New, constant barking in older dog.

[streborzil]

My aunt has a very old (14-15 years) chocolate Lab mix dog, and he barks constantly. He barks all day and all night; he is in a medium sized yard with his toys, bedding, and he is allowed to stay in the garage (connected to the yard) which has his bed, whenever he wants. He also is now allowed in the house at night. He isn't barking at anything in particular as far as I can tell, he can't see any people from the yard and the most he might hear is children in the yard next door (during the day only). He used to bark at planes and other noises, but even when it's quiet he just keeps barking now.

This only started recently, he's always barked but now it's constant. My grandmother used to be at home all day but she passed away in 2001, and he started barking constantly earlier this year so I don't think he's lonely (he never has been overly social anyway). My aunt is home in the evenings and 1-3 days a week with him. Even when I'm there to feed him he barks constantly at me (almost as if he doesn't know me).

She does take him on walks a couple of times a week, although he can only go for about 5 minutes (literally) because of his legs and sometimes will just plant himself down and will not move. My aunt is older and has bad knees too, so she is worried if she takes him out he might stop and refuse to move, and she'll be stuck. She does pay a lot of attention to him at night when he is inside, but as I said, he's not overly social anyway and he is old and likes to just sleep.

He does have numerous medical problems, and we were thinking maybe there's something that's making him bark. Unfortunetly he is large and heavy, and he has bad arthritis (he has pain pills for this though), we are unable to get him to the vet (or even in the car) since he has trouble walking. I don't know a lot about dogs, but perhaps something with his ears, or some kind of pain would cause this?

The ONLY thing that works (temporarily) is just looking straight at him and yelling no (this is the ONLY word that works) and putting your hand up in a stop motion.

Does anyone have any ideas? I'm wary of using any kind of "shock" collars or anything, due to his age and I don't want to hurt him, just make him be quiet. Thanks for any ideas.

[Becky]

I've seen dogs that are going blind and or deaf bark all the time

[Dax]

A vet visit should be your first order of business. As Becky mentioned, earing/sight loss in older dogs would lead to this behavior. Dogs are great at coping so it might not be obvious to you.