I need help. i have a 3 year old westie bitch lady who will not stop barking when i'm out. i have tried putting her in her cage with a blanket over her but it makes her worse. i don't know what to do as she does not bark very much when i'm in only at the postman and i correct that. how can i correct behaviour when i don't see it? she is now passing her barking habbits onto my other dog. He never used to bark at anything (only when startled) now he is becoming as bad as her. the people next door are getting very fed up with it. she is very good with commands sits stays lie's down. and can control her. i am only out of the house 2 hrs a day in the week but she barks from the min i leave to the min i come back. thought it might be seperation issues but she does her own thing when i'm in. she will go and lie in a diffrent room no problems she doesn't follow me around the house. so i don't know what to do?can anyone help

I guess the first thing to do is think back to when the barking started ... assuming it's not been done all the time you've had her. Is there anything you can think of that may have triggered her?

Some suggestions:

- Teach her a 'speak' command and a 'quiet' command
- Go right back to basics ... put into crate for just a few minutes, go into another room, let out when quite
- With the above place a tin can where she can see it - tin can out and in same place when you leave, put it away when you return. When it's out she'll associate it with you coming back - does that make sense? It can work even if not making sense!
- Get neighbours (if friendly) on board with training, let them know when you're out and ask them to not when she barks - might be a pattern you're not aware of.
- Remove your other dog during any training sessions with your Westie

Might be something in here to help, sure there'll be other suggestions along soon. Good luck :-)

We use the citreonella automatic collars at our dog class for barking dogs.  Mainly because when they start barking, it winds all the other dogs up and no-one behaves.  These collars work a charm.  The dog only barks a couple of times but they soon work out that they are going to get sprayed and they hate it!  I would give that a try.

>thought it might be seperation issues but she does her own thing when i'm in. she will go and lie in a diffrent room no problems she doesn't follow me around the house.

In this case though she knows you are at home.  You make no leaving signals so she has nothing to get anxious about and she knows that you are only in another room.

I'd echo what someone else has said - start all over again with getting her used to you leaving.  Look at your leaving signals; coat, handbag, perfume, keys etc; close windows and doors, last wee, then off to the crate.  If you only ever do this when you leave for 2 hours your girls anxiety will rocket from the minute you make moves to leave, and continue til you get back.

Take it one small step at a time, start by putting her in the place you wish her to stay and go upstairs, or out one door and in the other.  Take it very slowly and do not say goodbye, or greet her when you get back.  If you gradually get her used to being left in these circumstances you can start to add in your other cues.  There is some good advice around if you want to do some further reading - perhaps someone else on here knows a site to start you off.  Just be aware that it will take time and if you have to leave her before you/she is ready then you'll just be back to square one and undo all the good work

Do not use a bark collar as these are only to be used if you are with the dog.  They must not be used without supervision.  Dogs left to their own devices will probably just learn to bark on through it and also your other dog will set it off too.

Finally, if this is a new behaviour, has something changed recently.  Trying to restore things to their previous state might speed the process up a little.  If she is noise sensitive, and barking at possible intruders, do make sure there are other sounds in the house to distract her.  A radio might help :)

I wouldn't advise using these devices either.  Yes, they stop barking but what in effect is happening is the dog is being 'punished' for using perfectly normal behaviours and means of communication.  Citronella is very unpleasant and makes the dog gag.  How would we like it every time we spoke we got squirted in the face with something like aerosol deoderant just because it was inconvenient to someone else?

Surpressing natural behaviours with punishment is counter productive.  Quite often other unwanted behaviours emerge that are far more damaging than the original barking - OCDs etc and because the two are so very different behaviours the consequences are not always linked to the aversive that was used but research has identified a link.