Barking daft

[rubyduby]

I have two Cockers a noisy 12 yr old and a now noisy 3 yr old, Topaz the elder has always been a nuisance with barking at any and every opportunity to the point that if you are trying to talk to someone she will bark none stop (ie vet) she barks for attention , but still barks when she gets it. The younger is getting as bad but she has developed a high pitched yelping bark which sounds almost hysterical and takes some shutting up, she is quite an anxious dog, but seems to be getting worse as she gets older, she is calm and fine with dogs and people and extremely loving and cling to me?? any ideas , the younger Amber also suffers from an allergy which makes her scratch a lot and more recently paw chewing and licking

[clare.olivia]

I'm of no help but chipping in, I also have a very noisy 15month old show cocker, Cú, who likes to 'scream' as I call it (very high pitched barking which I thought was a puppy thing but he has not grown out of). Most advice I've been given is to ignore it as giving him attention of any kind is rewarding the behaviour but there are places where that's obviously not an option (i.e. in public spaces). He especially likes to scream while I'm on the phone having meetings or important calls... I'm a solo dog owner so I imagine he's not a fan of sharing me. Mostly I've been using distraction in those circumstances.

He is not an anxious dog by any means and his barking is purely attention or overstimulation but would love to hear what ideas others have to deal with it!