I'm sure this is a boring question. I have a 5 month old puppy who has a real barking problem. In the crate, out in her outside kennel. I don't want to resort to a bark collar. Any suggestions? Thank you.

Vinegar/water , spray that annoying little devil, and with your worst body language you can dish out ! It will be exhausting, hopefully it has not gone on long enough for the behavior to be "set". Train, Train , and train some more. He is taking control of his life, and that is because you are not !

I agree, to a point. He was good when I got him, trained well, slept through the night. Got diarrhea on off, on off for nearly a month. Visits to the vet to clean him out. But, in the meantime every time he cried during the night I'd rush him outside. The past week and a half he's been crying during the night, I'd take him out and pee a little. So, now of course he thinks when he cries someone will come. So far I think the diarrhea is past.

Another good method is the toss can. Put some pennies in a can, secure the top and when he barks toss the can as close to him as you can without being seen. Once he's quiet, praise him and go get the can. I had a raised ranch with my first, bedroom window overlooked the yard. Threw the can from the window - he never knew it was coming. Cured him fast. We had a lot of barking dogs on the street, but all the neighbors knew if it was my boy something was up! Oh - btw, don't hit him with the can , just toss on the ground near him.

Is he getting enough exercise and enough time outside the kennel or crate? Sometimes just tiring them out will do the trick.

He gets a lot of exercise. With me and my other dogs.

One of our little girls we kept out of our recent litter is now 5 months old. She is one of those high pitched barkers which drives me nuts. I started crate training her with her other siblings at 8 weeks of age but she always got the other pups going in the middle of the night and again at 4:40 am. She thought her day was to start at 4:30 every morning so when I put the pups out to do a quick potty run in the middl of the night and back to their crates, my little girl thought it was time to get up and would bark and yip. My husband needs his sleep for work the next day so that meant I get up and stop the barking. Finally I started using Bitter Apple in her mouth. All the pups would cringe when they saw me coming with the bitter apple bottle and shut up but not my little girl until I sprayed her mouth good and scolded her.
Now days when she gets a bug up her to bark at my other dogs outside and fence chase to amuse herseld, I run outside and show her my bitter apple and she stops in her tracks and puts her head between her front legs. It's pretty sad to see her do this but it's the only thing that has worked to control her crazy barking. I don't know where she gets this barking from since her mom and grand mom are not barkers.
By the way, I poured the contents of the Bitter Apple in a small spray bottle I bought at Home Depot so I wouldn't get the nasty stuff dripping on my fingers.

I meant to ask you if you think it's possible your dog has a UTI going on and that is why he wakes you up in his crate ?

No UTI. I think he's like your girl. Because of the diarrhea he got used to me running when he barked. Thank you I'll try the bitter apple.

Thank you. This poor puppy goes everywhere with me. Gets more attention, which I love giving. To the store, park, shows, then home to play with the other dogs.

Barking is difficult because it gets our attention so easily-even turning our head toward the sound gives the dog some reward for it. And some dogs bark as a self reward, they just love doing it. I try from the beginning to never give anything for attention seeking barking. If I'm walking over to let the dog out and they start to bark I just walk away and try again after they have stopped barking.

There are so many positive ways to reinforce not barking and the easiest ones are asking for behaviors that don't include barking, like sitting or downing or waiting. Also, if the dog is a real confirmed barker put a command on it that way you have a way to reward with the stop barking command.

There is lots of books out there on operant conditioning that address barking and I think there are some Pet Smart classes that help you work through it as well.

I've used the bitter apple and it is a good quick fix, but I think the other methods offer more long term control over the behavior with the added benefit of increasing over all willingness on the dogs part to train.

Good luck.

Thank you, I'll do as you suggest.

I know and if it were just me at the house, I would just buy ear plugs and let the little dickens yap away but that isn't an option.

I do praise her when she stops barking and over all she is a very obedient young girl who listens to my commands and signals on everything but barking so I use the Bitter Apple as her punishement and praise her for not barking. It's getting to the point now that all I have to do is show her the bottle and say nothing and she shuts up.

Her sister who here with us is a quiet girl and even when she does bark, she has a low, deep bark, more pleasant to listen to now and then.

Thank you. I'll try the bitter apple and positive re enforcement.

What do you do with a newborn baby? You let them cry 2 minutes, then console them. Tomorrow, make it 5 minutes, the next day 10 minutes. They need to learn to go back to bed if they wake up.
She has been used to going out in the middle of the night. Now it's time to go back to the original schedule. She doesn't understand, so you have to do it slowly. Don't scare her with vinegar or other mean tactics.

Thank you.

Why not try obedience classes, where you both can learn.

I worked for me.