barking

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Archived Message

barking
by Jim and Liz
ORIGINAL MESSAGE:
barkingGretel barks and growls at everyone, especially dogs, who walks by our house. She sees them from her perch on a couch corner that looks out over the sidewalk. She also barks (goes nuts I should say) when people or pets approach her when we are taking her outside. Now she is calmer on a walk, somewhat, and nice to visitors after the initial assault. Is this unusual? It is charming but can get obnoxious. Did we not train her well? She is two years old, for heaven's sake!

DISCUSSION:

Jim & Liz, Lucy started doing the same thing after 4-1/2 months. She was going crazy barking whenever she even heard a strange noise. I started using the penny can and it has worked pretty good. She still barks which I don't want her to completely stop. We are trying to train her to stop when we say stop. I follow her around with the penny can whenever she starts and shake the can when I want her to stop and say "quite". When I do this, she trades the bark for a low growl and and short ruff ruff. It is pretty cute. I think she is catching on but it is taking time. I know she is just trying to protect us, but I don't want it to turn into excessive barking.
DeeDee

I have that same problem. Sunny's 11mos. I started taking him to class because of it. He gets a little better each time, but still does it. I never thought about taking the can with us on walks, but I'll try that. He is afraid of the can. I don't like to yank on his collar, I think it's so mean especially to such a small dog. But anyways he is getting a little use to other dogs because of being around a bunch of them at class, so maybe try that. Good luck!
Charlynn

Yes, my dog also barks when there is a strange noise or cat or bird or strange dog. It lets me know that he is protecting us. I think everyone's dog barks in this way. I don't use a penny can. I say "stop" and the barking does eventually stop.
Jan

We live in Brooklyn, NY where it is very noisy. When we got Aloysius 5 years ago he would bark at every little thing. With a lot of patience, love and consistent training (ie: both of you should do the same things) he is no longer an annoyance. When he barks appropriately, meaning a strange noise, or at a strange person he doesn't know we say "good boy!" then we let him bark for a few moments (seems like a long time but probably less than a minute) Then we say stop. (we trained him with the coins in a can). When he used to bark inappropriately, when he heard other dogs barking (many times a day in Brooklyn) or car alarms or the telephone, we said stop immediatly and shook the can. It took awhile but it was worth it. We've been complimented on his good behavior.
Kristine and Aloysius

If you think it is "charming" you may have reinforced the barking whether you knew it or not! You've got to retrain now. For example, if when Gretel started barking and you told her softly it was okay and maybe petted her, she associated that with the barking, not the incident. SO now maybe you should teach her bark and no-bark on command. No jerking of collars and stuff, just positive reinforcement when she listens to you -- within 4 beats of a second please!!! Longer than that, and she won't associate the praise with the right thing.
Isabel

A puppy can be 3 weeks old and still cause as many or more barking problems as a 2 year old puppy!!!!!!!!!!!!
Sapna