[Melias farm]

I have 6 rescue dogs that sleep in a heated tack room (my daughter is allergic to them).

3 of the dogs are prolific barkers and driving me insane!
They come out all day everyday.
They chase the sheep, they try to chase the goat who chases them back and chase the horses.
There is going to be an accident soon.
Short of re homing the younger 3 dogs (all under 1) I don’t know what to do to shut them up.
The have toys galore, boredom breakers. 3 are in crates. Im putting the last younger in a crate at the end of the month (finances have stopped me this month).

My neighbours are being amazing about it all but that’s not the point.
They are making everyone’s lives miserable

[Anke]

Sorry, how can you even think about keeping dogs that chase your sheep and goats. And why 6 of them? Especially if finances are tight?

[landroverroy]

Would they not be better rehomed either singly or in pairs to a home where they can live inside as part of the family?


It doesn't sound like either you or the dogs (not to mention the neighbours!) are getting any pleasure out of the current situation.


To me - a dog is part of the family. I think it is admirable that you have rescued them, and I may have got this wrong - but it's no life to live in a crate in a tack room, apart from when it's outside annoying  everyone, and stressing other innocent animals.


I get it that your daughter is allergic, but the only good point to the dogs  of living in the tack room is that it is heated. It is basically a prison. I'm sure the animals would  prefer to live in the coldest of houses with their own human family that took pleasure in the them, than the current situation where they just exist.   

[Fleecewife]

Oh Heavens, I don't get this. You have 'rescued' 6 dogs only to put them in cages? We took on our two rescue dogs to get them OUT of cages in the rescue centre. It has taken a whole lot of patient work, love and training to get them, and now the surviving one, to get over the trauma of their experiences. Sticking them in a cage might quieten them down but will increase their stress.  I know there are people who use cages as a 'safe place' for dogs but rescue dogs need so much extra special care and love that I don't see this solution being the correct one. We kept our dogs on leads when they were near the livestock until we were certain they were safe and would not chase them, and only let them run freely in empty paddocks - easy to do. The survivor can now be loose amongst the flock with no problems. (I say 'survivor' because the older dog died of old age after we had had her for less than a year, but at least it was a year of love and freedom).
If you are not in a position to help these dogs then perhaps you should discuss returning them to the rehoming centre for someone else to try.
I realise this sounds very judgemental and I apologise for that. Dogs tend to bark endlessly when they are unhappy and stressed, so please think about things from their point of view to find a solution.

[Goatherd]

  Total agree with fleecewife you need to get this sorted for the dogs

[doganjo]

Rescued from what? and why?

Nobody needs the financial or emotional hassle of six undisciplined dogs.  You need to find good permanent homes, URGENTLY,  for at least four of them so you can enjoy the other two. 

Even then I fail to see the reasoning in having even two dogs shut in a shed all day every day except for a quick run.

Dogs need human interaction  Admittedly other farm animals do too although very much less

What is the point of them living in a tack shed where they meet no-one and have no purpose in life?

[cans]

The only kind solution to your problems with your rescued dogs is, sadly, to rehome them all.

You have more problems than just continous barking to sort out.

[harmony]

Crates are not intended as a means to kennel dogs. If you need to kennel then put in proper kennels. If you can't afford a dog crate, and actually you find them really cheap and in good order on the likes of FB marketplace, then how are you going to afford a vets bill when the "accident " you have already predicted happens.



Six dogs are a pack and they can go from having boisterous fun to a killing machine in no time at all and the consequences for them and you would be very serious if they kill or injure someone else's stock. And you don't want anything to happen to your stock either.

[SallyintNorth]

I think they are only in the tack room overnight; they are running about the holding all day, according to the opening post.

But that's contributing to the problem.  They are allowed to run about at liberty, making their own entertainment (which seems to mean chasing all the other inhabitants) all day long, then locked up with nothing exciting to look at all night.  Of course they bark.

They need some structure, some training, some interaction with you or other humans.  Dogs which get exercised, are made to think, do work, are happy to sleep at night.  Even if outside.  (My collie dogs, like many farm collies, slept in a stable when I was farming up north.  They would have an evening howl, chatting to the other farm collies within earshot, for a few minutes late evening, and then not a peep all night unless there was something to bark at.)

They also need periods of down time during the day. 

If they were mine, they would get a nice walk before breakfast.  (Not let out to run about on their own, taken for a walk.  With interaction with the human.)   Breakfast and snooze time while I have my breakfast.

Then maybe have a couple at a time accompany me as I do my jobs.  Maintaining interaction, any dog which stops interacting with me and / or starts chasing livestock gets switched out for one of the others.  No dog which is barking gets brought out, only quiet dogs get brought out.  (I might have to take opportunities quickly to get all the dogs out, but there needs to be no reward, ever, for barking for attention.)  As they are all used to being uncontrolled hoodlums for 12+ hours a day, there may need to be a transition period; I may need to have them leashed (to me to keep my hands free, if nexessary!) while I do my jobs for the first week or two. 

Nice walk all together, maintaining interaction, downtime.

Bit of training or play or grooming or practically anything as long as it's a bit different (ie., not the same thing every day) and they are interacting with / listening to me - and not chasing livestock.  Bit more downtime.

Walk before or after supper as suits my regime, bedtime. 

If they have had their brains stimulated, and have had some downtime during the day, they should sleep much better at night. 

Gradually, I would expect to be able to let them have some more freedom while I have them out with me during the day, and eventually I may be able to let them all be loose and unsupervised for short periods.  But you want your dog(s) to want to be with you, not entertaining themselves.  More than 2 dogs entertaining themselves is a pack and will eventually hunt.

[Buttermilk]

Just for information.

My next door neighbour had four bitches.  Two ridgebacks and two jack russels.  Mother and daughter in both cases.  The youngsters will be around a year old now.

Three days a week all the dogs were left in a large building with a barred kennel front 36'x16' while the parents were at work and the children at school.

Last month there was a fight.  They only have one jack russel now as the mother was killed by the other dogs.

I heard the row but was not able to do anything to save the dog.  The owners also heard the row and came from their other farm but too late.

[Penninehillbilly]

Buttermilk, that must have been so distressing to hear, so sorry.
And scary knowing the dogs could do that,
Hopefully remaining JR is now kept separate.

[Fleecewife]

No response to her own topic so far from [member=215025]Melias farm[/member]

[Melias farm]

Apologies I didn’t write my post well at all.
We are renovating and the house isn’t safe because my daughter is allergic to water. She’s 15 months old so water bowls left out atm could harm her.
So, while we are altering the house they are sleeping my in the tack room. This is not ideal at all.

They are walked 3 times a day. Never ever allowed in with other animals as I don’t trust all of them (once that can do come with me).
I have a trainer who doesn’t know what else to try so I hoped someone else may have an idea.
My son more than me tbh will take the dogs that want to for a play in the field at least twice a day.
I’m then with the others.
My son and myself are with them from 5am until 9pm.
I’ve started bringing them in at night and offering water every 10 or so mins.
They are still barking like crazy.
I’m lambing atm so rarely online to check messages tbh. I try but it’s super busy atm

[Melias farm]

Crates are not intended as a means to kennel dogs. If you need to kennel then put in proper kennels. If you can't afford a dog crate, and actually you find them really cheap and in good order on the likes of FB marketplace, then how are you going to afford a vets bill when the "accident " you have already predicted happens.



Six dogs are a pack and they can go from having boisterous fun to a killing machine in no time at all and the consequences for them and you would be very serious if they kill or injure someone else's stock. And you don't want anything to happen to your stock either.

I keep to a strict animal budget. Short of a vets bill I won’t go out of it. I’ll make something work. I obviously have the money to buy crates etc. I just won’t touch another account for this.

I’ve seen pack mentality when my son was attacked by someone else’s dogs. I am very aware of what it is like. Other than the barking and chase issues (alone they are fine, it’s the pack issue). I call them they come back etc. it’s barking when I’m with them or not

[SallyintNorth]

Well, a couple of other techniques that might be worth a try.

Most likely to work is some sort of "toy box" for each dog when you shut them up for the night.  If you can get hold of a copy of John Cree's book "Your Problem Dog", he explains this technique for dealing with separation anxiety. and it worked brilliantly with one of my rescue dogs.

If it were a single dog barking, then teaching it a command to "Speak" and then another for "Quiet" often works.  I am dubious this would hold with all 6 at once, though. 

The other thing I am wondering is whether you have now inadvertently trained them to bark.  If it keeps working, ie., you do keep going out to them, then they have learned that barking brings rewards, albeit unpredictably.  Unfortunately, intermittent rewards reinforce behaviours even more than predictable rewards, so  once they have learned a "bad" habit this way it can be very intractable to untrain.

So you have to look for a way to make the situation completely different to them, and then hold firm on not rewarding them, ie., not going out to them when any of them is barking.

That's what made me think of Toy Box.  Make bedtime a very different scenario, and it might just do the trick.

Edited to add, I have done longer write ups of Toy Box several times previously.  Here's one : linky