Barking!

Something I've started doing to curb my dog's barking (at this very moment actually) is to keep her on leash with her prong collar on so that every time she goes to bark inappropriately, I give her a correction and say "that's enough." When she shuts up, I praise her. This, of course, is only effective if I keep her on leash inside so I can correct her whenever she barks.

Other tactics I've heard is to only allow a certain amount of barks (because we all want our dog to bark at least once so people know you have a dog and feel less inclined to rob us), give a stimulus to make the dog bark, let the dog bark as many times as you want (three's a good number), say "that's enough" and if the dog continues barking, immediately put it in it's kennel.

Or, when the dog starts barking, say "that's enough" and put it's favorite toy or bone in its mouth, then it can't bark. The dog then learns that that command means to stop barking and he'll get a reward.

lorih1770 said:

Has anyone successfully stopped unnecessary barking? Citronella collar? Shock collar? Ideas?

Click to expand...

Come on, folks. I can't believe all the different ways y'all have come up with to punish your dogs for doing what dogs do naturally. Shock collars? WOW! Jerks on pinch collars? another WOW! Squirt in the face with water? Not as bad but still not good. Would y'all treat your kids this way? Dogs aren't born knowing how to live in the human world. It is our responsibility to teach them proper behavior in a positive way.

This is the reason you hire a positive reinforcement professional trainer. They know how to handle problems like this without cruelty. The way to fix a barking problem is so easy AND IT ACTUALLY WORKS!

I am a clicker trainer (retired) and have taught clicker training for years. When the dog is barking you simply walk up to it and in a pleasant voice say the word "quiet". Wait for 5 seconds of no barking, click, and treat. It doesn't take the dog long to learn when you say "quiet" and he stops barking, he will get a tasty treat.

When you get 5 seconds of silence pretty reliably, wait for 10 seconds before clicking and treating. When 10 seconds is reliable, move to 15 seconds and so on. Usually by the time you get to 20 seconds, your problem is solved.

After he is reliable with treats, start weaning him off the click/treats by clicking and treating 3 out of 4 times he quits. Always praise him and rub him some whether he gets the click/treat or not. After a period of time click/treating 3 of 4 times, change to half the time. Then go to 1/4 the time and finally you can eliminate the clicker for that behavior.

If you are not a clicker trainer you can substitute an enthusiastic "YES!" or "GOOD BOY!".

When my dogs were bad barkers, It would usually be them barking out the window at someone walking down the street in front of the house. I would go to the window and say something like, "Oh, thats Mrs. Jones. She lives up the street. Its ok for her to be there. Thank you for letting me know. Now quiet." Usually the dog had stopped barking before I finished talking. All I had to do was wait 5 seconds of silence to click and treat.

If they don't stop barking when you start talking, simply say "quiet" and wait for the barking to stop. It MAY take 5 minutes. Just wait. After 5 seconds of silence, click/treat. If you have multiple dogs, as soon as each dog stops barking click/treat THAT DOG after 5 seconds, even if the other dog is still barking. They will learn even faster that way.

There is no reason to mistreat your dogs when you can teach them using positive methods. There is ALWAYS a positive method to teach your dogs anything.

lorih1770 said:

I'm guess I'm just trying to get him to not bark as often and keep him quiet while I'm not home. I considered a bark collar only to stop the barking when no one is home.

Click to expand...

If he is barking at people walking down the street when you are not home, don't let him have access to rooms where he can see the street out the window. If he is barking at noises like kids playing outside, there isn't a lot you can do while you are gone. Keep working on what you are doing and it will improve.

You definately don't want to get a bark collar if there are other dogs in the house. Another dog barking will cause the collar to "activate".

Funny (in a strange way) story:
My brother got a bark shock collar for his dog one time. The dog stayed outside. The first day it was on, my brother came home from work and the dog was frozen still in the back yard. It seems that the tags rattling on his regular collar would cause the bark collar to shock him so he had to just freeze in place so the tags wouldn't rattle.

rockymtsweetie82 said:

Ok, so I've been using the clicking happy voice thing when China is barking...It's not working. She never quits. It's constant barking and complete disregard for my attention. Does anyone have any other suggestions other than "being patient and waiting"?? My neighbor really doesn't like being barked at just for going to his own shed every day.

Click to expand...

Hehe, what did you expect a miracle cure??? LOL These things take time and consistancy. If I remember correctly, you are at work all day and you have only had 3 days to work on this problem. Believe me it works. While you are gone, confine the dog to a place in the house where she can't see the neighbor's house or shed. When she starts barking at the neighbor and you are there, walk up to her (not in an excited happy way but an authoritave confident way), tell her matter of factly but frinedly way that it's ok for the person to be here and to be quiet. Then you wait. You may have to way 15 minutes or more but the dog WILL stop barking. Wait for 5 seconds of silence then reward and praise her and walk away. Don't get all excited or make a big deal out of it. Just a "Good girl" in a friendly voice and give her a treat at the same time.

Remember wrong. I'm a stay at home mother and am with these dogs constantly. I've been working with her on this for more than 3 days as the collar idea was more of a last resort. Simply enough, coming across this post was more for seeing if there were any BRIGHTER ideas than just waiting it out since it's been almost her whole 10 months of her life having to deal with this. She barks at the neighbors ACROSS the street when they pull in or out of their driveway. I say, "Neighbors" And she shuts up. But saying it when my neighbor right next door is outside in his own yard, doesn't work. She ignores me and continues to bark at him until I go out there in her pen all pissed off and stand by her until she shuts up. I don't touch her, I don't make a noise. I just walk to her and stand there staring at her. Then she shuts up. Then I praise her. I do not treat my dogs. They get beef sticks when I feel like giving them out and they get rawhide bones when I feel like buying them. So the "believe me it works" theory just went out the window. It doesn't work. She still barks when she's out there in her pen. No matter what.

my mom just started working at home, and she's solved this problem very well.
I'll ask her for her personal solution later, but I think I have a general idea.

First, we crate our dogs. Whenever we're gone, they're bad, or just need to be put somewhere. (and by no means is it considered a BAD place to be. They consider it their "2nd home" ... and my dog will sleep in her crate instead of outside willingly)

I know for a fact she uses a positive training method. And I do not consider a Squirt bottle (not a squirt gun) as unpositive. (yes if your dog likes the water, you have to find something else) She does know clicker training, but hasn't used it in some time. But what I believe she did was just a consistant use of praise while the dog is quiet (when nothing is around) and then a MASS amount of praise when someone is around and the dog is quiet. Of course if your dogs starts to bark, you must be on it IMMEDITATELY! You cannot let it happen for minutes until you control it. (if you control it) She uses the squirt bottle and tells the to be quiet, when they are, it's mass praise!
It's like a simple comparison here...
Barking = $50, while your current method of praise for not barking = $5 ... Which would you choose?

Yes I put my dog in a crate when it's "inconvenient."
Would I rather come home to a mess of my stuff chewed up because she's unsupervised or come home to a happy dog that's done nothing wrong? I think anyone that's had any dog ruin their things would choose the 2nd option. And like I said, a crate isn't anything negative at all. They will happily sleep in my bed when I allow them (and yes that's a specialty not a given) and when they need their own quiet time it works fine as well. You will never see my dog cringe or hesitate to go into a crate thinking "I've been bad and I know this is only a BAD place..." Also... Not everyone is dog friendly, or they're simply terrified of the Doberman stereotype, which my dog is a complete spoof of it... A crate is one of the best places for my dog to go, it's in my room and away from the guests.

Also, please rip-out my sentences and make it look bad also... negative, unpositive ... SAME THING.

And I talked with my mom today. I was using my observations of her using a squirt bottle when positive praise isn't possible. She's a work-at-home lawyer that has many conference calls going on all throughout the day. She cannot simply stop doing her work and wait for a dog to stop barking. Nor can she leave and crate the dog... So it's a "last resort"
So I guess "sorry" for the observation, but it's as positive as you can be in the current situation.

And saying my comparison isn't positive? Wow.
Maybe I didn't explain it enough ... for you
when you're praising your dog (like my $5 comparison) it's obviously not working...
Because they feel like they're getting more of a reward out of it.
So you need to praise MORE... like I said... MASS PRAISE! ... making your praise for your dog not $5 but $100. Hence positive training.

Also to your 1st of the double post... Not all methods work for all dogs. Uniqueness does have its own ways of solving things as well. Of course, the majority may work ... but it's a majority and not all... Some dogs have specific ways in which things are solved. Just because you've seen it done "hundreds of times" ..