Barking Problem -Complaints from neighbour

As many of you already know Loki has always been a barker, as a vocal breed I was prepared for the chance he was likely to be a vocal dog, but when we got him we had lovely neighbours who said they couldnt hear anything from our house and wouldnt be bothered bout it if they could, they adored him and were our only neighbours so there was no problems!
I had to temporarily move into a shared house with 5 other people, this is where our barking problems started the comings and goings through out the night and ringing of door bells at 5/6am in the morning triggered barking and at one point he was almost constantly barking!

Since moving into our house over 6 months ago Loki's barking has improved alot although we were having alot of attention seeking barking and jumping up, which is recently greatly improved, and barking at sounds outside and banging of doors next door (im suprised the doors are still hanging they bang them that hard!!)
We were worried about upsetting the neighbours with the noise but had not had any comments or complaints so hoped they didnt have a problem with it, (luckily our house is semi detached so we only have one side to worry about) but sunday our neighbour was getting out of his car as we left our house, Loki always barks manically for a couple of minutes when we leave the house but stops fairly quickly after we shut the door, and hearing this he asked if it was our dog barking asked why he barks and told us we whould take hime to the vet. Our neighbours are chinese and speak little english so it was difficult to assertain from our conversation how annoyed they are by the barking, how much they hear of it and to explain we are working on it and he is improving slowly! We did try to explain the banging doors dont help and that makes him bark more then anything and they have been much quieter since which helps!

We brought a ultra sound bark deterent straight after speaking to him as we had been thinking of doing so for awhile, this seemed to be working at first but isnt now! Loki is beter with the attention seeking behaviour and I have been trying to wear him out as much as possible on walks and to give him things to keep him occupied and quiet at home, ive also been teaching him to ring a bell when he wants to go out and ensuring I let him in as soon as he comes to the door before he barks but he is still barking at noises outside (although not howling like he used to) and last night he was barking at a faint barking I could barely hear until nearly 1am I wasnt happy so I can see why the neighbours arnt! This isnt a common occurance but it seems when this happens I cant get him to stop! Any suggestions greatly appreciated!
We have tried a spray bottle, training horn, teaching to talk to teach him to stop, ultra sound device, treating him when he is calm and quiet (this is having some effect but he gets up and barks for a treat if I dont treat for what he feels to be an acceptable period of time) Ive been trying calling him to me saying down and treating for him lying down whenever he starts barking at a noise but again if he doesnt get more treats he will get up and bark!

Hi Hannah I am sorry you are still having problems.

Reading your post it seems you have tried many methods, I personally think this is a big mistake when teaching a dog anything, it just confuses a dog and it learns nothing .The best way is to teach a dog one method, don't expect instant success ,stick to it and it will work.

Dogs need to bark, it is part of their natural behaviour so the best option is to allow a dog to bark a couple of times then to stop. I explained how to do this in your last thread on the subject so I won't repeat it, this method works for me and is recommended by a number of trainers..

I hope you manage to sort things out eventually