem

You've met my two new kids but your introduction wouldn't be complete without meeting Scooter. He is the oldest, but by no means perfect. Scooter barks and I have tried numerous dog training tricks to control the barking with no success.

When I got Scooter from the dog shelter, he was so skinny you could see every rib. He was afraid of his own shadow and shook for about three days after I brought him home. He had been badly abused in two homes and I was his fifth owner. He had been returned to the shelter by the family before me because he snapped and they had little kids. I saw him and knew he was meant to come home with me. He just needed a lot of love and reassurance. He still gets bouts of shaking that last 5-10 minutes but I just hold him tight until the shaking stops. He is now the king of the house and verbally announces it many times a day. I have not yet found the dog training trick that works for Scooter.

Scooter needs very little encouragement to bark. If a car drives by or someone walks on the sidewalk in front of the house or he hears a bird he barks. I'm not talking a little bark, I'm talking non stop loud barking. He may only be a dachshund but he sounds like a German Shepard.

I have tried just about everything I have read and every dog training trick I have heard about but Scooter still barks. Fortunately, I live in a neighborhood of dog lovers. Almost every house has at least one dog and several have two or more. There are a few cats thrown in just to annoy the dogs. If one of the neighbor dogs start barking, we have a dog barking symphony. Most of the time, Scooter is the symphony leader.

I can say my block is crime free because no house breaker is going to come anywhere near us with all the dogs. So there are advantages to barking.

If anyone has had the same barking problem, please let me know what dog training trick worked for you.