I have a 2 year old Yorkshire terrier called Charlie.
A little background on him to help you answer :
We got him when he was about 4 months old from a colleague at work - we were looking after him for a week whilst she went on holiday, she didn't want him back and lo and behold we ended up keeping him!
He was very poorly socialized when we got him, she left him in the kitchen whilst she did 12 hour shifts and he was bullied by the 2 other family dogs (staffies).
We put a lot of time and effort in getting him socialized with other dogs as he was aggressive when he met other dogs. He is now perfect with other dogs when he goes out for walks. We also trained him (positive reinforcement) and he can sit, lie, stay, come and speak.
He lives with me and my partner in our fairly big house with front and back gardens. We both work shifts. I work 3 days a week 8 until 8 and my partner works shifts 5 days a week. If one, or both, of us is home Charlie gets a long walk, mostly off-lead, in the morning about an hour long then a smaller walk, about half an hour, in the evening usually on-lead. If we are both working Charlie gets a short 10 minute walk in the morning before the last one to leave goes to work. Then my brother or mum come around a few hours later take him on a long walk then usually take him round to their house. He isn't left longer than 5 hours at a time but usually not even that long. When he is in the house, even when alone, he gets free reign of all rooms,furniture etc. Usually when we are out he takes himself to our bed and sleeps. He doesn't suffer from separation anxiety whilst we are gone, neighbours never hear a peep from him. He also comes on our bed during the night - he starts in his bed then during the night sneaks his way into our bed.
He is fed once in the morning after his walk and once in the evening before bed. He is good at doing his own thing during the day whilst he isn't being walked or playing, he just takes himself to bed if he sees me and my partner are busy and minds his own business.He has also been neutered. I know his routine isn't great as he doesn't really have one but it's the best we can do with the shifts we work.
Well that's all the background I can think of to say so now the problem :
Charlie isn't a big barker but once he starts he will not shut up!
He is really bad with guests at the door (as I mentioned on a previous thread). If someone knocks on the door he will bark and bark until they go away. If it's visitors that are coming in he will bark until they give him attention and then he will stop. He is worse with male guests than female guests for some reason. We now keep him behind a stair gate when someone comes to the door. It is on the stairs so he can see who it is at the door and he continues to bark, unless it is someone he knows. His bed is at the top of the stairs for him. We did this so we know that whoever is coming to the door is safe as he was starting to get quite aggressive. He also barks at the postman.
He is also bad, particularly in my mum's garden, with other neighbourhood dogs that are barking. I think this is worse in my mum's garden as her garden backs onto 2 other gardens, both of which have dogs that are kept outside. Today was the final straw for me when I went round to visit my mum. We were sitting out in the garden as it's a lovely day.
As soon as we got into the garden he ran over to the fence and started barking. His barking wound up the dogs across from my mum's garden and they started barking. Charlie wouldn't stop barking. I called his name and put him on his lead so I had control of him. I took him away from the fence and told him to sit and then lie. He did so but then continued to bark and bark. Eventually he stopped but then as soon as the other dog barked he started again. Again I made him sit and lie and he quietened down. After a while I let him off his lead again as he was being quiet. As soon as he got off the barking started so back onto the lead he went. This time he didn't stop barking. I tried holding him muzzle to stop him and saying no and I lost my patience and hit him. I know I shouldn't have done this. It wasn't a hard hit more to try and shock him and I know I shouldn't have done it. I feel guilty and upset about it now I was just at the end of my tether and I lost control. I put him into the house and shut him in a spare room to try and get him to be quiet which worked after about 15 minutes. As soon as I let him out the room he was straight back into the garden barking again! So I decided to call it a day and go home.
He occasionally barks at other barking dogs whilst he's in the house but he will stop if you say his name in an angry tone.
Oh and he also barks uncontrollably at cats that come into the garden whilst he's in the house. We have a big patio door in the living room and it takes him ages to stop barking once a cat has been in the garden.
I think that is everything if you need any more info please ask!
I am completely clueless as what to do. I really need to find a way of controlling the barking. My main worry is if he doesn't behave at my mum's house then we will lose the main person who looks after him whilst we are at work! Also I would just like the behavior to get better. Also today is the first day I've ever hit him and I feel so guilty about it. I know it's a problem I need to sort as I don't want to do this to him again. Please don't judge me for that.
Any advice would be much appreciated as I'm at my wits end. Thank you
Once he starts barking he won't stop!
Moderators: emmabeth, BoardHost
Re: Once he starts barking he won't stop!
Right, so he is barking AT things he sees/hears - he is not barking at YOU for attention at all, this barking is a 'hey theres a noise/heres a person, I'll have a good old shout and shouting is pretty fun to do...'
What happens if you shove a tasty treat in his mouth - I don't mean offer it from a distance, I mean right under his nose, push it in his mouth.
Hopefully he will shut up to eat it, you can't bark and sniff a treat or eat it, at the same time!
It is tempting to think that you will be rewarding the barking by doing this, but you actually won't - as long as you pair the reward with the sound or sight, so the minute YOU see something or hear something he might bark at, you say 'ooh whats that' or 'ooh look at me' and you reward him well.
This, done consistently (so you need to make sure everyone who handles him knows to do this, and how to do it), will mean that soon he starts to associate sounds/sights with reward from his person!
The other thing I would do, is teach him what 'shh' means, but you HAVE to do this well away from his normal barking context, it will not work if he is barking AT something.
To do this, you need some really high value stinky treats, same as before - but now, take him somewhere quiet and YOU try to tease him into barking, and encourage that barking by repeating 'speak speak' etc as he barks.. then after a couple of barks you say 'shhhhh' and present the treat AS you say it, under his nose. He has to shuttup to sniff and take the treat, and he WILL because he was only barking because you were teasing and encouraging him to do so with the treat!
Practice that a lot until he both barks and shh's on cue, in every room in your house, when its quiet, when people are around, when there are other distractions - only THEN can you consider using it when he is barking AT something (and for a while you still need to pair the 'shh' with the food being presented!).
If you do both these things, he is going to find less things to bark at - and you will eventually gain some verbal control over barking.
For in the garden, if he is REALLY wound up, I would use a long line so you can ALWAYS get control over where he is/where he goes - if he is too far gone to reward him for the noise, then I would use a time out here, which means you take him inside, count to ten and then let him back outside, and you repeat this as many times as it takes until he realises barking means NO time outside, time outside ENDS. It may well take a ton of repetitions and you MUST be consistent and fast about it, don't let him get really silly!
What happens if you shove a tasty treat in his mouth - I don't mean offer it from a distance, I mean right under his nose, push it in his mouth.
Hopefully he will shut up to eat it, you can't bark and sniff a treat or eat it, at the same time!
It is tempting to think that you will be rewarding the barking by doing this, but you actually won't - as long as you pair the reward with the sound or sight, so the minute YOU see something or hear something he might bark at, you say 'ooh whats that' or 'ooh look at me' and you reward him well.
This, done consistently (so you need to make sure everyone who handles him knows to do this, and how to do it), will mean that soon he starts to associate sounds/sights with reward from his person!
The other thing I would do, is teach him what 'shh' means, but you HAVE to do this well away from his normal barking context, it will not work if he is barking AT something.
To do this, you need some really high value stinky treats, same as before - but now, take him somewhere quiet and YOU try to tease him into barking, and encourage that barking by repeating 'speak speak' etc as he barks.. then after a couple of barks you say 'shhhhh' and present the treat AS you say it, under his nose. He has to shuttup to sniff and take the treat, and he WILL because he was only barking because you were teasing and encouraging him to do so with the treat!
Practice that a lot until he both barks and shh's on cue, in every room in your house, when its quiet, when people are around, when there are other distractions - only THEN can you consider using it when he is barking AT something (and for a while you still need to pair the 'shh' with the food being presented!).
If you do both these things, he is going to find less things to bark at - and you will eventually gain some verbal control over barking.
For in the garden, if he is REALLY wound up, I would use a long line so you can ALWAYS get control over where he is/where he goes - if he is too far gone to reward him for the noise, then I would use a time out here, which means you take him inside, count to ten and then let him back outside, and you repeat this as many times as it takes until he realises barking means NO time outside, time outside ENDS. It may well take a ton of repetitions and you MUST be consistent and fast about it, don't let him get really silly!
West Midlands based 1-2-1 Training & Behaviour Canine Consultant
Re: Once he starts barking he won't stop!
Thanks for the description of how to go about training for this... I can definitely use it 
Re: Once he starts barking he won't stop!
Thank you so much for the advice. He will definitely respond to the food training I'm sure as he loves his grub 
Will he not learn that if he goes out into the garden and barks he will get treats though?
Can't wait to get started on training. Thanks again
Will he not learn that if he goes out into the garden and barks he will get treats though?
Can't wait to get started on training. Thanks again
Re: Once he starts barking he won't stop!
Not if you are consistent with giving him the treats REALLY fast as soon as YOU hear the noise - try not to wait for him to bark at all, just respond to the noise, you can mark it by saying 'Ooooh Noisies' or something if you like (but I did that with my dog who is worried by the noise my neighbours make, and I think my neighbours now think I am sarcastically commenting on the racket they make!) and deliver the treat quickly.
This is why I mentioned that he is barking AT something and not for attention, if he were barking for your attention then yes, giving him a reward would not be useful!
The idea is that he starts to think 'hey a noise, that means..... FOODS' - it will take a little while to sink in but he should grasp that fairly quickly.
This is why I mentioned that he is barking AT something and not for attention, if he were barking for your attention then yes, giving him a reward would not be useful!
The idea is that he starts to think 'hey a noise, that means..... FOODS' - it will take a little while to sink in but he should grasp that fairly quickly.
West Midlands based 1-2-1 Training & Behaviour Canine Consultant
