# Help with barking please!!



## Emily12345 (Nov 23, 2014)

Hi all, 

We adopted a 6 month old cockapoo boy 4 weeks ago. He is show cocker mum, mini poodle dad. He is our second dog – we currently have a 2 yr old mini labradoodle girl. We have already started puppy classes with Henry and he’s responding well to training. 

However – we do have one issue we cannot seem to combat and that is his barking. I’ve started a bark diary it’s got so bad and I’ve had to ply the neighbours with wine and chocolates to apologise. 

In short- he settles really well at night. Sleeps fine- we can get up in the night and no peep from him at all. 

As soon as he hears me and my husband get up at 6.20am for our morning walk, he’s off! He will bark between 4 and 7 times whilst we are upstairs and it increases as we come down the stairs to the kitchen door. We wait at the door until we hear ten seconds of complete silence (in between barking, whining and door scratching). We will open the door and if he barks again, we shut it immediately. This morning it took around 5 mins and 3 door open and closes before we could get into the kitchen in silence and he still let out one bark, which we sharply said no to. 

He does this when we arrive home from work or when the dog walker comes in. and the exact same process happens on both side of the door (him scratching and whining and barking) – us waiting for quiet. 

We ignored our labradoodle in the night when she was a very little pup and she rarely barks. 

We have tried putting him in time out – but he still came out excited and just played with our second dog as if nothing had happened. 

He’s a pretty pushy attention seeking dog – he will jump straight up on our laps, but we wonder if that’s just him still settling in. He had a great start in life (one dog household, older couple, looked after well as far as we could tell – they just had deteriorating health and so felt it wasn’t fair on him.)

He gets fed in the morning and evening and gets two walks a day without fail – 30 mins off lead in the morning and 1 hour off lead at lunchtime. He is becoming more independent in the house – will now sleep in a separate room and won’t be under our feet 100% of the time, more like 50-60% now!

Either way – we want to combat this barking. He doesn’t seem to do it much during the day (only once or twice at the postman which is acceptable!). 

I would really appreciate any advice you can give as we are really struggling with this at the moment and finding it hard to know what to do or where to turn!

Thanks all in advance! 

Emily


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## Cat 53 (Aug 26, 2012)

Hmmm! Maybe in his previous home his barking was rewarded with attention and you are now trying to curtail an unwanted behaviour which is always harder. Just keep going is the advice I would give, but bear in mind he has the stubborn cocker gene in his make up! Hopefully someone will be able to offer better advice.


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