Dog training: Controlling barking

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My English springer spaniel, Max, has a thing about shadows. I've had him for three years now and he is approximately six years old. Until January we lived with my dad, but now we live in our own council flat, and spend a lot of time at my mom's house. When the sun is shining, and creating shadows everywhere, Max barks his head off. It doesn't matter if we're in the house, sitting on a bench in the park, or standing at the bus stop; if there's a shadow, he will bark at it. We're currently attending Canine Good Citizen classes and he's doing really well. Our trainer, Kay, says he's a very intelligent dog. She also said, however, that there is nothing she can do to help with the barking. She said that if he were a puppy she might be able to work with him, but since he's now, we just have to try to distract hjim with toys and thing whenever he starts to get upset. It doesn't work. The only thing that works is closing the curtains when we're in the house, and obviously we don't want to have to do that all the time when they weather is so lovely. I can't believe that nothing can be done to stop this habit of attacking shadows. He is a lovely dog and this is really the only thing I have to complain about with him. Does anybody have any ideas of how I can make this stop?