Barking

[delladooo]

I don't have much experience with barking, our westie was silent, but Laufey is getting worse and I need some advice.
To start off, I'm not sure if this is one issue or two and this could be slightly hard to read, my apologies.

Sometimes, usually of an evening but with increasing frequency during the day, Laufey will hear something (I usually don't know what, although occasionally I can hear something and not always identify it) and start barking. Sometimes it's a dog barking or kids that he can hear on the street or even my brother upstairs in his room but more often than not I have no idea what it is. Some days he's in a very huffy mood and will bark and/or huff at a lot of these noises and sometimes it's very rare

Also, he barks at a knock on the door or the door opening. I should say here that any good friends / family coming to visit just walk straight in, it's only strangers, my brother's friends and a few of my acquaintances who knock, but in both instances Laufey starts barking and seems to be getting increasing de stressed with the experiences until he knows who is at the door. If no one is in and you come home he isn't bothered but I think it's a warning thing when we're in. If there's someone in when I come home I generally say hi as I walk in which seems to help (either one bark or no bark at all) but neither my mum or brother do, and if it's someone visiting (such as my aunt) they say hi as they come in and it doesn't seem to help in those situations.

So, I'm wondering if anyone has any clarification on if this is one issue or separate issues and what I can do to help him? I'm hoping that as it gets more into winter there's going to be less people about in the evenings (seems that way so far) in order to have fewer incidents to try and control when trying to train him out of this because it's very hard to know what he's barking at when you can't hear it

I've watched kikopup's video on the topic https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bpzvqN9JNUA but I'm not sure how to implement it so I don't just make him worse as watching me knock doesn't set him off

Edited to add that sometimes I hear something and expect it to make him bark and it doesn't so I clearly have no idea what the common denominator is here

[frozen3]

Hi

Ok Well first of all I have studied dog behaviour and langue at uni for 4yrs so can defiantly help you. I have also owned working German shepherds which are a challenging breed to train and everything I learned was right as they were fully trained.

firstly I would like to know how much socialization Laufey had as a puppy with people and in what form?

I would say by the sound of it he is barking in territorial manner saying what was that noise have to let my owner know and what ever is out there that im here and you wont always be able to hear what Laufey hears as dog hearing is a LOT stronger than ours they can hear from miles away. how long dose he bark for when someone comes into the house?

I know this sounds weird but when he barks do you know how his tail is set e.g. is it curled under, is it straight in the air etc.

once I get that info I will be able to give you a 100% answer and be able to tell you how to stop it.

best wishes FROZEN

[Nix1234]

Hey delladooo

Have you tried teaching Laufey a Quiet command? It may not stop him barking, but it may stop him a lot quicker once he's begun! It would also work for when you can't hear what he is actually barking at.

This is a good tutorial, they teach the Speak command first before Quiet as they say dogs learn things easier in pairs: http://www.treatpouch.com/stop-your-dog ... and-quiet/

Zak George has also done one on teaching your dog to whisper, which I've not used myself but I like the idea of a whisper rather than full on barking! : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y5IF1aymG1I

Is he getting plenty exercise/mental stimulation? I imagine he is as I see you on here a lot but just thinking a tired dog is a good dog!

Also, I'm not sure if this is right, but how about rewarding him for being calm at the times he doesn't bark when you hear something? I'm sure if you hear it he has heard it too, so I'm thinking the behaviour he gets rewarded for most (calm) will be the one to repeat.

Where does he spend his time when no one is home? Barking can be self rewarding so maybe put him in a quiet room in the back of the house when everyone is out - that way he doesn't have chance to practice his barking when you are not there to interrupt.

Hope this helps? I'm not a pro by any means..more just regurgating what I've read good luck x

[JudyN]

If the knock is a trigger, you could try getting everyone, even people who live there (including yourself) to knock when they come in - and have a jar of treats by the door so everyone who comes in can give him a treat straight away (apart from strangers if you think this might not be safe - then you can give him the treat).

That helped Jasper get over his doorbell reactivity which developed after we had decorators in for a fortnight, so might help Laufey.

[delladooo]

Frozen; Laufey had lots of socialisation as a puppy, before his jabs he came out with us to pet shops and charity shops (and pretty much anywhere that would let us in) to just wander around and people were allowed to say hi to him as it didn't bother him. He's still very happy to meet people and if he even thinks someone is talking to him (eg they're on the phone) he is very excited to meet them.
I agree that I think it's 'protect the humans' if he's barking because someone's coming in he barks until he knows who they are, if it's just something he's heard it depends - when you acknowledge it he generally calms down unless it's something that's continuous or stuff I can't hear (so I assume it's continuous). I've not really paid attention to his tail but generally when the front door opens, he barks and goes to stand at the baby gate to watch the door.

Nix; I haven't tried teaching a quiet command as such but when he barks I tell him to shush and then reward him when he is which seems to be helping a lot of the time for the outside noises but not for the door. We go out multiple times every day as he won't pee in the garden (long story we're working on it) with more of an emphasis on exercise in a morning and an afternoon (eg today we played ball for half an hour this morning and then went to the beach in the afternoon) and then at home has more toys than I can count as well as playing games with him (I'm currently trying to teach him to recognise the word ball). I also do reward things that I hear that he doesn't bark at - for instance if he hears a siren there's a delay between hearing it and barking so I praise him then and as long as he has verbal praise whilst he can hear it then he doesn't bark.
At home alone he is confined to the back room of the house which just backs onto the bowling green and as far as I know there's no barking - we're pretty good at asking our neighbours and he only barked once when we were out and it was because he hadn't seen me all day (he'd been home with my mum while I was out then nipped home before going to work he then barked when my mum nipped out)

Judy; that's a good idea but I'm not sure it would work as he can see the front door but can't get to it. Generally I try to leave the inside frosted door open as he can see people sooner and the distorted people doesn't seem to help but as it's getting colder we'll have to shut the door to keep the house insulated. Would it work with the delay or will that reinforce the barking? Once he knows who it is he's generally excited to see them but not barking anymore so talking usually helps but my brother is silent a lot of the time which doesn't help

[JudyN]

Judy; that's a good idea but I'm not sure it would work as he can see the front door but can't get to it. Generally I try to leave the inside frosted door open as he can see people sooner and the distorted people doesn't seem to help but as it's getting colder we'll have to shut the door to keep the house insulated. Would it work with the delay or will that reinforce the barking? Once he knows who it is he's generally excited to see them but not barking anymore so talking usually helps but my brother is silent a lot of the time which doesn't help

Jasper often can't get to our front door - as he can be reactive to 'scary' people I usually put him behind a stairgate if I know someone is coming round. The delay didn't seem to be a problem with him, but then again he's not a barky dog anyway - he was barking out of real anxiety/aggression, so once he stopped thinking about the scary visitor and started thinking about the treat he knew would come, the anxiety stopped and the barking stopped. Some dogs I suspect have more of an 'I am therefore I bark' attitude and it's more likely to become a habit rather than a symptom of a cause, if that makes sense. But I'd rather have a 'Hey, I just barked, do I get my treat now?' attitude in a dog than a 'Visitors!! Must warn my family and scare them away!' attitude.

I say it worked with him... he still doesn't like certain people coming to the house and will bark at them (sometimes before they've even walked up the drive, I don't know how he knows) - but that's not a doorbell problem, it's a people problem, which is different!

[frozen3]

Hi Delladooo

ok well it is 100% what I said in my first reply to warn you of people coming or of strange noise outside the house. luckily there is something you can do. my first shepherd did the same. this is what I did but also what I would recommend you do. first you need to reward the teach him to bark on command make a hand signal like as if your hands are talking type think and if he barks when you do that reward him then after a few times say bark with the hand signal and reward after a few times of that then when you go into bark say quit and your hand signal is the best way to explain is to say wave both hands over his head this method was used as well in a it me or the dog episode here's the link https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6npqMvu6Oqs

watch carefully as the labs in this episode are very barky and Victoria uses the same method watch her hand signal when she teaches the lab to be quit that the hand signal that I am referring to.

try this and I hope it work. the whole point is hopefully to teach him to be quit when you say so.

Good luck FROZEN

[mansbestfriend]

https://positively.com/dog-behavior/nui ... s/barking/

Hi. Even if you've read this article before, I'd suggest reading again.

Also routine calmness and rewarding of calm and relaxed behaviours (meaning the presence of calmness and not just the absence of barking/excitement/movement), encourages generally calmer behaviour. Maybe also routine destressing with activities like TTouch for the dog and relaxation techniques for owner, assuming the dog can be calm and relaxed for the TTouch?

Cheers.

EDIT: correct spelling

[delladooo]

Oh god I take it all back, after watching that episode of IMOTD Laufey barely makes a sound! That would actually drive me insane so I'm glad he's not that bad.

Mansbestfriend, what on earth is calm he's pretty much always at a low level of excited unless he's taking a nap but this is improving as he gets older. At the minute I'm just hoping he grows out of the puppy hype he has going on which definitely seems to be the case but he does still get the zoomies (I think this will just continue as it seems to be both a pug and a poodle thing). I hadn't thought of something like TTouch but I'll look into it and see if I think it could help him or if he'd be too excited for it to have any effect.

I'll definitely try actively teaching a quiet cue and see how that goes

[delladooo]

Just going to bring this thread back because he's getting worse.
We tried treats when you come in but seeing as mum and brother especially didn't follow through consistently AND brother saw an improvement so stopped making it worse they've given in. He's barking more at noises he hears as well that I can't and people walking past.
The barking doesn't tend to bother me so much because he alerts, I check it out, he usually stops but occasionally he keeps at it which I suspect is due to recurring noises I can't hear. BUT it is really annoying my mum so I need to do something about it because her reaction is generally to tell him to shut up and when he doesn't to end up shouting at him.
He seems to be escalating from door reaction to general noise reaction and has started barking to get a reaction from us, ie when he's finished eating in the garden and we've not let him straight in because MiMi is eating or when he's excited by his ball on the park.

Is going back to noise = bark = treat going to work if I try and get this working continuously or do I need a new approach?

I'll add, generally when he barks and I go to "investigate" I say thank you and he stops. I seem to have taught thank you to be a bit of "end of that behaviour" as I use it at the end of things like wait and leave it too, so whilst not "quiet" it does have a similar effect. I was reluctant to use a hand signal because I want to be able to tell him to shut up without him seeing me (like when watching MiMi eat)
Also, maybe relevant, he usually doesn't bark when I come into the house and he doesn't bark at the first person in when he's been home alone but seems to be much worse if it's my brother or a visitor.

I think part of what's making it seem worse at the minute too is it's not just a "woof woof" it ends on a howl; makes me think of the twilight bark from 101 Dalmatians