Barking at daily noises.

[Gracie, Jade, & Barkley]

Gracie is doing well, she no longer barks at me during training. However, she will bark at any noise when the tv is off. If it's on it drowns most of the daily noises out. Car goes down the road - bark. Thunder - bark. Washing machine makes an unusual noise - bark.
An example that just happened - my son is in the bathroom shaving and as soon as he turned on the shaver - woof, woof. That's the extent of it. It's not ongoing, but I'm not sure if I should be interfering with this or if I should just leave it. Oh there goes a little growl too. :)
She's 7 months.

[Cindy and Olive (Ollie)]

That sounds like Gracie is alerting you of her perceived "danger." Doggy Dan has a great method for this. His method basically lets the pups know that they have done their duty by warning you, and now they can relax. If you are Gracie's leader and acknowledge her warning, and follow up with the steps, she should quickly learn to stop her reactions - but the key to ensuring this is your consistency. I admit, it is kind of a pain when you're not in the mood, but if you stick with it, it works! It also sounds silly, but here goes:
1) after first set barks say, "thank you!" In calm, assertive voice.
2) if second set of barks, say "thank you" a 2nd time, get up and stand in front of her, look toward "the danger" then turn your back to it, and resume whatever you were doing casually. When you resume, do not look at her. 3) if there is a 3rd set of barks, calmly put her in a safe place for time out.
We had to put Rip in time out only twice in his 12 months with us - they learn quickly. I like the thank you cause they are doing you a service sometimes, and this acknowledges their service with respect, but also lets them know you've got it under control. Turning your back to a perceived danger is body language that they understand as meaning 'not a threat.'
I hope that helps. You can also treat when she is not barking after hearing something, but I believe the timing on this is super important so you don't treat a fearful state of mind. Good luck with Gracie!! So cute!

[Gracie, Jade, & Barkley]

Thanks, Cindy. I read that before. Maybe you've posted it before for someone else? I do read a lot here at DK. :)
Lots of things we do for our dogs are a bit on the silly side, but if it works, it works!

[Jane, Guinness and Murphy]

Both of my guys startle easily and bark when they hear any unusual noise.  I let them have one or two barks....acknowledge that I've heard them with a "thank you".....and then I've taught them to come to me.  It gives them something else to do...an alternative to barking.  Murph actually barks twice and then runs to me as fast as he can.  It's pretty funny.  Guinness hangs out to make sure the danger isn't real, and when he's sure everything is fine he comes and finds me.

[Gracie, Jade, & Barkley]

Funny. I can just see Murph! What a duo!

[Ricki and Tara (doodle)]

Doggie Dan's approach is working for us too. And I agree that consistency is essential! We use the word "enough" instead of "thank you" but any word you choose is fine as long as you stick with it.  I'm still having some problems in situations when she is startled by someone coming to the door (she has a window seat right by the door) and she red lines from the start. She doesn't even hear me.  So we are still a work in progress.

I think the primary goal is to ensure them that you are in charge and can handle the problem and they don't need to worry about it. It is putting yourself forward as the leader of the pack. I don't know how old Gracie is but dogs go through fear stages that can trigger more barking too, so that may be a factor. More info:

http://http://ice.ucdavis.edu/~robyn/Korina/BCIdeas/Criticalperiods...

[Gracie, Jade, & Barkley]

Well shoot, that link isn't opening for me. :(

She's 7 months so she might just be testing out her barking skills. ;)

[Gracie, Jade, & Barkley]

I just did a search with the key words: critical periods puppy and the link came up. She definitely would fit into that time period of their second fear response.

http://ice.ucdavis.edu/~robyn/Korina/BCIdeas/Criticalperiodsinpuppy...

[Ricki and Tara (doodle)]

I'm glad you found it. Sorry about the link.

I thought they offered some good ideas about how to best handle the situation-with training and building self confidence as well as not reacting too strongly to her behavior.

Tara didn't bark at all as a young puppy and started barking around Gracie's age or a little older. But once she discovered she had a voice-OMD! She loves the sound of it! LOL Like I said, we're still working on "enough". :)  Mostly it is "alarm" barking now so our goal is to let her know that we understand and have handled the "issue" and she can stop barking and relax.