 Looking for some advice, perhaps in desperate need.
Before I start, let me say that I love animals. I lived on a farm my entire life up to last year, worked at a vet office for two years helping dogs in the kennel. I've owned several dogs and cats in my lifetime. I consider myself more of cat person but there's nothing like that look a dog gives you when you've come home after a long day.
Having said that, I recently moved in with my fiancee and her two yorkies. Neither are over three years old and they are half brothers. One is quite fat, probably the biggest yorkie I've seen in my limited experience, at least 20 pounds. The other is much smaller and skinnier, more along the lines of what I picture yorkies to be.
The problem I have is barking. The big one doesn't bark very much, but the smaller one barks incessantly.
It drives me insane. It happens at any time, sometimes due to something outside, sometimes due to nothing at all. I've been living with it for several months now and it is getting to the point that I can't take it anymore.
The problem is that these dogs spend a lot of time indoors and rarely get outside for walks. I don't have time to walk them and my fiancee doesn't either. I imagine that if they were walked more they might get tired and shut up but we can't make time for it.
Is there anything I can do to break them of their very loud, very annoying barking habits, short of debarking them, which I find inhumane? |