Barking at... everything?

Okay, Boss is 7 months old now and he barks at everything. It seems like he is turning into one of those stereotypical yappy dogs.

From the day we got him we socialized him very well. We had him out with us everyday meeting new people and dog until he wass probably about 5 months old. And now it seems as each day goes by he gets more and more yappy.

If we are driving somewhere, or out somewhere and he sees a stranger/dog somewhere he will start barking uncontrollably. If the person/dog comes up he is fine and just wants to play. So why is he barking then? It's not really a "come over and lets play" bark, but more of a "who are you and what are you doing here" bark.

It gets really annoying and quite embarassing when he starts barking like this.

What can I do!?!?

Is your first reaction to his barking a correction, such as "NO!"? It sounds like he is alarmed by...just about everything.

Maybe you could stand in front of him everytime he starts to bark at something and use a command such as, "It's OK" and rub his chest and treat him. That would help him to understand that the novel stimulus isn't harmful.

Wouldn't that be teaching him that what he did was good? So wouldn't he think that barking at it was a good thing?

And yes, I usually say "No!" and then go and get him and hold him until he is quiet.

I've been having the same kind of troubles with my Squid.. he;s about 5 months now.. He barks at every sound! He's been doing pretty good with the command 'Enough'.. usually he'll stop then and I praise him.. I just wish he would stop STARTING to bark so much!

Yeah same thing here. He usually listens if I tell him to be quiet (he might sneak in a few extra barks), but I don't want to him to start barking at all.

We'll be sitting in the backyard, and someone walks along the side of the house on the other side of the fence and he'll just go off barking like crazy. I don't know why, because if I brought him out there to see them his tail would start wagging and he'd just want to play.