hi guys. I’m new to this forum and have read a few threads about barking but not sure if there is anyone with similar experience. I have a 20 week old yellow puppy and overall he is doing great (apart from the normal bits like waking up at 5 and mouthing), his training is going really good as well. There is one major issue that we have and its been lasting now for a good 4-5 weeks. He is barking at everyone when walking-people, dogs you name it. Its people walking towards us or in front of us (not so much when they are going same direction) and the bark doesnt stop until they are out of sight. We try to socialise him with everyone and a lot pf dogs and if he is with a dog in a park he is usually ok after a few minutes. Same if he recognises people who we’ve met before but he isa bit of a nightmare with random strangers. We also take him to puppy classes and the trainer said he is just nervous and wary but sometimes he is wagging his tail like crazy but still barks. We have tried to get his attention on us with a treat when we see someone coming but doesnt work (even though he is cazy about his liver cake treats) and now have tried to give him a treat every time we see someone to get him to have a good assoiation with people-no results as yet. Anyone has similar experiences or any advice?!
Hello and welcome to the forum. Yes, I had a similar experience and, in hindsight, I didn't approach it in the best way. As you are doing, I tried to work through it and socialise my puppies (I had litter mates who started to demonstrate fear of strangers and especially children). What I should actually have done is avoid the things they were scared of. Behaviourists believe that puppies go through several fear periods. If they encounter things they find scary during these times, they can become sensitised to them (that is, the idea that the thing is bad "sticks"), whereas if the scary thing is avoided, once the fear period is over, the fear will disappear. I'd recommend listening to the Cog Dog Radio podcasts by Sarah Stremmer on this - look up the earlier episodes about puppies where she talks about it. She says that there is no hard-and-fast way of knowing whether a fear is caused by a fear period or a trauma, but if the dog is less than a year of age and the behaviour has suddenly changed, then it's very likely to be a fear period. Truth be told, it may already be "too late" in that your puppy's issue has been going on for several weeks whilst you've continued socialising. Please don't take this as a criticism - as I said, I did exactly the same as I didn't know then what I know now. What I would do in your case is give him a week where he isn't put in this situation - even if that means keeping him home and using your "walk time" for playing games and training him instead. This will allow his stress levels to lower back to normal levels. It can take 72 hours for stress hormones to leave the body after an event. Think of it like a bucket with a small hole in it - every time a stressful event happens, however small (so small you might not even notice), the bucket becomes filled a little. The hole allows the water to trickle out, but only slowly, so if another event happens, more water goes in and the level raises. The more stressful the event, the more the bucket is topped up. Only time allows all the water to drain out until that bucket is empty again. This is called "trigger stacking", and we experience it, too. Think of the saying "the straw that broke the camel's back" - this is exactly the same thing. So, give him a quiet week without any stressful interactions and you may be lucky and find that he's fine afterwards. This is what I would recommend for any puppy who suddenly becomes afraid of something he was fine with before. But, if he's still reacting, then you're looking at a pretty long road of counter-conditioning, where you pair the trigger with something good. This needs to be done carefully and without letting him rehearse the behaviours you don't want. It is best done under the guidance of a positive methods behaviourist who will help you set up scenarios that your pup can manage without over-facing him.
Could he be an excited barker? My Keir is. He’s also an ‘I’m bored’ barker. The best solution for him is ignoring the barking, then treating when he’s quiet - but there are plenty of situations where you just can’t ignore it! I find anticipating it works, doing some on-the spot training exercises so that his mind is on other things.
Thank you snowbunny. There is so many different advices out there that you get really confused. Redds is my first ever dog and we have been practicing positive trainig only-so many people give you advice like-just squirt water with vinegar when he is doing it! And they are dismissive when we’re saying no thanks! I have noticed that he does flinch when stranges try to stoke him so we will definitely stop approaching people to do it (again one of the advices we got!). He didnt have a bad experience with people, he is amazing and playful with those he knows so maybe he is really protective? I will think about giving him a break i just hope he wont destroy the house, as play time at home or even in the garden doesnt seem to tire him out! And just one more thing-he is great with noises- hoovers, foor processors never barks at them but does on tv when there is a zoom in on a persons face- very strange!
Hi Boggie I’m not sure-sometime he does look excited but most of the time his tail is straight up and sometime he even growls before bark! But when he is excited when me or my husband get back home from work he never says a word!
Good for you! It's important that we don't just mask behaviours using punishment, especially when they're rooted in fear. Fearful barking is telling a person to stay back. If the dog feels punished enough to suppress the barking but people still keep approaching and scaring them, the dog will have no choice but to escalate to the next step which is snapping at them - obviously this is highly undesirable. So take the barking for what it is - communicating that he doesn't want the people to approach. Definitely stop approaching people - by forcing him into these situations (albeit with the best intentions), you are teaching him that you're not looking out for him and you will ultimately damage his trust in you by continuing with this. It's not necessary to have what we would consider a bad experience in order to become fearful. As a puppy grows up, he becomes less dependent on you and has to start making his own decisions as to what's safe and what's not. During this time, the puppy can become wary of strange things and people. it's a perfectly natural defence mechanism. Unfortunately, while he's feeling wary, if the scary thing gets scarier (ie, the person comes over to him and pets him) then it only reinforces in his mind that it's definitely scary. Compared to giving him the space to realise that these scary things just ignore him and leave him alone, in which case, once he's out of the fear period, he'll go back to being OK with them. Like I said, the chances are the damage has been done to some extent, as he has been forced into interactions he didn't want during this period, so it's now a case of trying to undo the damage. This is extremely unlikely - it's far more likely that he's scared for himself; the flinching away from strangers is a very clear indicator of this. Mental stimulation will tire him out more than physical exercise. Give him all his food scattered or hidden around the room, or in stuffed kongs rather than from a bowl. Teach him some fun games, such as nose targeting, middle (orienting himself so he is between your legs), paws up on different objects, etc etc. There are lots of ideas on YouTube. It's really not that strange, dogs can have very different triggers. I have a noise phobic dog who is absolutely fine with the vacuum and the blender. The fact that he doesn't like the faces on the TV is another indicator that he has a problem with unfamiliar people. During his "chill out" time, I would block his view of the TV, so he isn't triggered by that.
That is very interesting @snowbunny, I was under the impression ‘the more socialisation the better’. The Pig suffers from quite a lot of fears and I put it down to not enough exposure when she was a pup. Obviously too late for the Pig now, but is the idea with a new puppy then to expose to as many different things as possible and pair with positive outcomes, but at the first sign of fear, avoid that specific thing like the plague for as long as possible? Just for one day if I ever raise a puppy myself...
Well, I'm no expert on this, but Sarah Stremming says that, if the puppy has a sudden change of attitude to a trigger (strangers, dogs, whatever) and they are under a year of age, it is quite likely a fear period and you're best to avoid that trigger completely for a while (I'd have to review the podcast as I can't remember what she classified as "a while", but from memory it wasn't long, maybe a week, maybe two?) in order to avoid sensitisation. She's not talking about getting a bit jumpy or having an otherwise understandable fear, but rather if a previously outgoing puppy suddenly starts reacting strongly towards a certain trigger. I heartily recommend the Cog Dog Radio podcasts for a listen. They're full of really interesting information.
