Hard of hearing/ Elderly dog is spooked by noises he thinks he hears.

[cjgruenberg]

I have 14 year old Cockapoo who is hard of hearing and is constantly being spooked by noises that he thinks he hears. The room can be completely silent and he will starting barking. This is very stressful because it causes my other dogs to start barking. What should I do to stop this? Any suggestions would be great!

[LetsPlay]

Hi there,
14 years is a good age. Your dog has done well!
To start with I would recommend taking him to a vet to make sure that he is not uncomfortable in any other way. He might have some undetected pain that is causing him discomfort.

Secondly I would recommend teaching him Sign Language. Not Sign Language as such, but basically a few hand gestures that he can learn to understand, such as "quiet" and "sit" etc.
When he starts barking try to distract him with a toy and use a "quiet" sign (you can make one up). When he stops barking give him a treat.
Repeat this until he understands that your signal means "quiet".
Hopefully this will help.