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we have a 10 year old Bichon named Lucy and 2 rear old maltese named Toby. Lucy rarely barked, except maybe if door bell rang but Toby is hyper sensitive to sound and barks if somebody in the house makes a noise. I know he is scared and doing what comes naturally. Of course if one barks then the other joins in.
I have read lots about how to train a dog not to bark and it looks like each dog will have to be trained separately but what happens when we put the 2 dogs back together again? example. If we put Toby away while we train Lucy with somebody at the door, Toby will start barking wherever he is and then Lucy gets excited.
My husband makes the situation even worse. I'm afraid he is going to have a stroke cause if the 2 dogs all of a sudden run to the door and start barking DH loses it and screams at them. He says it startles him and it is a natural reaction. So now I have 3 animals to train.
I also have a Bichon and a Maltese (in addition to a Boxer and shih tzu).
None barked when someone knocked. Then we watched a JRT for an afternoon and that dog just ruined mine. LOL. it wood bark for five minutes at any thump. The other dogs picked up on that crap and did it for months.
Screaming at them won't work. it just works them up.
The Boxer was the easiest to make stop that behavior. When he does a no no we send him to his room (the closet). We just tell him go to your room and he goes. That is his time out. We did that with the knocking and for a time whenever someone knocked he would go to his room. Now he no longer barks because he is curious as to who is visiting and doesn't want to be in time out.
The Maltese is very lazy and doesn't let much worry him so reassurances that its okay finally stopped him from barking.
The Bichon is runs to the door but no longer parks because he responds best to the firm talk and picks up commands quick.
The Shih Tzu still barks, but it no longer works up the other dogs. That thing barks and growls in his sleep.
lol, does yours bark when someone knocks on a door on tv too? or rings the door bell???
Let your husband know that yelling at the dogs make them think he is barking at the door along with them. He is really being counter productive in this process.
The best thing to do is work on treating the dogs and ignoring the door. One of you (your husband since he seems to be a bit extraneous to the situation) needs to go to the door and knock or ring. You will be inside giving the dogs treats and having them do something simple like sits. Then work on training them to go to a dog bed or some specific place.
If you have people coming over let them know that your training the dogs and it may be a while before you answer the door so to just sit tight. Then you do the training (treats, go to a dog bed, crate, bedroom etc). Then while you sit there and keep them distracted and such your husband can let the guests in and get them seated. Then let the dogs out to greet everyone. Make sure you husband gives them all treats to give to the dogs. That way the dogs will thing that door ringing or knocking means they get treats if they do the job that has been given to them like going somewhere specific.
Ours would even get into tiffs when someone would ring the bell or knock on the door, all wanted to be first and it was very unsettling - luckily we're in a quiet neighborhood and not many ppl visited but when they did, just getting to the door w/ them underfoot, going after each other, was very chaotic. We used a water spray bottle to spritz them w/ worked once or twice because it was spontaneous but after that, it wasnt that effective. They hardly barked at all though (although at times one would get the others worked up with a few barks), then the fur would fly.
they have scat mats (you can google it) that may help keep them away from the front door, not sure if it would help w/ the barking though
PS Yes, in their younger days they would occasionally bark if a doorbell rang on tv, same w/ if they saw an animal on tv (usually w/ 4 legs, I think they thought elephants and lions were dogs, lol), (although our present dogs dont, go figure)
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