Winston has acquired a horrible habit and I don't know how to get it to stop. He has decided that barking is THE. THING. TO. DO. ALL. THE. TIME. I've tried penning him ... he now starts barking and before I even begin to redirect, he PENS HIMSELF!!! Still barks, but he's inside his pen. It's like he knows he isn't supposed to bark, but feels compelled to continue. I've tried telling him NO, I've tried distracting him with toys, I've tried ignoring him. Nothing works.

He will hear a noise, like our EXTREMELY noisy upstairs neighbor (we are in a basement apartment that was not built to actually be two different dwellings...) and then he is off. He will start off with full on barking, very alert, very loud. Then after I tell him enough, he will switch to these... pops? of barks. They aren't super loud or super forceful, but they are nonstop and he will strut around, popping these little growl-barks for a very long time. Anytime the upstairs neighbor walks across the floor, opens/closes a door, if their dogs bark or start playing.... It's a wooden floor so it is inevitably loud enough without Winston chiming in. It's even worse that sometimes the upstairs dog starts running amok, barking and playing loudly and Winston starts barking at that too. But if he only barked when the other dog barked, I could live with that.

There is not a way to get the upstairs neighbor to cooperate with me, if anyone wants to suggest that. I've tried talking to them and they are content to be very noisy at all hours, day and night alike. I can't move, and we've been here for a few months and he isn't adjusting to the noise. This isn't a permanent environment but we may be here for 6 more months still. Before moving here, Winston would bark on occasion but after one or two loud barks, I'd tell him, "Ok, enough!" and he would stop and just do a few pop-growls and lay down. But now we have this behavior and I'm really starting to lose my mind. I also would hate if this behavior followed us to another location because well... barking is annoying. I can handle one or two alerts if someone approaches property or if a really loud sound occurs and all. But this is almost constant.

Any advice on how to solve this noisy chaos will be greatly appreciated. I do not want to use something that will scare or hurt Winston though as some people in person have suggested shock collars and spray collars. He is a giant teddy bear and very gentle and I love him too much to do something like expose him to pain. I know he doesn't understand that I know the sounds are happening. Maybe he thinks I'm deaf...? lol  Anyway, any suggestions on toning down the barking will be wonderful.