Old dogs bark a lot during the day. Any advice?

Question

I have two small dogs that bark a lot during the day. One is 16 y/o and the other is 14 y/o.  They were my family's dogs when I was younger but I recently brought them up because my parents are too old to take care of them. Our current neighbor is retired and has complained to us twice that our dogs bark a lot during the day while my husband and I are at work.

Do you have any advice on how to get older dogs to stop barking? I really stressed which is impacting my efforts to conceive!

Thanks I'm advance! 🙏

A little more background:
I adopted my first dog when I was 12 (the now 16 y/o). My older sister adopted the second dog and gifted her as a pet to my mother.

I trained them fairly well. They never barked at strangers or outside noises. In general, they were very well behaved. When I went off to college, my parents were the dogs main caretakers. After I moved back home for a while after graduating, I noticed the pups barked at EVERYTHING. My mom encouraged their barking. I tried my best to correct them but as my mom too care of them when I went to work during the day, my corrections didn't make a lasting impact.

Now my first pup is deaf and doesn't respond that well to my vocal commands.

Answer

Bark collar can help. Or I think they say sober bark repellent stuff on amazon. Or if their baking is stressed related,  you can try buying that comfort vest thingy.

Answer

Oh, and if you don't have the time, energy or want to make the effort, yes bark collars (both citronella, vibrate or shock) will work but they don't work on every dog (some will just ignore them and some don't make the connection between barking=zap) and especially little dogs shouldn't be used passed a certain level of electricity because it is dangerous for them (I won't judge or preech about my opinion on whether it is cruel or not, that's not my place). But food, love and time works even better and it won't put added stress on your old doggies. Love to you

Answer

Tell your neighbor to get over it🤷🏼‍♀️ barking is what dogs do. Lol.

Answer

Are they outside barking all day,  or do they bark in the house and your neighbor can hear it? Because I will say, having a dog that stays outside all day and barks is annoying as hell. If they're inside, then your neighbor needs to deal with it. If they're outside all day, maybe a spray collar? It's like a bark collar, but shoots a citronella spray every time they bark, rather than  shocks them. Or like someone else said, maybe a thunder shirt to help calm them?

Answer

Doing this also let's them know that you heard what they are saying and you want to do something about it. If they are any type of decent human being they should be congenial enough to at least tell you if it was a good day or a bad day with the barking so you can better assess what works better or not.

Sorry for the novel, hope it was helpful and not just annoying. Barking can be really annoying and can really piss off even the nicest neighbors unfortunetely but I had a neighbor with an incessant yapping dog who just didn't give a shit and the whole neighborhood reported it over and over until she got sick of paying the "disturbing the peace" fines (it was truly super bad, all day, all night) and got rid of the dog, which would be awful and it can be prevented! Good luck! I am a certified trainer as well so if you have any questions hit me up!

Answer

It's difficult to retrain them especially since they are so old and have been positively reinforced to bark by your mom but it is absolutely possible. The deaf one will be more difficult but usually they comfort bark because their companion is barking. I would try positive reinforcement when you are at home with them such as: when they are quiet pet them and give them a few extra treats and say things like "good quiet" or just "quiet down" whatever you want the phrase to be, also try with friends, have them come by to visit and knock on the door or just walk by, when they start barking get their attention, even if you have to clap your hands get them to look at you and when they are quiet, reinforce the behavior, you may even need to remove them from the stimulus and either put them in a crate for a couple minutes until the quiet down and as soon as they are quiet for a good 30 seconds, immediately let them out and tell them "good boy" etc. This will take TIME, but if you really want to stop the behavior, this will be helpful.

Other very helpful things, dogs often bark because they are bored. They have nothing else to do all day when you are at work or the store so they either will bark and whine to comfort themselves or just to give themselves something to do. Try leaving a long lasting bone or chew for them to gnaw on while you are gone. Even if it doesn't last all day it will buy you some time and lessen the barking. Even a Kong with some peanut butter or frozen apple sauce is great and you can mix it up so they don't get bored with the same treat all the time too. Otherwise, if they are barking because they are "guarding" the house it certainly won't help if your neighbor tries yelling at them or banging on the wall (you didn't mention if they did or not but) so tell them directly that you are working on fixing the problem so they may be more willing to cooperate and ask for feedback. Obviously if the neighbor is an asshole then don't worry about it but

Old dogs bark a lot during the day. Any advice?

Let's Glow!

The Top Baby Tracker App: Embrace New Beginnings with Tender Care

The Top Fertility Tracker App: Your Path to Achieving Pregnancy

The Top Pregnancy App: Nurturing Your Journey to Motherhood

The Top Period Tracker for Empowering Your Menstrual Health Journey