# 1 Year Old Vizsla Wont Stop Barking for HOURS, New Baby (Human) on the way, HELP



## dangerzone11

Hi Everyone!

My husband and I need some SERIOUS help with our V!

Our sweet boy Archer, has just recently (the last 2 weeks) started barking non-stop for hours...literally 5 hrs at a time. FIVE HOURS. My husband and/or I take him for a 20-30 mins walk in the morning PLUS 1-2 HOURS of exercise, 6 days a week. We don't have any kids, YET (coming in Aug) so he pretty much gets constant stimulation from my husband until around 8pm, when I make him stop and have the dog start to "relax". We've been slowly trying to cut back on constant stimulation to get him adjusted to the new life coming soon, but this dang dog still gets 1-2 hrs a day of exercise so there is NO WAY that is the issue. We don't let him out of his crate when he's barking. My husband works realllllly hard with this dog with mental games and commands. Although I think he's way too easy on the dog. He never disciplines him besides saying "no or bad." The dog still doesnt listen to us, even though we work with him ALOT. If he is barking, my husband will wait till he stops, let him out and say "good boy". But as soon as we put him back in, the barking starts again. And doesnt stop. Ever! You'd think the dog would get tired. Nope. We have even given in a few nights to "test" him sleeping in his cozy cave/not in his crate with out supervision. This crazy dang dog doesnt care. He just roams our house all night and jumps on and off our bed, then goes to the couch, then his cozy cave, then down stairs and then back into our room for a few minutes. I am pregnant and this is NOT working haha I am already tired as heck! I love our dog but ill love our baby more and we can't have a dog barking for 5 hrs at a time waking up our baby constantly. Thats not gonna work for my sanity OR my marriage. My husband spends ALOT of time with this dog and its going to be an adjustment for both of them when the baby comes. 

We have tried a training collar on him. Doesnt work. We are going to try an actual bark collar but my husband is such a...push over...I know he will barely even turn it on and then will complain its not working. We need some major advice or going to have to find a new home for our V. Which i really don't want to do because I love him and my husband would be devastated. But its starting to affect our marriage (which is INSANE) and when our baby girl comes, she's the top priority. 

ANY advice?


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## MikoMN

A few follow up questions:
1. You said, "The dog still doesn't listen to us, even though we work with him ALOT." Have you worked with a trainer, or are you guys self training?

2. Has he always been a barker? It makes it sound like it only happens when he is in his crate. Is that correct?

3. When you said "training collar" did you mean a prong collar, e-collar, choke collar, or some other kind?


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## dangerzone11

Hi!

We have sent him for 4 weeks of training when he was 4-5 months old. He pretty much selects when he wants to listen. If my husband is working in a "training session" with him, he will do everything correctly. Just day to day, not so much. Just a normal daily routine command of "come" I will hear my husband say it 4-6 times and then MAYBE Archer will come. If he feels like it. During "training time" the dog will do it right away.

He hasnt always been very vocal. Normal Vizsla vocal during play time and what not. Its definitely been getting more constant the past 4-6 weeks. We took him to my parents ranch and he sat and barked at the cows for 3-4 hrs straight, even when we commanded him to be quiet and then put him in his crate inside. Just kept barking. Its not his first time to see cows, but I did understand that was an uncommon situation for him so made an exception. Whats really the issue, is him barking in his crate. Non stop. I know most Vizslas are supposed to like their crate. Ours doesnt hate it but he doesnt like it either. And we never used his crate as ANY form of punishment and have always given treats and praise. He's always barked or whined a few minutes when we first put him in, but in the past chills out pretty quickly...Over Christmas we had him crated upstairs at my parents and put him up to calm down for a few hrs and he barked non stop for 1-2 hrs, while my sister was trying to put her baby down to sleep upstairs. I thought she was going to kill us/dog. Honestly i would have too if i were her. So it has been a small issue, but getting worse.

My husband has an e-collar right now. My husband hunts so he has been trying (key word  to train him for that purpose as well. I realllllly doubt he would ever use a choke collar on him. But we are going to get a sport dog bark collar. I have read many forums where that does not work at all for Vizslas...I know you aren't supposed to "physically" punish Vizslas because they are "sensitive" but i just don't know if i think not doing anything else besides saying "NO" or a tap on the nose is gonna change the dogs behavior...

Side note: our dog is very socialized and a sweet heart. He goes to the dog park 3-4 days a week and we have him around kids and people all the time. He doesnt bark at people and is no way aggressive.

Hopefully this info helps!


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## Rbka

Hi! I don't have much helpful input just sympathy and an article I found helpful!
1 year old is teenager stage for dogs and it seemed to strike our older V pretty bad (he is now 3). He was a total jerk at around 1 year old. Here's a funny article that I found helped keep it in perspective for me (I kept a printed copy on our fridge from the time he was 1 year until about 1.5 year just to remind us!) : http://www.trader.co.nz/versatiledogs/articles/awkward.htm 

At around year, our boy got very protective and started barking more... but this doesn't sound protective, it sounds like willful, rebellious behaviour... "let me out, human! do as I say!" haha

Working with a trainer might help - before we got our first boy we went to a full 6 session training class and the most valuable part was that we got to watch other humans interacting with their dogs. It became very clear why the dogs listened to some owners/family members and not others! Assertiveness is key.

Anyhow, onto the sympathy part... we just got our 2nd v boy (he is now just over 3 months old) and he's cute as a button but having a v puppy is exhausting. Plan was: we will have 2 well-behaved adult dogs and in ~3 years we start considering having kids. Well I started feeling really sick just around the time we got Sam and 2 weeks later found out I'm pregnant!! I am nauseous all the time, exhausted, and training a puppy while also caring for his big bro! Plus he will be in his a**hole teenager phase (around 1 year) when we have a human baby! Anyhow... I kinda feel your pain... exhaustion... first trimester... disrupted sleep... stress & worry.... yup :


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## hecallsmebama

Congrats to both of you! I don't have much advice. Amos is 14 months and has always been barkier than I thought he'd be. He's particularly barky when something is not in its normal place: a new hat on the coat rack, a deck chair has been moved, etc. He's been slower to obey lately which I do think is the teenager phase. 

I'm wondering if Archer isn't sensing that something is up with you and the barking in the crate, patrolling the house at night, are more efforts to protect than anything. Just an idea since you said it's only become an issue since becoming pregnant. 

I would also consider going back to basics. Crate training games and frozen kongs or the like for staying happy in the crate. It sounds like he gets a lot of attention and time with your husband but maybe all of it is actually stemming out of concern for you. Maybe some extra time with you would reassure him that you are fine without his efforts? Then once he's convinced wean him off the time since it won't be realistic once the baby is here.

These are just ideas. No personal experience. It's tough now but my guess he'll be past the phase before baby arrives.


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## MikoMN

dangerzone11. First, congrats on the baby to be! We have a house full of little ones and an 8 month old puppy....there are some challenges ahead of you with that. Hopefully, by the time your little one is learning to walk your V is a little less of a rambunctious kamikaze than ours. That is a whole different subject though.

Although we are dealing with some other major issues with our puppy (e.g. House breaking, resource guarding, and submissive peeing, selective hearing) I bet I have heard him bark less than 10 times since we got him. I don't mean 10 occasions, I mean 10 individual barks. Unfortunately (or maybe fortunately), I don't have any experience with your problem. 

I know it isn't the same situation, but we have found when Miko starts guarding, we just need to find a distraction for him, and he snaps out of it. Almost as if he doesn't even know he is doing it. (the article HeCallsMeBama posted talks a little about why this may be) Have you tried giving him something to entertain him when you put him in his crate? Miko will have a kong empty in minutes, so we have started filling it with hydrated kibble blended with taco meat and freezing it. It occupies him a little longer. This might give Archer just long enough of a distraction to help his mindset change a little. 

I hope it gets better. Keep us updated.


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## MikoMN

Also, try searching "barking" in this forum. You aren't the first person to have this happen, and there is likely some good advice already.


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## lyra

[quote author=dangerzone11I love our dog but ill love our baby more and we can't have a dog barking for 5 hrs at a time waking up our baby constantly. Thats not gonna work for my sanity OR my marriage. My husband spends ALOT of time with this dog and its going to be an adjustment for both of them when the baby comes. 

But its starting to affect our marriage (which is INSANE) and when our baby girl comes, she's the top priority. 
[/quote]

I read your post and showed it to my wife to see if she interpreted it like I did (which she did) and I have to wonder if you've posted it to the right forum!

You have a specific problem with your Vizsla which I will come on to but there seems to be an underlying tension about how much time your husband spends with your dog and how you see your and the baby's needs being met in the future (maybe even, your dog is picking up on this). Have you specifically discussed this with your husband? Better now than waiting until the baby arrives. Waiting for a first baby can be a bit of a scary time for both of you, not knowing what it is actually going to be like and how you are going to cope. You are also having to cope with all the hormonal changes. Communicating those fears is really important for both of you and your relationship and this certainly seems an area you need to discuss. OK that is my two pence worth of amateur internet agony aunt over!

One of our Vs is very vocal. Two areas have been a problem. Firstly, when they are not out, our two Vs spend most of the the day sitting on a sofa overlooking our street. From first sighting until they are out of sight, Ruta will bark continuously at dogs and cats. This is bad enough during the day but at night when you tired and trying to watch TV it is a real nuisance. Secondly, we drive to our regular daily walk so that they can run free in fields and woods. Passing through our town centre she will do exactly the same if she sees a dog. You can be stuck at traffic lights and it looks like there is a monster in the back of the car, the whole car bounces up and down as she barks her head off while I slink lower in the drivers seat mortified with embarrassment. There is nothing aggressive about her behaviour, she is a warm affectionate dog who loves other dogs, its just the way she behaves when she can't get to them to say hello (she does the same on a lead). We recently replaced out Garmin e-collar setup because we needed a replacement collar and an additional battery and our current model was no longer made. The collars we bought were Garmin PT10s (compatible with Garmin PRO 70, PRO 550 and the Sport PRO handhelds). Although it wasn't why we chose them, they come with an anti-barking mode so we thought we would give it a try. It works by giving a very low shock when your dog barks and gradually increases as they continue barking. We had it in that mode when she was in the house and when we were travelling and within 2-3 weeks it almost completely eliminated the barking and we could stop using it. It hasn't traumatised her or affected her behaviour and she still barks at other times. You say you have read other posts that suggest anti-bark collars don't work. I haven't looked at these because we have never looked for a solution, this was just a lucky bonus to something we were already getting and it has certainly worked for now.

Yes, Vs are considered to be sensitive dogs. That doesn't mean that you can't use negative reinforcement, it just means you have to calibrate it to the dog, whether it is the level you use an e-collar or something as basic as the tone of voice you use. Individual dogs vary too, one of our Vs is much more sensitive than the other and we treat them accodingly. If the training isn't working (and from your description it isn't), get some one to one training. The trainer won't train the dog, they will train you to train your dog. You can read more about our experience here http://www.vizslaforums.com/index.php/topic,48497.msg352089.html#msg352089

It would be useful to know why you are crating your V during the day. I work from home but crated our first V when I had to go out (we got our second V as a rescue aged 14 months so she was never crated). We stopped crating her at about the 10 month age (mostly because she hated her crate during the day and would whine continuously) and she was much happier and we had no issues. 

On a positive note, most Vizslas get a lot calmer around the house as they become adults (about 18 months to 2 years) so hopefully things should start to generally get easier about the time you are expecting (or within a few months of the happy event)!


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## cosmoKenney

dangerzone11 said:


> Hi Everyone!
> 
> My husband and I need some SERIOUS help with our V!
> 
> Our sweet boy Archer, has just recently (the last 2 weeks) started barking non-stop for hours...literally 5 hrs at a time. FIVE HOURS. My husband and/or I take him for a 20-30 mins walk in the morning PLUS 1-2 HOURS of exercise, 6 days a week. We don't have any kids, YET (coming in Aug) so he pretty much gets constant stimulation from my husband until around 8pm, when I make him stop and have the dog start to "relax". We've been slowly trying to cut back on constant stimulation to get him adjusted to the new life coming soon, but this dang dog still gets 1-2 hrs a day of exercise so there is NO WAY that is the issue. We don't let him out of his crate when he's barking. My husband works realllllly hard with this dog with mental games and commands. Although I think he's way too easy on the dog. He never disciplines him besides saying "no or bad." The dog still doesnt listen to us, even though we work with him ALOT. If he is barking, my husband will wait till he stops, let him out and say "good boy". But as soon as we put him back in, the barking starts again. And doesnt stop. Ever! You'd think the dog would get tired. Nope. We have even given in a few nights to "test" him sleeping in his cozy cave/not in his crate with out supervision. This crazy dang dog doesnt care. He just roams our house all night and jumps on and off our bed, then goes to the couch, then his cozy cave, then down stairs and then back into our room for a few minutes. I am pregnant and this is NOT working haha I am already tired as heck! I love our dog but ill love our baby more and we can't have a dog barking for 5 hrs at a time waking up our baby constantly. Thats not gonna work for my sanity OR my marriage. My husband spends ALOT of time with this dog and its going to be an adjustment for both of them when the baby comes.
> 
> We have tried a training collar on him. Doesnt work. We are going to try an actual bark collar but my husband is such a...push over...I know he will barely even turn it on and then will complain its not working. We need some major advice or going to have to find a new home for our V. Which i really don't want to do because I love him and my husband would be devastated. But its starting to affect our marriage (which is INSANE) and when our baby girl comes, she's the top priority.
> 
> ANY advice?


How old is your dog?

Personally I'm not a fan of crates for dogs like our Vs or GSPs. Both of which have it in their blood to be involved in everything the family does. This is especially true when there is someone home. All they want in life is to be glued to you and "helping" with whatever it is you are doing. And in the case of the V, that being glued to you thing is on a whole different level. 
Sure exercise is important. But a V needs a different kind of interaction with the family than your average dog. 

I don't know what kind of training he had when he went away for a month, but it's likely he came back damaged. I have no doubt the training facility is highly professional and experienced, but a V cannot be trained like English Pointer or tough GSP. They are too sensitive IMO. 

I would start by changing the exercise routine up a bit. I.e. instead of 20 minutes of walking, find a place you can go and let him roam free and really run for an hour or more in the morning. Then, if you are home during the day, keep the crate open and encourage him to go in but don't close it on him. If he decides he wants to follow you around, so be it. It goes against the centuries of V breeding to do otherwise. And it's an adjustment you have to make as a V owner. He shouldn't need more exercise than that, if he is in the center of the family throughout the day. Also consider getting a doggie door so he is free to go in and out. They love to investigate everything that moves and every little sound, and that will help with mental stimulation. 

That being said, Vs are very smart and you can teach him manners so that having him with you all the time is actually a pleasure rather than a hassle. Give him little jobs to do like tying a rope to your laundry basket and have him pull it to the laundry room -- and so on. And, BTW, they love babies, so take the time now to look up how to introduce him to your baby, so you are ready when the time comes. You'll be too exhausted and busy when the baby comes to be reading about dog training: 













As for training, consider starting over. Look up the style of training that Victoria Stilwell advocates. I believe it to be a good fit for a sensitive V: https://positively.com/
And maybe you should take on the training rather than your husband. Or at least some of it. To be a good member of society, all you really need to teach is a handful of commands: sit, stay, come, heel. Expand from there on livability type training like not jumping up or rushing out the door every time it is open. 

I would also very seriously consider changing-up the commands from what he learned at the training facility. I.e. instead of "here" for recall, use "come" and start from scratch with tons of praise and positive reinforcement, like treats or his favorite toy. This is not something you have to do for 2 or more hours a day, and shouldn't. Keep the sessions short (15-20 minutes) and fun and lively. The "come" command can start in the living room. It's really as simple as saying "come" and giving a treat when he is standing next to you. Do that for a week, 15 minutes a day. Or just randomly throughout the day when he's not distracted. Gradually, over time, expand the distance he is from you when you give the command. You'll see him realize that if he comes over he'll get a treat. After about a month you should be able to have him respond while he is distracted. He will naturally stop what he is doing and come to you to get that treat. Every time he does that, you should give him lots of praise, like he just cured cancer kind of praise. Also assign a keyword to praise now, like "good" or "yes!". And only use it for praise, and only use it right at the moment he responds and gets his treat. The keyword will become associated with treat and praise and will help with more intricate training down the road (it's a lot like clicker training, but you don't need to carry a clicker around). Also, note, that if you ever get mad or frustrated during the training, you should stop right then and there. Start over the next day. It takes time and patience but pays off. At first, just start with 1 command. Once he is responding to the new commands you can start introducing a couple at a time, here and there.


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## cosmoKenney

Also, when the baby comes, you, your husband and family and friends are going to be focusing on the baby, and that's it. If the V is stuck in the crate watching all this go down, imagine how that will torment him in his natural desire to be a part of all the hustle and bustle of your daily life?


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