FRANTIC Barking! Papillon screaming at any visitor who dares enter!

Hello everyone,

I have a 7 year old pap named Mickey who is a rescue dog. It is uncertain what happened to him prior his abandonment at a high-kill shelter in Iowa, but it left his little soul very damaged. I’ve had him for about 6 years now and though he has overcome many of his problems, there is one issue that I have been unable to solve: barking.

First of all, Mickey is one of those papillons who doesn’t have a “Best Of Show” temperament. One time I read a breeder’s page which listed all the negative traits a pap could possible have…. and Mickey has most of them. Skittish, often fearful, distrustful of people, etc. But he has a warm heart for his family and he is so happy with us that it doesn’t matter. He has improved much in all areas but some problems cannot entirely go away. His barking problem is one that has seen little to no improvement… if not gotten worse.

My folks and I have all but given up. He barks at noises, people talking on the street outside, etc… but that’s not the worst. Every time a visitor rings the bell/knocks on the front door Mickey goes absolutely ballistic. He barks loudly, frantically, like his life depends on it. He goes deaf to all commands and will absolutely not listen to anything we say to him, except for “Go to bed” (if he doesn’t do it automatically)… then he will promptly run to his bed and continue barking. Eventually he will calm down a bit, especially if the visitor stays a while and ignores him… but he is rarely entirely relaxed. He may become trusting enough to let the visitor pet him, but otherwise he will stalk around the room warily or else nervously sit on my (or one of my parents’) lap. If it’s more than one person, he is far more nervous. If it’s an entire group of 4+ people, Mickey’s nerves are raw. When the person finally gets up to leave, he begins barking all over again until the front door closes and harmony is restored to his little world. It’s gotten to the point that 85% of the time that door opens he reacts with this behavior, even if there is no visitor. Sometimes we can pacify him by saying “It’s just mail!”, to which he responds with disgruntled growling until the door is closed again.

We’ve tried to correct his behavior with well-timed, calm “No”s. We’ve tried to teach him a “Quiet!” command. We have tried treat/toy reward-motivation training, and positive verbal-motivation training. We used to think he had some fixation with the door bell or the door in particular so we tried desensitization with that but it had little to no effect. We’ve even tried to “ignore” the barking as others have suggested, in the hopes that he was only trying to get attention and would calm on his own, but that DEFINITELY did not work! Essentially, we have tried everything that we know and are out of ideas.

Has anyone else ever had a similar problem? Is there something we have not thought of, a particular method we should attempt? We’re not experienced trainers but we are long-time dog owners. Mickey is an unusual problem for us. If he cannot change then so be it… but it is hard to see how much upset the dog has to suffer because we cannot get him to calm down. (It is also very hard on our nerves after a while, too.)

Thank you for taking the time to read this!