My family has a German Shepherd that never stops barking. They have had him for 4+ years or so, and took him in off of the streets. He had several bad habits when they took him in, and most of them they have been able to resolve.

They have been able to brake him of chewing phone boxes off the house, and chewing pvc drainage pipes, or even the steel braided hoses off of a gas grill. They accomplished this by covering everything in Tabasco sauce.

However, they have not been able to stop his random, useless, annoying barking! If they leave him in the garage, then he usually only barks if he hears someone approaching the house. This type of barking is fine by us. But if he is left out in the yard, he becomes this random, hyper active barking nuisance. He will bark at trees, weeds, shrubs, whatever. When he is outside and someone approaches the house, he goes absolutely nuts! Again, that part doesn't bother us.

My family thinks I complain about him to much, but they work during the day, and right now I have been working nights and weekends. They don't know what a pain, and how much barking he actually does. The problem I have is that my room is on the side of the house surrounded by the yard. Many times his barking causes me to have to wake up and often triggers a migrane. I need my sleep and cant go on having to plan my sleep around a dog's barking schedule.

We have tried several zapper collars with the remote buzzer for getting him to stop from inside the house. This doesn't seem to have any effect. We have tried teaching him not to bark, by spending time with him in the yard, again no change.

We just want him to stop barking at everything, and only bark when there is actually something to alert us to.

There has to be some reasonable method that works. He's not a stupid animal. He has learned sit, and shake, and lay down, or jump up since they took him in...but just doesn't know when to stop barking.

I apologize for the rant in essay form.