Barney has taken to barking when people come to the door or into the drive if he's out on it. Nothing out of the ordinary there you say? Except for the fact that he barks longer and louder when he knows the person than when he doesn't.
If he doesn't they might get a cursory couple of barks but when he does know them its a case of "hello, I'm down here, hello, have you forgotten I'm down here, look at me, I'm sure you must want to give me a cuddle, I'M HERE!"
I imagine this is what Peobe is doing too. Barney does the same when he want to get Max to play with him, but thankfully only a couple of barks is needed to get Max to play.
Barney most definitely barks more than my other two put together, though he's not as bad as some I know. You could try teaching Phoebe a "Quiet" command. I've done this with mine, and its very useful.
There's two parts to teaching her to be quiet. When she is quiet get her attention and say "Phoebe quiet, good girl good quiet" and reward repeat this a few times. You can do a hand signal too when you're saying it. That has the benefit of her seeing that even if she can't hear you clearly for the barking she's doing. Its a very strong hand signal and I'll try and describe it
Put your hands up in front of you, palms facing away from you. Then cross them. Move them rapidly and firmly apart horizontally and stop when in line with your upper arm. Hope that makes sense.
Once you've done a few days of doing this when she is quiet move on to doing it when she is barking. The second that she stops to draw breath do the hand signal and say "good quiet" and reward. Do this for a few days, then start doing when she is actually barking. If she stops go over the top with praise and cuddles. If you think she's not got the concept of what quiet means, go back to the beginning. Eventually you'll get to a point that she'll do it without the hand signals, I can tell Barney to be quiet while he's running around the drive and he shuts up.
Hope this helps.
