barking

Question
My two min poodles get overly excited and bark ear splittingly loud when visitors arrive.  Sometimes just a noise will set them off. I love them to death but get so frustrated with them.  One will set the other off.  Often they have no idea what they are barking at. How do I calm them down, please.
They get plenty of exercise and that leads me to the problem of their total lack of response to me if they start hunting.  They can be in full view of me and totally ignore me until they are ready and have joyful grins on their faces when they finally join me.

Answer
Hello Judy,
In order to see why your dogs bark, you need to understand their barking from their point of view.  They see a person walking down the street and they start barking at that person.  The person (who has no idea that the dogs are barking at them) continues on their way walking past your dogs driveway.  To the dogs however, the person is walking away from the dogs house because the dogs barked at them.  The dogs think that their barking scared the person off, thus they bark again when they see someone who doesn't belong on their property, thinking that they can drive them away.  
To keep your dogs from barking when visitors come to the door, you need to start with the dogs before anyone visits.  You need to dominate your dogs to let them know you are their BOSS.  To do this, start with only one dog at a time and lay it down on the floor with its head on the floor and don't let him/her up until YOU say its ok.  Holding a dog down in this position will let them know that you are boss and that you are heads over them.  This is what the dominate dog in a pack situation will do with dogs that don't have enough respect for the boss dog.  Once you demonstrate this to your dogs, they will have more respect for you and will listen better for you.  Once may not be enough though, so when they do something that you don't like, lay them down in the submissive position and make them stay there until you let them get up.  
Once you get them to where they have more respect for you, if you know guests are going to arrive, put leashes on them and get ready for the bell to ring.  When the person knocks, have your "kids" sit and wait until you answer the door.  If the dogs are good, give the guest a treat to give to the kids and they can pet them.  If they bark, make them lay down in the submissive position.  

As for them ignoring you when outside, you need to come up with a word that will get them to come back to you for a treat or cookie.  This you will need to start inside.  Come up with a word, such as "Cookies" or "Treats" that will get their attention.  Next get a nice piece of treat to give them when they respond.  Next use their names and your "magic word" and see if they come to you or not.  If they do, PRAISE them big time and give the treats.  If they don't come, go and find them, show them the treats and lead them back to where you called them from (that way, they learn to come to you rather than you coming to them), then give them the treats.  You will want to make this fun and a game so that when they are outside, they will drop what they are doing to come to you.  Once they are really good at doing this inside the house, you can move to a fenced in yard or small area.  If they come to you, give them a nice treat, but if they don't come, go and get them and they get nothing.  They MUST realize that they have to come to you to get the treat rather than you coming and getting them.  NEVER EVER EVER run after them if they are ignoring you or running away from you.  To them, you running after them is a great fun game and they will continue running away from you if you are chasing them.  Instead, try running AWAY from them.  Chances are good that they will come running to you to see where you are going.  Praise them when they run towards you and if you have treats with you, give them one.  

You also might think about enrolling them in an Obedience class.  It is fun for them and you and will teach them some manners.  It will also help with their barking at the door and will socalize them some.  
Also, they seem like best buddies, but when you are working with them, try to seperate them for a time, so they can focus more on you than each other.  Being with each other is a big distraction and typically when one does something, the other will watch and do it also.  

Give this a try and if you have other questions for me, please feel free to ask.

Thanks for using AllExperts.com,
Kim