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Uncontrollable barking?

I just started sitting for a deaf senile dog who wont stop barking unless being held in my arms. I work during the day (many teleconferences) and my calls were interupted thruout the day and my two little chis were horrified. The description the owner gave is nothing like him and he seems to be aggressive..trying to nip at the dogs and bite my husband when he tried picking him up. what to do????helppp

3 Answers

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Letting the owner know what is going on is the right action whenever you feel that the situation might be more than you can handle. Being that the owner's response was that this is not normal behavior you can assume that its due to being in a new environment with unfamiliar people/pets.

Always pay attention to the the response when you hug/pet a dog in order to make sure you aren't just rewarding an undesirable behavior. Using a leash and maybe the scent of food you can help the dog, then pet him as a reward. Repeat until you see improvement.

Putting the dog on a leash can be a great communication tool since the dog feels then you are tense/relax and respond accordingly. Sometimes having them lay next to you with a leash on does great results, but most times its just a temporary fix.

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This sounds like separation anxiety- I had a dog who was very well behaved but for his first stay howled through the entire night unless i was there petting him. My solution (at least for that night) was to sleep on the couch with him lol- but it sounds like you're not able to do that throughout the entire day. I'm not sure what you've tried but taking him for a long walk to wear him out may help and if he's crate trained, putting him in his crate may make him feel safe so that he'll calm down. It may also be worth a call to the owner- they may be able to tell you what types of things (kong toys, bones, etc) might keep their dog interested and distracted so that he won't bother your dogs too much. I hope everything works out! It's always tough when I'm sitting a new dog and they have separation anxiety.

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Also if he's deaf, he'll be more sensitive to touch. So to your hubby or other dogs they're just being normal but for a dog who can't hear: it's an attack. They need to see you coming, or stomp really hard if they're sleeping. This way they won't be startled. Some dogs just don't want to be picked up or petted. They may lick their lips excessively, pant heavily, look at you with whites showing, avoid your touch. I've noticed that older dogs give less of a warning than younger dogs; its kinda like they feel you should already know the rules.