My Border's barking

Hello Think Tank,

This is a very recent problem that we have with our three-year-old Border Collie cross. It started whilst we were all on holiday last week and has continued at home. If my husband goes to get out of his chair, our dog goes mad and really barks excessively at him. I then have to shut him in the dining room for him to calm down, which he does do quite quickly.

He has done this to our house bunny when there is a sound in the house he doesn't like and as soon as he has reacted I have sent him to the dining room. His barking at our rabbit has been less and less to almost nothing because of this.

We are just a bit worried that he has now started this with a member of the family as apart from this he gets on well with all of us.

Hope you can help.

Julie Smith, Berkshire

Barking on the lead

Hello Dogs Today,

I wonder if anyone could offer any advice.

I have a six-year-old Cocker Spaniel that we have had for one year. My problem is that she randomly barks at people and most dogs when she's on the lead, barking and lunging at them. I have been to an animal behaviorist. He advised lots of treats, but she's more interested in barking than eating the treats. She has been on Zylkene for 10 days now, is it too early for it to have started working yet? Off lead she is fine, but on the lead she barks at people/dogs across the road and I cannot even get her to focus on me.

Have you any suggestions please?

Many thanks

Sally Vincent, by email