Dog barking because he can't relax?

Léan

Hi all,

I'm having some issues with my year and a half old GSD X Cato, he won't stop barking!

He's always been a pretty vocal dog he'l bark when he wants to go out, when a stranger comes to the front door etc.. But sometimes he'l just go nuts out of nowhere, the last two days have been particularly bad.

For example we could all be sitting down in the evening watching television and out of no where he will jump to attention, haunches up and bounce around the place barking. I'd say at this stage this is happening at least once every evening, but the last two days it's been non stop every 10 minutes or so.

He's an indoor dog and is with people all day everyday, he gets a lot of exercise and lots of attention. He sleeps indoors and once the light is off and we've left the room there's not a sound out of him until the morning, he also very rarely barks on his walks so it seems he only barks when he's with people in the house.

He's an extremely alert dog, any little sound or movement and he's up and barking, but i'm thinking this is to the extent that he just can't switch off and relax hence the barking.

Is there any way I could help him relax in the house? Has anyone experienced this before?

Thanks.

SillyMangoX

Léan wrote: »

Hi all,

I'm having some issues with my year and a half old GSD X Cato, he won't stop barking!

He's always been a pretty vocal dog he'l bark when he wants to go out, when a stranger comes to the front door etc.. But sometimes he'l just go nuts out of nowhere, the last two days have been particularly bad.

For example we could all be sitting down in the evening watching television and out of no where he will jump to attention, haunches up and bounce around the place barking. I'd say at this stage this is happening at least once every evening, but the last two days it's been non stop every 10 minutes or so.

He's an indoor dog and is with people all day everyday, he gets a lot of exercise and lots of attention. He sleeps indoors and once the light is off and we've left the room there's not a sound out of him until the morning, he also very rarely barks on his walks so it seems he only barks when he's with people in the house.

He's an extremely alert dog, any little sound or movement and he's up and barking, but i'm thinking this is to the extent that he just can't switch off and relax hence the barking.

Is there any way I could help him relax in the house? Has anyone experienced this before?

Thanks.

Would you try something like a DAP (i think it's now called adaptil) collar or diffuser? It releases the same pheromones that mammy dogs release when feeding pups and it can really help relax them

Léan

Oooooh i've never heard of that before, i'l check it out. Thanks!

LucyBliss

We have one like that. He's not a GSD but he's alert to every noise he hears and there can be a lot of barking. We invested in a thunder shirt which has really done the trick for him. Helped him calm down to the point where it was easier for me to re-direct his attention to something else, like telling him to find a toy. Or we'd give him the 'all gone' command which is his cue to know that he's done and to knock it off.

It took a bit of time and he does still bark occasionally (which really I don't have a problem with because a few times his barking has alerted me to some shenanigans or other around the street. Nothing serious but still, enough for me to be glad he barked).