# Bear :sigh: she never shuts up



## Jessica84 (Oct 27, 2011)

For those that don’t know bear is my first LGD, about 7 months old now. She has done great at alerting me to coyotes and hawks and keeping everything safe. 
Since she decided she really is a protector she has been barking at night. At first it wasn’t too bad and I just assumed she was smelling something and keeping it away. It had gradually gotten worse, to the point now where she barks all night long. As much as I love that she is taking her job seriously, we need sleep. I have gone out there with a spot light and looked and there is nothing out there and no rhyme or reason to the barking. If she was barking in one general area or even barking and going in one direction I would think there is something out there im not seeing but she just seems to be barking to bark. 
I don’t want her to not bark if something comes in but this is getting out of control. What do I do in this situation? I am about ready to get a bark collar or a shock collar but afraid it will keep her from doing her job, but I can’t have her keep my husband up at night when he had to get up early for work or the kids only getting a few hours of sleep before school. So any advise right now would be great.


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## CarolInTheGarden (Mar 16, 2021)

What breed is she? Most of the fluffy white varieties do bark all night long. It is how they patrol their territory all night. Perhaps someone has a trick to make it stop, but I have only ever heard to be prepared for all night barking if you get either a Maremma or Great Pyrenees (or, of course, a cross). I am not sure about Anatolians.


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## friesian49 (Jul 2, 2018)

I foster pups and I can't handle the barking, which is why they normally sleep in the bed with me versus staying in the crate. Other than giving some kind of chewy/bone/treat/toy to try and keep them busy, I don't know what else could be done. Seems like some will bark at anything and others rarely do, which are the ones I like!


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## CarolInTheGarden (Mar 16, 2021)

friesian49 said:


> I foster pups and I can't handle the barking, which is why they normally sleep in the bed with me versus staying in the crate. Other than giving some kind of chewy/bone/treat/toy to try and keep them busy, I don't know what else could be done. Seems like some will bark at anything and others rarely do, which are the ones I like!


This is a livestock guardian dog. I imagine that she lives amongst the animals and stays out on the farm all night.


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## happybleats (Sep 12, 2010)

Sadie (great Pyrenees) is a barker too. More so now that she's a bit older..( a year old now) thankfully not all night..but enough of the night. She hears things we don't hear lol.


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## friesian49 (Jul 2, 2018)

CarolInTheGarden said:


> This is a livestock guardian dog. I imagine that she lives amongst the animals and stays out on the farm all night.


Yeah, just throwing out thoughts I use for the fosters. I'd think that they could work on a chewy while keeping an eye on the herds, but I'm sure Jessica tried this. I just got flashbacks to the nonstop barking and had to commiserate with her!


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## daisymay (Feb 13, 2017)

well mine,when she was younger she went thru the phase of everything is scary... cars....bucket...ect... i think her eye sight was off at night or something. We had to go out and walk her up to the big bad to get her to quit barking. Luckily that didnt last very long...

but if she keeps barking and i mean not the aggressive im going to eat you bark(after about 5 min)but the bark stop bark stop then i tell her to stop thru the window, if she keeps it up i will put a shock collar on the next evening and give her the same chance and use the beep and she knows she should stop. it doesnt make her stop barking totally but she goes on and on about something that is probably long gone. .she gets a beep. no one wants to hear a dog barking all night.During the day she is preety quiet and the neighbors collies are much louder.


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## jmarie (Mar 27, 2021)

I’ve never had LGDs.. but my neighbor had several Pyrenees dogs, or at least they did.. and they would bark nearly all night, every night. We are separated from our neighbors through some trees by a good distance and entirely out of sight, but somehow the dogs could hear me open our gate latch if I went out to the barn at night and would bark! It came to where if they were quiet, I would have to tiptoe around our own yard to not set them off LOL. Unfortunately, I couldn’t even use a baby monitor in the barn during kidding season because I couldn’t hear anything on it except the dogs barking  I think they either moved them to another pasture farther away or rehomed them because I don’t hear them anymore now. 

But it’s my understanding that it’s just part of the breed in some cases, so attempting to train them to not do what comes naturally for them would only confuse them.. they won’t know what they’re doing wrong necessarily? It’s different than a breed that isn’t naturally an excessive barker and develops a bad habit of barking.. in that case you can work with them. Or at least that’s what I was told back when I was considering LGDs 🤷‍♀️


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## Jessica84 (Oct 27, 2011)

She is Anatolian, akbash and like 1/10th Pyrenees if that. She has her fire hose which is the best thing in the world just ask her. I have tried holding off on feeding her in the day and just feeding her at night to see if that puts her in a coma but that’s now working lol when the coyotes came in and the hawk it was a growl and barking but this is just flat out barking. Tail wagging barking. If she would just shut up when I tell her to it would be better but she flat out ignores me. Barking here or there I can deal with but not ALL NIGHT long and I’m not even over exaggerating on that.


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## FizzyGoats (Apr 14, 2021)

She’s at a barky age. But if you get on to her now for it, you can curb it. I do what you do and go out and see what’s happening. If they are focused, barking at something, then I make noise, shine my light, and help get rid of whatever it is and don’t leave until the dog is calm. If you leave when they’re still hyped up, they sort or lock in to that state and will bark again and again. If they are barking at very distant sounds of coyotes, I tell them thank you and that’s enough. You’re not going to bark them to death and they know you’re here now, so hush, is my thought. If I hear a short set of barks after that every once in a while I don’t mind because I know there’s distant danger and they’re just making sure it stays distant. But I will correct for constant barking, even at that. If they’re doing an unfocused bark just to bark, I absolutely correct it. Again, once you correct, get your pup in a clam, relaxed state before going back inside or it will just get worse. I basically correct to submission, meaning I make my correction sounds and wait until they lie down and relax. A single LGD will tend to bark more, but I don’t care what breed they are, I don’t allow nuisance barking. They sort of sound off when they go on duty. You’ll hear more barking right after it gets dark but then it should quiet down. And if not, you can go out and check and correct her. You’re not going to ruin her from appropriate barking by doing so. I wouldn’t do the bark collar because that really does punish her for barking at things she should be barking at. Plus, her only way to signal that she needs help is her bark. But you can absolutely correct her for incessant barking though. I would.


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## alwaystj9 (Apr 10, 2019)

Good posts, thank you all!
Mine take spells on the all night barking.


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## Jessica84 (Oct 27, 2011)

FizzyGoats said:


> She’s at a barky age. But if you get on to her now for it, you can curb it. I do what you do and go out and see what’s happening. If they are focused, barking at something, then I make noise, shine my light, and help get rid of whatever it is and don’t leave until the dog is calm. If you leave when they’re still hyped up, they sort or lock in to that state and will bark again and again. If they are barking at very distant sounds of coyotes, I tell them thank you and that’s enough. You’re not going to bark them to death and they know you’re here now, so hush, is my thought. If I hear a short set of barks after that every once in a while I don’t mind because I know there’s distant danger and they’re just making sure it stays distant. But I will correct for constant barking, even at that. If they’re doing an unfocused bark just to bark, I absolutely correct it. Again, once you correct, get your pup in a clam, relaxed state before going back inside or it will just get worse. I basically correct to submission, meaning I make my correction sounds and wait until they lie down and relax. A single LGD will tend to bark more, but I don’t care what breed they are, I don’t allow nuisance barking. They sort of sound off when they go on duty. You’ll hear more barking right after it gets dark but then it should quiet down. And if not, you can go out and check and correct her. You’re not going to ruin her from appropriate barking by doing so. I wouldn’t do the bark collar because that really does punish her for barking at things she should be barking at. Plus, her only way to signal that she needs help is her bark. But you can absolutely correct her for incessant barking though. I would.


Thank you! I knew there had to be a happy medium in there I didn’t know how to go about doing it! I will probably have to get her a shock collar though because she really doesn’t listen to me on knocking it off. I’ve tried petting her and telling her everything was ok, and even got firm and told her to knock it off and she choose to ignore me. Other then that she is a great dog! Just when the sun goes down she is annoying lol


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## FizzyGoats (Apr 14, 2021)

I love my e collars. I use it for training and my dogs actually get so happy when they see me coming with it. I would spend the money to get one that’s used for hunting dogs and such. It has lots of levels and you can use it for fun training on the lower levels and make it so it’s not a scary thing. They are amazing training tools and allow you to increase intensity from a simple sensation, to a tingling, to a discomfort, and more if justified. I need to dust mine off and give my dogs a refresher on the collars. It’s been a while and those collars are awesome.


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## Jessica84 (Oct 27, 2011)

I had a sportsman dog many years ago for my hard headed hound I had that was super nose driven. I’ll probably get one of those even though they are expensive. It had different levels for shocking but also vibrate and just a tone. We got to the point I just beeped him and he would knock it off. So hopefully we can get like that with her.


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## Boer Mama (10 mo ago)

I’m almost regretting when it starts warming up and I want to sleep with the windows open because I’m sure I’ll be hearing barking 😅
But Buckwheat is getting much better about running out to meet the danger and isn’t right by the houses now. He’s just a month or so younger than Bear.
I’m thinking Luna will start staying with the goats more while he heads things off, since she hasn’t fully recovered from her muscle sprain/tear.

hopefully Bear pays attention to the collar and gets the idea for you!


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## Jessica84 (Oct 27, 2011)

Yes!!! And these storms are warm and mine, husbands and 2 dogs body heat adds up fast in the bedroom lol I think we will get it figured out. I just wasn’t sure if reprimanding her would eventually lead to not keeping real danger away.


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## KY Goat Girl (12 mo ago)

My LGD, Millie, is 1/2 Pyrenees, 1/2 Aussie, and she doesn’t bark all night, just if she hears coyotes or something close to the barn. Then she settles back down. Although she’s almost 10 years old now. When she was younger her and her sister barked a LOT during the night. Bear will grow out of it a little bit.


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## FizzyGoats (Apr 14, 2021)

I have the Mini Educator E Collar. While it’s not cheap (none of them are), it’s one of the more reasonably priced ones that has all the same features as the one you used to have. You can even turn a light on the collar from the remote if you need to find your dog at night. I haven’t looked at what all is out there recently though, so there might be better deals. The battery is pretty good too. If you’re only using it at night, you can probably get three or so nights off one charge and it charges really fast.


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