Really vocal dog..

Luci07

Luci07

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My youngest bitch is very very vocal. She is a rescue but had her as a (severely underweight) pup at 16 weeks. She is now 18 months old and the days of feeling sorry for herself are long gone.

So.. she is VERY vocal. I know she actually a bit of a wimp as classic behaviour is to shriek at anything new and then let the other dogs investigate (or hide behind me)

but... she is gobby. Next bitch up growls at people but she has her "signs" wrong as head is lowered, tail is wagging and its only at people she is really happy to see. Never growls at another dog! Has youngest one got this from her?
 
Very much not an expert but yes it is probable that your younger girl is learning from your older one. Being vocal might just be who she is if she's also quite noisy around the house, when excited etc, but it sounds like a lack of confidence is making her worse.

If I were you I would start walking them separately, do some introductions with your younger dog to well-balanced dogs out and about and see if you can improve her confidence without the 'buffer' of your elder dog there to protect her.
 
Some dogs are just vocal, it's their go to thing when they are happy/sad/excited/bored/want something to happen/want something not to happen and a lot of the time it's genetic and a lot of the time it's learned and for whatever reason the dog thinks it works for them.
Some dogs spin, some dogs nibble themselves, some have less obvious release mechanisms.

You can ignore it, you can try and correct it, you can divert, you can reward silence. If it's genetic or ingrained, it will always be something they fall back on when emotions (good or bad) are high.
 
I've kept a lot of dogs over a long lifetime and this is one problem I have never been able to solve. Some dogs just like the sound of their own voices. Occasional barking from an otherwise 'normal' dog can be stopped with a little aversion therapy. Command: "Be quiet!" coupled with a squirt from a water pistol does work. After a while, they'll stop when told. A doctor friend kept English setters. He fitted up a sprinkler system in the kennel with an acoustic switch -- when the dogs barked, the sprinklers turned on! But I don't think even that worked! Gift the dog to one of your enemies?? (Sometimes we NEED enemies!:D).
 
They can learn odd behaviours and speech and can become confused about what to use when. When conditioning my terrier to get used to being alone as a pup, she never once whimpered or cried - she growled and growled instead!

I was of the opinion that she was demanding to be with the family, rather than pleading but my vet was of the opinion that she may have been confused. However, she has still never cried or whimpered to this day. It's just not in her nature (but happy makes a multitude of other sounds).
 
thank you all. I can't complain too much - its not as if she is constantly barking all day at nothing, but just wondered if I was missing a trick as she is far more chatty than the others.

There could be something in the comments about learning odd behaviours. Weaned far too young, dumped in a pound at 6 weeks, then a rescue, then me. She was permanently terrified by the time she got to her foster home and then me. In fact it was her whole "woe is me" which made me take her on and heavily abuse my closest friends and sister in working out the circle of trust to help take care of a puppy!
 
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