Agressive bark help?

[Rich'sGirl35]

Hello everyone!

I recently became the proud "momma" of a very sweet baby boy beagle who we named Toby who is 1 year and 4 1/2 months old. My husband and I rescued him about 4 1/2 months ago from a shelter. There is very little background on him except for the fact that he was found in a trailer park where a bunch of kids were throwing rocks at him. When we first met him at the shelter he stole our hearts. He was so timid and afraid of everything. When we first brought him home it turned out he was sick (the shelter never told us) with Kennel Cough. It took a while but we got him back to full health, thank God. To help him get his confidence we enrolled him into obedience school and I'm proud to say he graduated. His confidence seems to be much butter but suffers from seperation anxiety and hates his crate. We are currently trying to work on the crate situation because i'm afraid he's going to hurt himself but that is another story.

The reason for this post is he seems to have some issue with aggressive barking at times. I know a beagle will bark and will howl and I'm fine with that. We try to control him a little with that if its early in the morning or late at night outside just to be respectful to the neighbors since we live in a townhouse. Our issue is he will get crazy or nutty as my husband describes it when he's in the yard and a) another dog is in a neighboring yard, b) kids are making loud noises playing outside (even if he can't see them) and c) when our neighbors are in their yards. He barks so bad that he ends up coughing and gagging sometimes. Luckily our one neighbor is very understanding and tells us that one day Toby and him will be friends. I just wish we could somehow get him to not get so nutty. We would be fine if he barked a bit and then calmed down. Someone said that maybe he was overly protected of us and this maybe some of the issue but he gets this way even when we are not in the yard with him. We've tried using a water bottle to squirt him but it only shuts him up for a few seconds. We've tried taking him inside but he will just scratch at the door and keep barking to get out.

I love him so much but this is so frustrating because i'm afraid he's going to hurt himself during one of these episodes. Does anyone have any suggestion on different things we can try to correct? Anything would be grately appreciated. Thanks!

[brandypup]

Has he been introduced to the neighboors? Are you still socializing him? the neighboor could look like his past abuser also.

Peaceable Paws

Understanding Your Dog's Vocal Communications - Whole Dog Journal Article

[Rich'sGirl35]

Hi Brandypup, thanks for the response!

Yes we have introduced him to both set of neighbors but its as if each time he sees them it like seeing them for the first time. We have continued to socialize him. We take him to parks, pets stores and even to each of our parents who have 2 dogs each. He is good with them and usually at the parks and stores too unless if at the park he sees another dog he is very random whether he will go nuts or just not care and sniff them. He's very unpredictable when it comes to meeting other dogs outside of our house or our parents. If only I could understand what he is saying. lol

[Kath]

I wish I could help but sometimes I swear Lily is just in the mood to bark. She will sit on top of the couch and look out the big picture window and you can tell she is just scanning the surroundings looking for something to bark at. Sometimes a little "oof" will sneak out if there is nothing particularly interesting to bark at and other times it is a full on "Arrooooooooo" if someone is walking by or the neighbors dogs are in our yard.