Barking!!

Question
our 5 month old chocolate lab Winston is doing really well, fully housetrained and chewing only his toys, however we seem to have a problem with him barking a lot when a stranger enters the house, we tell him it's all right but he will keep barking, he also barked constantly at the window when the house opposite had the gardeners round! We don't really want to get into the habit of giving him a treat every time somebody is at the door, is there anything else you can suggest. Thanks.

Answer
Perhaps being generous with treats will work as well as anything.  Having a good pack structure reduces such problems.  The dogs see all the people and dogs in the household as a pack with each having their own rank in the pack and a top dog.  Life is much easier if the 2 legged pack members outrank the 4 legged ones.  You can learn to play the role of top dog by reading some books or going to a good obedience class.  A good obedience class or book is about you learning to be top dog, not the dog learning it gets a treat if it sits.  Start at http://www.dogsbestfriend.com/

The above are fundamental techniques I suggest for almost all behavior problems and should help with barking too. The truth is, Labs usually don't bark that much and I don't have methods of controlling barking that I have been successful using. It isn't even in the manual for them. The manual does have a suggested reading list.  One I have read is The Other End of the Leash by Patrica McConnell.

She suggests the first step is not to yell at the dog. After all, usually if one dog starts to bark, any others around will to. So yell at your dog when it barks and it is happy to have you bark with it. Quietly tell it enough and walk over to it with a treat, doesn't need to be very big. Let him know you have it and use it to lure him away from what he is barking at if anything, and praise him as he shifts his attention to the treat and away from barking. Once away from where he was barking, give him the treat.

Unlike much of my other advice, this is not something I have tried and found works. It does come from a reliable source and I would trust it more than something I found on a website I know little about. I just hope she isn't smart enough to figure out if she barks, she gets a treat plus your attention.