Senior dog barking

[Anonymous]

Our old fella has started barking at random times for no reason. He is a rescue, so not sure of his exact age, maybe 10-12 years old. He has lost some of his hearing, which vet said can cause dogs to bark randomly. But the barking has increased recently, he does it at night and during the day, sometimes it is just a few barks here and there for 5 minutes other times it lasts longer. If it lasts longer than 5 minutes, we usually tell him to stop or try to distract him with something else. I work from home so the barking during the day is a bit of an annoyance and the barking at night keeps us up and sometime wakes our small children. I am getting close to my breaking point and hope someone(s) out here can offer advice?

Has anyone had a similar experience? Any suggestions on how to make him stop? I wonder if an anti-anexity medication might help him?

[Anonymous]

Maybe a white noise machine or loud fan to block whatever he is hearing that bothers him?

[Anonymous]

It might be dementia. My mother's senior dog has started doing this too, we call it "doggy sundowner syndrome". He wakes up at night and gets confused and starts barking. My mom brings him back to his bed, then he's up an hour later doing it again. No real advice if that's the issue, just rule out other physical causes and try to keep his routines consistent.

[Anonymous]

Citronella Collar?

[Anonymous]

I think the vet is correct. The loss of hearing means that your dog can no longer accurately discriminate between noises. You pop the remote on the table and the dog vaguely hears it and thinks that someone is knocking on the door - bark, bark, bark.

White noise might be the way to go, especially overnight.