Barking when in the house - Any tips?

[milfordkong]

We have an awesome little cockapoo (Eric) who for the most part is very well behaved, his only quirk (and i'm sure he would not see it that way) is his barking when in the house at noises that he hears outside. It's a bit of a double edged sword as of course we would like him to bark if there was an intruder or somebody doing something dodgy outside, and i'm sure he would - however we would just prefer him not to go crazy when a neighbour takes their bin out late or when another neighbour arrives back and closes their car door (Of course how is he to differentiate between that and a burglar turning up I know). Really i'd just like to turn his sensitivity to these noises down a couple of notches - He frequently wakes us up barking loudly and repeatedly in the early hours when he hears anything at all.

He didn't do this where we used to live, but I think that was because there was a fair bit more ambient noise from a nearby road and the neighbours were further away, whereas now the house is exceptionally quiet and tucked up a quiet shared driveway so any noise at all from outside must be very clear to him and neighbours coming and going seems to be the most common trigger.

I wondered if something like a white noise app playing out a constant sound downstairs near to his bed would help, but I don't want to make him uncomfortable either so i'm unsure. Has anybody been in a similar situation and had any luck with reducing the late night barking?

[cornet]

Could try leaving a radio on overnight to provide some background noise.
Something like radio 4 which will have talking and random noises from news broadcasts rather than just music.

[milfordkong]

cornet said:

Could try leaving a radio on overnight to provide some background noise.
Something like radio 4 which will have talking and random noises from news broadcasts rather than just music.

Thanks Cornet, might try this. My only concern is agitating him more, if there's an unpredictable noise on the radio he might decide to get upset and bark then. It's a tough one to tackle.

[Fermit and Sarah]

This may or may not be suitable/ work for you, but it worked a treat for us. We have 3 dogs, and they'd become reactionary to any noise, barking when a front door went, when the (terrace) neighbour shut a kitchen cupboard door, anything.

My brainwave was to buy an airhorn, like one of these. https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/2x-Gas-Air-Horn-Hand-He...

When they barked over silly things a quick blast shocked them out of it. Within no more than a few days their silliness had stopped.

We don't stop them barking entirely, after all if someone was breaking in we'd like them to, but now we only need to pick it up and they'll stop.

[milfordkong]

Fermit and Sarah said:

This may or may not be suitable/ work for you, but it worked a treat for us. We have 3 dogs, and they'd become reactionary to any noise, barking when a front door went, when the (terrace) neighbour shut a kitchen cupboard door, anything.

My brainwave was to buy an airhorn, like one of these. https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/2x-Gas-Air-Horn-Hand-He...

When they barked over silly things a quick blast shocked them out of it. Within no more than a few days their silliness had stopped.

We don't stop them barking entirely, after all if someone was breaking in we'd like them to, but now we only need to pick it up and they'll stop.

Thanks, this is an interesting idea and sounds like your dogs had very similar behaviour indeed. Might be worth a try!

[PositronicRay]

Our dog is more twitchy and jumpy when he's not had much exercise. Get him well and truly knackered and he just can't be bothered.

Does yours also create when home alone?

[milfordkong]

PositronicRay said:

Our dog is more twitchy and jumpy when he's not had much exercise. Get him well and truly knackered and he just can't be bothered.

Does yours also create when home alone?

I hear you, he gets a decent amount of exercise though - At least 75 minutes a day walking every day, sometimes more - I try and get him running plenty on our walks when possible, playing with other dogs or chasing a stick or ball... He does clearly still get bored when at home though and whilst I play with him a lot, it's impossible to play as much as he wants to play - I'd probably never do anything else.

To be honest he's not alone that often, we both work from home and when we go out we often drop him off with my wife's parents as they love to have him. When he is alone though I'm not sure if he's barking, perhaps I should setup some way to record him when we go out for a short amount of time to see if he's only doing it for our 'benefit'.