Hi there,
I hope someone maybe able to help....
We rescued a terrier in July this year, I cannot fault him except for a crazy amount of barking!!
He barks a lot a crazy bark like oh my god there's a burglar I will get him!!
He's been neutered, I have seen a behaviourist who said we needed to teach Bruno we were in charge eg pack leaders, when we feed him we stand I front of his bowl & let him have it when we're ready, we make him wait so we go out the house before him, don't talk to him when we return home etc
However his barking is very difficult he always seems agitated/on edge & barks a lot.. I understand not to shout at him as he will think we are barking with him, but I don't know how to stop this barking?
Excessive barking at nothing?
Moderators: emmabeth, BoardHost
Re: Excessive barking at nothing?
First off this
Next, we will need some more information of your dogs life. Can you give us a run down of your dogs average daily routine, how many walks and for how long, what other activies you do with your dog such as training games etc, how much time does he spend alone, what food (brand name please) and how he is fed (bowl, treat ball, kong, free fed), how old is he now, what age was he neutered at, where does he sleep, what training have you done with him, do you have any background on him from the rescue?. Really anything and everything you can think of we LOVE long posts here
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behaviourist needs to get a more up to date education, take a look at this site http://www.dogwelfarecampaign.org/why-not-dominance.php as it may help you understand why this type of training not appropriate or effective in todays world.TerrierBruno wrote:I have seen a behaviourist who said we needed to teach Bruno we were in charge eg pack leaders,
Next, we will need some more information of your dogs life. Can you give us a run down of your dogs average daily routine, how many walks and for how long, what other activies you do with your dog such as training games etc, how much time does he spend alone, what food (brand name please) and how he is fed (bowl, treat ball, kong, free fed), how old is he now, what age was he neutered at, where does he sleep, what training have you done with him, do you have any background on him from the rescue?. Really anything and everything you can think of we LOVE long posts here
.Operant conditioning rocks but classical conditioning rules
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TerrierBruno
- Posts: 2
- Joined: Thu Dec 05, 2013 2:01 pm
Re: Excessive barking at nothing?
Ok our lives are pretty straight forward and consistent, I work 3 nights a week sleep during the day, my other half works days so generally apart from popping out shopping Bruno isn't left for long periods & doesn't seem to be a problem when left.
He was apparently 2 in September just gone we had him neutered in July.
He is walked daily sometimes twice for in between 60-90 minutes, we play ball with him often, we do hiding tricks where we hide treats for him to find... And making him wait for his treats.
He has his breakfast in a bowl not a kong he's on a raw diet which is natures menu.
He has the run of the house., at night time he sleeps in the bedroom with us, he did sleep on the bed but we've now trained him to sleep in his dog bed next to our bed.
No real history on his background, previous owner was deaf? Barking obviously wasn't a problem then!
Bruno has issues with moving shadows lights on wall etc, along with the barking.
He barks at dogs when we are on walks, whether they are in front of him or on the opposite side of the road, seems alert all the time, never really see him relaxed.
He was apparently 2 in September just gone we had him neutered in July.
He is walked daily sometimes twice for in between 60-90 minutes, we play ball with him often, we do hiding tricks where we hide treats for him to find... And making him wait for his treats.
He has his breakfast in a bowl not a kong he's on a raw diet which is natures menu.
He has the run of the house., at night time he sleeps in the bedroom with us, he did sleep on the bed but we've now trained him to sleep in his dog bed next to our bed.
No real history on his background, previous owner was deaf? Barking obviously wasn't a problem then!
Bruno has issues with moving shadows lights on wall etc, along with the barking.
He barks at dogs when we are on walks, whether they are in front of him or on the opposite side of the road, seems alert all the time, never really see him relaxed.
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ScarletSci
- Posts: 463
- Joined: Mon Feb 04, 2013 3:44 pm
Re: Excessive barking at nothing?
Hi there, welcome to the forum!
I am no expert on excessive barking, so hopefully someone with more experience will come along, but for now I'll just throw out a few thoughts that occurred to me when reading your post.
You say he never really seems to be relaxed, and is always alert. Do you mean while on walks, or all the time?
Obsession with lights and shadows can be indicative of OCD tendencies, and the barking could possibly tie into that. I'd be looking into the exercise the mind thread for ways to occupy your dogs mind and tire him out naturally. What breed of terrier do you have?
It sounds to me that one of two things might be going, and it involves some speculation on my part, so anyone feel free to correct me. I think either the dog is feeling very insecure, or barking has become his 'job'. I'm speculating that perhaps because his previous owner was deaf and didn't respond to noises the dog thought needed a response, the dog picked up on a vulnerability and took on the role of alerter and protector.
Do you think you might be able to film your dog while he's barking at something, taking in as much of the scene as possible? It'll be much easier for us to help if we have specific examples to suggest advice for. Generalised barking is a vague concept, since barking is an important part of dog communication. Dogs bark at many different things for many different reasons. For example, my mum's dog is a nervous dog, and he has a nervous alert bark when the window cleaner comes which is very different from his joyous excited bark when I visit, which is different again from the barks he gives when playing with my own dog. With experience, you can hear the differences.
First and foremost I'd be looking to build his confidence. That would include keeping your distance from strange dogs - if he's barking at dogs even from across the street, then he's too close, and you've crossed his threshold. This will cause stress which takes a long time to dissipate. The more times this happens, the worse things will get. I'm going to look for the threads that cover dog-reactive dogs after this post to link you to.
For things like barking in the house when the doorbell rings, I'd be teaching him to bark!
Well, teaching him to speak, then when to stop, to be more exact. I'll look for Victoria's video where she teaches how to do this, so the dog still gets to bark two or three times to do his job and alert you, but then is quiet, trusting that you take over now.
Congrats on getting your rescue, and I'm glad that you found your way to a positive forum! There are a lot of great threads here that cover the issues you have, so I'd recommend doing a search and just having a good look around as well as reading the responses to this thread, as there are many approaches, and what works for one might appeal to you as well!
I am no expert on excessive barking, so hopefully someone with more experience will come along, but for now I'll just throw out a few thoughts that occurred to me when reading your post.
You say he never really seems to be relaxed, and is always alert. Do you mean while on walks, or all the time?
Obsession with lights and shadows can be indicative of OCD tendencies, and the barking could possibly tie into that. I'd be looking into the exercise the mind thread for ways to occupy your dogs mind and tire him out naturally. What breed of terrier do you have?
It sounds to me that one of two things might be going, and it involves some speculation on my part, so anyone feel free to correct me. I think either the dog is feeling very insecure, or barking has become his 'job'. I'm speculating that perhaps because his previous owner was deaf and didn't respond to noises the dog thought needed a response, the dog picked up on a vulnerability and took on the role of alerter and protector.
Do you think you might be able to film your dog while he's barking at something, taking in as much of the scene as possible? It'll be much easier for us to help if we have specific examples to suggest advice for. Generalised barking is a vague concept, since barking is an important part of dog communication. Dogs bark at many different things for many different reasons. For example, my mum's dog is a nervous dog, and he has a nervous alert bark when the window cleaner comes which is very different from his joyous excited bark when I visit, which is different again from the barks he gives when playing with my own dog. With experience, you can hear the differences.
First and foremost I'd be looking to build his confidence. That would include keeping your distance from strange dogs - if he's barking at dogs even from across the street, then he's too close, and you've crossed his threshold. This will cause stress which takes a long time to dissipate. The more times this happens, the worse things will get. I'm going to look for the threads that cover dog-reactive dogs after this post to link you to.
For things like barking in the house when the doorbell rings, I'd be teaching him to bark!
Well, teaching him to speak, then when to stop, to be more exact. I'll look for Victoria's video where she teaches how to do this, so the dog still gets to bark two or three times to do his job and alert you, but then is quiet, trusting that you take over now. Congrats on getting your rescue, and I'm glad that you found your way to a positive forum! There are a lot of great threads here that cover the issues you have, so I'd recommend doing a search and just having a good look around as well as reading the responses to this thread, as there are many approaches, and what works for one might appeal to you as well!
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LeonilCraig
- Posts: 10
- Joined: Tue Oct 15, 2013 8:22 pm
Re: Excessive barking at nothing?
Well, barking is natural! It's an important means of communication for dogs. But sometimes problems can develop. Great resource!
Re: Excessive barking at nothing?
other than echoing that the barking has nothing to do with
who is "pack leader"
who eats first
who sits the longest before eating
who exits the door first
who sleeps where
and so forth and so on. without knowing what is setting off your dog specifically, I can only offer general concepts and ideas.
Barking is communication, this is true. But barking problems can have root causes in fear, boredom, or even over excitement to name just a couple much more probable causes than a "pack leader" issue. be very leery of catch all "explanations" because it is very possible for a single dog to have "barking issues" that have a varied root cause. Sometimes there maybe something outside you don't see/hear, but your dog does that is scary for your dog, so he barks. Later in the day he maybe bored and barking maybe self entertainment. then still later the mail delivery shows up and he barks like a nut because he is over excited. 3 different possible root causes that can result in excessive barking. Each one is handled a little different. none of which have anything to do with "pack leader".
The absolutely first step is to try and figure out what happens that then results in excessive barking. once you have say the top 2 causes, if at all possible, then you taylor the solution to those causes.
In the case of excessive dog barking, sometimes you don't "train" away the problem. you just prevent the cause from happening.
For example, mail delivery. if the mail is delivered to your door and that causes your dog to "flip out". yes, you can sometime train a different response. but it is just as easy to have your mail delivered somewhere else, say at the end of your sidewalk to your door.
Maybe it's the door bell. you can unplug the door bell. problem very possibly solved. But you could also buy a new door bell and train your dog to do something other than bark when it hears the new door bell. this is also possible with existing door bells, it just nice sometimes to start fresh with a noise the dog doesn't have any strong association with.
if just watching the "world go by" in the window causes over excitement that leads to barking, simply not letting your dog spend hours watching out the window or even watching out the window at all solves the problem. there are simply ways of doing this.
but it all starts with a better understanding of what sets your dog off specifically.
who is "pack leader"
who eats first
who sits the longest before eating
who exits the door first
who sleeps where
and so forth and so on. without knowing what is setting off your dog specifically, I can only offer general concepts and ideas.
Barking is communication, this is true. But barking problems can have root causes in fear, boredom, or even over excitement to name just a couple much more probable causes than a "pack leader" issue. be very leery of catch all "explanations" because it is very possible for a single dog to have "barking issues" that have a varied root cause. Sometimes there maybe something outside you don't see/hear, but your dog does that is scary for your dog, so he barks. Later in the day he maybe bored and barking maybe self entertainment. then still later the mail delivery shows up and he barks like a nut because he is over excited. 3 different possible root causes that can result in excessive barking. Each one is handled a little different. none of which have anything to do with "pack leader".
The absolutely first step is to try and figure out what happens that then results in excessive barking. once you have say the top 2 causes, if at all possible, then you taylor the solution to those causes.
In the case of excessive dog barking, sometimes you don't "train" away the problem. you just prevent the cause from happening.
For example, mail delivery. if the mail is delivered to your door and that causes your dog to "flip out". yes, you can sometime train a different response. but it is just as easy to have your mail delivered somewhere else, say at the end of your sidewalk to your door.
Maybe it's the door bell. you can unplug the door bell. problem very possibly solved. But you could also buy a new door bell and train your dog to do something other than bark when it hears the new door bell. this is also possible with existing door bells, it just nice sometimes to start fresh with a noise the dog doesn't have any strong association with.
if just watching the "world go by" in the window causes over excitement that leads to barking, simply not letting your dog spend hours watching out the window or even watching out the window at all solves the problem. there are simply ways of doing this.
but it all starts with a better understanding of what sets your dog off specifically.
