Hello We have a lovely nearly 18 month old black lab. She's great out on walks, off the lead, rarely jumps at people when out etc (now - we have had to work hard at that . But now at home if we have a few people over in the garden or in the house and we're talking to them - she barks almost constantly. We went away with friends last weekend and it was exactly the same when we were all together - we were staying in different houses so is mainly when we were eating/ socialising. We have two children and if one of their friends comes over to the house now she is fine with them, she used to jump up at them a lot but as she'd got older that has got better. The barking starts when it is several people and we are eating/entertaining. We got her when she was a puppy just before lockdown started so although we did all the socialising we could, we didn't have anyone come into the house probably for most of the first year of her life. I'm wondering if that might have something to do with it? Any tips for what we could try with the barking? It's not aggressive more like she wants to play/ attention but it is making it hard to have people over. Any advice very gratefully received! Thanks
I suspect that you have inadvertently reinforced the barking. If you give him attention-tell him for example to stop barking-then you are reinforcing him. So, be wary of how you interact when you don't want a behaviour. You have to ignore the barking. Mighty hard to do. I would teach him how to get semi-frozen and fully frozen food out of a toppl at home when there are no guests. Then when you know someone is coming, give him a frozen Toppl say 5 minutes before they arrive. Do not give him the toppl if they arrive and he starts barking. Then you are reinforcing the barking once again. Go to obedience club and ask the instructor how to teach the dog to speak and be quiet using positive reinforcement.
The next door neighbor sounds like he’s not a dog person and has no idea how to read other dogs. If you’ve never had an issue with her and didn’t witness this “almost tried to bite” then I would assume he’s fabricating it and just doesn’t like large dogs. Keep on what you’re doing. When I moved apartments, we added lots of windows and lots of distractions outside. I’ve started a game of “Who’s there?” Any time she starts huffing or putting her hackles up, I ask “who’s there?!” And then immediately pick up a toy and get her to engage. She’s slowly starting to whine/bark once or twice and then immediately dive for the closest toy. It helps that her toys are EVERYWHERE and very close to the big windows she can see out of, and we’re making slow progress. I have no idea what she does when I’m not home, but none of my apartment neighbors 192.168.100.1 192.168.1.1 have come to complain.
