How can I stop alert barking when at home?

Hi all looking for some advice on how to stop my Staffy Taika from alert barking constantly. He doesn’t make a peep when we’re out on walks or at cafes or in other peoples homes he only does this when at home. We live in a two story building of 6 flats at the top floor and have very echoey stairs so we can hear most people coming and leaving their homes. This sets him off and he’ll bark and bark and run back and forth from the front door to our balcony door with his heckles up sometimes to see what’s going on just barking the whole time even when the noise has stop. Our balcony also looks over a large shared garden that gets a lot of foxes and cats which will also set him off if he sees or hears them. I understand he’s kind of just doing what dogs were domesticated to do and letting us know hey someone’s outside our home but it’s how long he does it for that’s a bit much. I wouldn’t mind just a couple barks to let us know but he’ll go on for a few minutes and he seems really wound up by it.

He’s in no way aggressive and he’ll bark when someone’s at the door but once we open it and let them in he’s as sweet as can be. We’ve tried teaching him “quiet” but he just gets to wound up to really listen. Don’t really wanna go down the route of a shock collar it’s just not for us. We’ve seen people using an anti bark collar that I think beeps and vibrates do deter the dog from barking if anyone here has used that could you please let me know what you think of it? And If anyone else has any ideas on what to try please let us know. We really just don’t want to piss off our neighbors lol.[url=https://servimg.com/view/20347528/8][/url

taikathestaffy wrote: Don’t really wanna go down the route of a shock collar it’s just not for us. We’ve seen people using an anti bark collar that I think beeps and vibrates do deter the dog from barking if anyone here has used that could you please let me know what you think of it?

Firstly, please don't even consider a shock collar! They are banned in Scotland anyway & for good reason. An anti-bark collar very often doesn't work & you could end up with a dog that's scared but can't voice its fear.

A reactive bark is quite difficult sometimes to get on top of because it's already a learned behaviour & he'll do it automatically.

Is he a vocal dog normally? Is he treat orientated? What we did with our boy (ADHD Bull Terrier) was, we keep a cup of tap water within easy reach & each time he barks we tell him "quiet". If he carries on, we splash a tiny amount of water at his face. It's enough to distract him & we then do a little training with his favourite treats to take his attention away from the noise. Because he can see where the water is coming from (unlike an ant-bark collar) he isn't scared, he just doesn't much like it!