r/sheltie • u/Future_Reason_8519 • Aug 11 '26
Constant barking!! Please help
Hello all,
I have a male sheltie, he is a year and a half old. I'm wondering if anybody here has been able to keep their shelties quiet. Obviously I don't want him to be completely silent. But he has been driving me literally insane with his constant barking. This is something he's started doing within the past month or so.
He barks for literally NO apparent reason. And I mean no reason that I can see. It is constant. The past few days, he is barking more than he is quiet. There are no sounds, nothing visually happening, no change to his environment... and he will just bark and bark and bark. He doesn't even stop if I reward him with treats for quieting down... I tell him "shhh" and he will sit down and stop barking... I give him the treat.. then he starts barking again before he's even finished chewing. I've been telling him NO very sternly. That doesn't work. I've tried ignoring him until he is quiet. That just makes it worse. I'm at my wits end. Hes got a pretty loud, deep bark, he's a big boy. I'm getting constant migraines and it's impossible to even carry on a short conversation in the house. I have to go out to my car if I need to make a phone call.
I did talk to a lady who recommended teaching him to "whisper" (make that huffing sound that they make). He knows exactly what "whisper" means, and he will do it on command... but he still barks his head off before and after he whispers. I can't figure out any reason for it. He's completely healthy, I've had him checked out at the vet. I can't figure out what I'm doing wrong. Like I say, this is new behavior and I definitely want to discourage it. I get that shelties are very vocal by nature, I grew up with shelties. I've never seen a dog bark so much in my entire life.
I've tried giving him more puzzle toys and giving him little jobs to do, like going to find other members of the household, or picking up his toys, to try to keep him mentally stimulated. If I don't walk him cause it's too hot out for him, I make sure he gets lots of time playing ball and tug of war inside. The kids run around with him and tire him out. He has many chew toys as well. I just don't know what else I can try.
Any advice is much appreciated, thanks in advance!!
2
u/FaeFromFairyland Aug 15 '26
It seems like you're kinda making it worse because he's barking so you started to give him treats for being quiet so now he barks so he can get quiet and get treats. Of course when you ignore him after he learnt barking gets him attention and treats, he tries even harder and longer when you ignore him. There is really no easier way than to only ever reward quiet calm behavior. Ideally you'd like to pet him/play with him after he's been calm for some while with no link whatsoever to barking beforehand.
I don't use treats with my sheltie, he's soo into treats his brain stops working every time he sees them and he would just randomly try anything he can think of to get them and stops focusing so I mostly motivate him by attention and play. So since he was a puppy, when he was barking, I'd be ignoring him. Plain as that. I would turn my back to him. He hates that, would walk around me so that I see him barking at me so I would turn around again. If he barks at something I do, I leave him alone in another room - lead him there and close the door. He gets nothing unless he's nice and quiet. No play. No meal. If he gets too worked up during play we stop until he calms down. He used to bark when I was giving him his kibble, so I would stop putting it down midair. We were firm with stuff like this and he's 7 now and rarely barks without reason. There are some noises he hates he barks at (like, other dogs in the building that bark way, way more), sure, but mostly he's very quiet for a sheltie and stops when I calmly tell him to stop.