Excessive barking.

I own a little chihuahua and he's a total sweetheart, but he barks a lot when he perceives that someone that he's not really familiar with is in the house, and sometimes he don't stop until the person(s) finally leaves, and let me tell you that it can be a really difficult and sometimes stressful time.
I understand that this is a pretty common thing among chihuahuas and I'm pretty sure that I'm not th only one who is dealing with this issue.
Do you have any tips for controlling your dog's barking? What has been your experience with this issue?

I would love to hear your opinions/experiences.

 

Yeah, make the person who is there hold them, and become connected with the dog. I tried this plenty of times when I had a mini chihuahua many years ago. I had room mates, and they would bring people over all the time, and my dog would go crazy.

I started making our visitors hold the dog, and it would calm down, sniff them, get acquainted, relaxed, and eventually the dog would stop barking. That worked for me, so it's worth a try...but I'm sure it's not expert advice.

I just feel like some dogs don't really know what to do other than bark, but I noticed that when they are around people they are familiar with, they don't do all of that excessive barking. Dogs are easy to get close to anyways so that's probably why it worked for me.

 

Our youngest dog is an incessant barker. She acts like she owns our house and she is the chief of security. Her favorite place to stay is the sofa in the living room where she can see the people passing by. She doesn't bark at anyone though, sh is choosy as if she has enemies particularly the little children. Just the sound of the voice of a child passing by will cause incessant barking of Barbie. Much more when she sees a cat, oh, it would be war. Now we are learning how to curtail that bad habit of Barbie - we would threaten her with the slipper. At least she is stymied somehow although we never hit her.

 

I think your dog has the right to bark when someone is in its tuff or in the house for the first time, because of its instinct to protect their people, but to continue to bark like that can be frustrating.

Make your visitor and your dog become friends, or maybe you can hold your dog to meet the visitors at the dog. I think your dog needs to know that everyone is safe and are friends.

My dog, on the hand, is terribly friendly when we have people coming. Yes, he barks on top of his lung when he sees them at the door, but once they are in, he sniffs them and just couldn't stop showing his affection to them.

 

To think I was going to ask about barking again as my girls have been going at it non stop recently. Barking at everyone who comes to the house, the washing machine and a dog who comes by nearly everyday and does not do anything but make them bark just by seeing or smelling it. It drives my husband crazy and he lets them out and they go crazy outside.

With visitors, they will calm down after a little while and then go from being aggressive to being the loving dogs MOST times. Recently a young boy came by who was super good with them but they were really off and on. I read somewhere you should ignore them until it stops but that is often difficult to do. A treat after they remain calm is something that the experts encourage. I used to think barking was normal but I read things that say we should control it.

 

Valentine barks when something is amiss or when she needs something. Lately we are stretched between two houses and a lot of times she wants to get out in the middle of the night and go see her Daddy. Grandma has no pet door. I make her stay in until daylight because I am afraid of big critters. I do talk to her about it and tell her "no, you have to wait until daylight". Because when a dog barks, it is trying to communicate and it is important to acknowledge their efforts.