Boy, do I ever understand this problem!! My 2, Ginger and ShyAnne, had this barking craziness down pat!! They both weigh around 5#s and it was like their trait - little pup with BIG VOICE! Think they're pit bulls in disguise! Plus, Ginger wouldn't calm down (jumping around and yelping) until "whoever" picked her up and let her say "hello" with her kisses. ShyAnne is shy that way but still gave her barking voice a good workout!
It used to be nuts around here b/c I would tell them things like "stop barking!!" or "no barking!!" Then DH would holler at them, too, if he was around. To my fur-babies it was like "hey! wow! the whole pack is barking! Listen to us!!"
Also, Ginger goes absolutely insane when "Daddy" arrives home - esp after he has been gone all week (works out of town). As soon as she hears his truck turn the corner, she starts!! Not only barking but a shrill whining, yelping, and spinning in circles until he picks her up! We are still working on fixing that problem!! DH tries to ignore her but gives in too quickly!! Have to train him, too!
I learned to use the command "enough", after a couple of barks. I like it that they alert me to someone being close to the house. The trick (which needs lots and lots of patience) is to NEVER REWARD BARKING!! This means NO attention whatsover - no words about the barking, no looking at them, no touching them! Instead, I
redirected their attention by calling them to me. Then I told them to sit (which stops their barking) and gave them a small treat INSTANTLY while saying the word "enough". (Or you can use the word "quiet" or something similar.) They get the idea that "enough" means to stop barking.
It doesn't happen overnite and I don't call them to me everytime now b/c all I have to do is say "enough". Funny b/c they come to me right away as if I had called them. Still working on getting Ginger to stop barking when a program on TV has a doorbell sound - pizza commercials are the worst!!!
At first, this technique was hard b/c calling them to me first kept me from answering the door. I let everyone know what I was doing so they would understand that it would take a minute to get to the door. For those (like my dtr) who just knock and walk in, I told them to ignore the pups until I said it was OK. Ginger would keep on barking when dtr came thru the door until she got the attention. She still does her crazy yelping with Daddy arriving but she is getting better. Patience! Patience! Patience!
The can of pennies and spray bottles didn't work for us either! Ginger freaks nervously over any loud noises and ShyAnne likes the water!! But, I've learned that the most important thing with any technique is that you praise and reward
immediately when the barking stops. Some people gave me a bad time about this b/c they thot it seemed like I was rewarding them for their barking!! Well, it might seem that way but Yorkies are smart and they know that the treat is for being quiet. They have the attention-span of about half of a second!
Hope this helps someone as much as it has helped us! If you want to know how I learned the training ideas, just PM me and I'll tell you about the e-book I got!! It is amazing!! I don't know if we are allowed to post (other than PMs) about books and such for training.