Barking problems...

Ruby is VERY vocal. She barks very often, and I can't seem to make her understand what "quiet" means. If I give her a treat after she stops barking, she just eats it and starts back up again. I mean, I understand if she hears someone knocking or something, but she just breaks out in a barking song at random times, such as 1 am. (NOT fun, especially when she's in bed beside you.) She gets really loud when she's playing sometimes with these weird little noises, but those are actually cute. Any advice on how to curb this problem? She goes with me to my sister's house all the time, and she's about to have a newborn in the house. I really don't want to have to leave her because she's waking up the baby...

How old is Ruby? Zoey went through this from about 5 months to 6 months. She seems to have settled quite a bit in the last two weeks. She is now 6 and a half months. I think she had found her voice and was using it. I hope your girl calms down soon. I didn't have much success teaching Zoey 'quiet' either. I found distractions to work better.. like a squeaky toy.

She'll be 6 months old in a few days. I was just surprised by how LOUD she is. I've read so many posts about some Cavaliers that hardly make a sound, and she seems to talk to us all the time. Hopefully she'll settle soon because it can be a little unnerving at times.

My Aoife has been loud ever since we got her & likes to "talk" to us too. We just ignore it as it's attention seeking behaviour, she shuts up eventually.

There is a very lengthy article in the latest issue of the Whole Dog Journal on barking dogs and how to stop them. I have not had a chance to read it yet, but it has different methods for different reasons for barking. The WDJ is a little pricey, but worth every penny; I strongly recommend it, available online or paper copy.

In fact, I have to sit down and spend some time reading that article because a couple of our dogs have started getting a little loud lately for some reason. And the problem we have is that when one starts, the pack mentality sets in and the rest of them start.