Barking dog

[momof2boys]

My dog is 3 years old and is driving me crazy!  For the past two years he has chewed/eaten everything.  He had started break out of his crate when we weren't home and shred our curtains, chew furniture etc.  I think he was having separation anxiety, although he has always been a chewer even when we are home, we've had to keep a close eye on him.  I finally managed to reinforce his crate enough that he can't get out, so thats under control.  He was in daycare to give us all a break but he got kicked out b/c he was chewing their walls, beds etc. 

However, now he paces by the door to go out when we're home all the time. I let him out and he runs out and barks at everything.  A car drives by, a bird flies by, the car across the street parks in a different spot etc.  Its driving me crazy, and i'm sure the neighbors love it too!  He's 130 pounds and has a loud, scary bark.  Today I let him out and didn't see someone walking their little kids by our house.  He flew out of the house towards them barking like crazy and the poor little kid freaked out as did the woman with him.   He has an underground fence (I know a lot of people don't like them but we couldn't put in a real fence), so he can't leave the yard, and his boundary is several feet from the street, but its scary for people who don't know this.

Any ideas on how to curb this barking?  As soon as he starts barking I bring him right inside but then he immediately starts pacing to go out again, and if let out starts barking again.  He is driving me crazy!  We haven't had any complaints from neighbors yet but as the snow melts and people start hanging out in their yards and my dog barks the entire time at them, i'm sure thats going to be a different story!   

[Deleted]

My dog will bark at just about anything too. I think the issue is boredom. If she's tired, she barks much less, so I recommend more exercise.

[spa]

I agree with star gazer he/she is not getting enough exercise, what kind of dog is it?

Not enough exercise means they are bored (just like horses) will chew everything

[cmeon]

I know you don't want to hear it, but, that e-fence is not working for you. He should not have access to the front yard without being leashed to you- at the very least, you need to redefine his zones so that he can't even see the street- and he needs to be monitored while he's out there. I really do "dislike" them, though- they are a nightmare for neighbors (how awful for that woman!!) and having such poorly defined property boundaries can really drive some dogs crazy.

What kind of dog is he? We have two Pyr mixes who are incredibly- OMG give me some earplugs right now- barky. But, that's what they are- a livestock guardian breed who barks constantly to keep predators at bay. It's truly their nature, we can't expect them to be silent when they notice something amiss on "their property" (which includes the street behind us- ha).

Now, we didn't just give in and let them be barky fools- they know the command "shush". It's invaluable. We're not quite at 100%, but, we can live with a slip here and there (the offender gets leashed to me if they can't shuddup- they really don't like that).

He doesn't need to be let out just because he wants to go out- if he's annoying you with pacing and you know he doesn't need to go out, distract him with a mental stimulation toy, leash him, or just crate him. He absolutely needs some exercise- I'm guessing he's not easy to walk when he's so reactive towards people, huh? What kind of training have you done with him?

[LoveTrains]

Exercise. How much do you walk this fog? A tired dog is a good dog.

[Deleted]

We tried everything from a thunder coat, increasing the walks, the pheromone wall plug in, treats/toys/puzzles and the only thing that has helped my dog is this bark collar:

www.amazon.com/PetSafe-Gentle-Spray-Anti-Bark-Collar/dp/B0002D31QU/ref=sr_1_3?s=pet-supplies&ie=UTF8&qid=1426241304&sr=1-3&keywords=bark+collar

it puffs out a little citronella every time she barks. It was highly recommended by the vet and our dog walker. It seems to do the trick because she doesn't smell like citronella any more when we get home from work.

[momof2boys]

Thanks for your responses! We assume he is a great pyrenees/great dane mix (not a combination I would have taken on honestly, but we didn't know this when we adopted him). He came from a shelter in the South and was in two foster homes before he got to us. I found his brother on facebook and he is apparently just as bad as far as destruction goes. When I adopted him they told us he was almost 5 months, I brought him to the vet and they said he was 2 months.

It has been a rough winter as we've had record setting snowfall, the sidewalks are covered with 3 feet of snow etc, so walking him hasn't happened a lot. We've finally had a warm week so i'm hoping we can get outside soon and take him for some long walks. He does okay on walks, I have found he does fine unless he comes across a dog thats bigger then him. He likes little dogs, but not bigger dogs. Thankfully that doesn't happen often since he's so big. Even when he was in daycare three days a week and getting two long walks a day on non daycare days he was like this. I actually think he's gotten a little bit better since getting kicked out of daycare. He always seemed to enjoy it and came home exhausted but I wonder if it was stressing him out a little bit. I have noticed when its just me and him or my husband and him home alone he's great. I'm home today and he's been amazing. Mostly sleeping, following me around a little, he even spent an hour outside without barking (everyone on the street is at work or school so its quiet).

When we put the electric fence in I wanted to keep his boundaries to the back yard and the fence company convinced me to put it in the front as well, in case the kids let him out the front door. I want to have this redone and we are going to look into moving it out of the front yard this spring (currently we still have three feet of snow in our yard). The problem being is we'll also have to put stairs off our back deck so he can get to the backyard as the backdoor is not in his "safe zone". So I need to look into what that will cost. He also runs and pounces at people when they walk up our front walkway and scares people. He usually just pretends to jump on them but its intimidating. If I know someone is coming over I make sure he's inside but we've had delivery drivers that won't come up to our house. I also caught a few kids teasing him and when I confronted them and told them he has an electric fence and can't get to them they said they know and ran off laughing Thankfully they were not neighborhood kids so I haven't seen them again. I keep a close eye on him when he's outside and pull him inside immediately when he starts barking.

I have been thinking of trying a bark collar. I wasn't sure what kind to get and if that would be confusing for him with his efence. He doesn't even have to wear the efence collar, he never tries to leave his boundaries so we could switch collars for a short while if necessary.

Again, thanks for all the responses. This guy has been so challenging to us. Its honestly been a long three years with him, we don't want to give up on him but also don't have a ton of money to throw into it either.At least Spring is here and we can get back to daily walks and try to tire this guy out!

[cmeon]

Yeah, "people" is one of the big reasons e-fences are so dangerous- there are some mean people in the world. Delivery people deal with some very defensive dogs, so an unrestrained dog (and let's be clear- he is as good as unrestrained) is going to make them nervous. We have a big gate across the entry to our front rooms and our regular delivery guys know that the dogs never jump it or meet them at the door, so they're comfortable knocking/ringing- but, it clearly makes some of the temp drivers a little jumpy to see such big dogs (particularly if they haven't hushed yet) there.

I know the run and pounce, that's exactly how our boys play with each other (and it looks so funny coming from such large dogs- ha). It's definitely playful, but, it's not an appropriate way to greet people. I strongly recommend training him to sit for attention- any attention. It's so much safer for the big dogs.


We also worry about the loose dogs we encounter on walks- I'd be super worried if I weren't with them and they had to deal with that. Some of these dogs are just so poorly socialized- we have a pointer down the street that routinely jumps his fence, he's NEVER walked (we get the "we just had a baby" defense when we take him home) and clearly spends the majority of his time in the backyard (if not all of it), so he's pretty much the worst (poor creature). If my guys weren't so chill, I'd be worried for him- he just loves to charge at us from behind, barking his fool head off. Dogs who are less predictable are going to be defensive when they're met with that kind of rudeness and they're on a leash (or fenced)- that makes e-fences and their invisible boundaries a big problem. Obviously, an 130lb dog is likely to come out on top of most scrapes, but, you don't want that on your property or conscience.

GL getting the fence reworked, it has to be frustrating.