After being very quiet for the last 3 weeks, Bailey seems to have found his voice all of a sudden. If I'm standing or sitting still, he will sometimes bark. I'll turn around or get up and walk away from him and he stops. Will this work eventually? When we sat in the vets waiting room yesterday, he sat and barked at another dog and then later at a different dog. I'm guessing he just wanted to play! I tried to distract him by giving him a couple of treats, but it only worked momentarily. I picked him later, predicting another barking session, while I waited at the desk to pay the receptionist and he was quiet. Any tips for keeping him quiet when we're standing or sitting still on the lead near other people/dogs?
Dexter only really barks...or wants to bark when the door bell goes......so I taught a 'quiet' cue. This works really good now for the sound of the bell but I still haven't mastered getting him to stay quiet when I've opened the door and voices start.. To practice getting a ' quiet' though you need to have a bark ....so I will tell you what I did,it's a bit trickier practicing when its other dogs making Bailey bark .......I was lucky with it being the bell. I recruited a helper To stand and ring the bell and I used the clicker to mark the ( very brief in the beginning) times when he stopped barking,you've really got to be quick when you first start doing it.I also put my fingers on my lips as a hand signal along side the verbal cue 'quiet' it does work as I say for the door bell but not when I'm away from him opening the door so I should try and do something about that..... When he's barking for attention from you,you are doing the right thing ignoring him....it just takes time for him to get the message......barking doesn't get me attention ,he will though x
I assume this is nothing to do with him being anxious, and it is all to do with a dog just barking in frustration/excitement etc. In this particular circumstance, if you are outside (in a class or the park etc), I wouldn't move if he barks. Even if you have to stay still for a long time until he is quiet. If you allow him to move, it rewards him. Because movement is rewarding, and staying still frustrating, you can ask him to be still on lead around other dogs for 30 seconds, then allow activity as a reward (movement), then 45 seconds, then a minute....build this up and also start looking not only for quiet but also that he is relaxing. You are trying to teach that being relaxed and still around other dogs is rewarding. In the vets, I would have a pouch of extremely small but high value treats and "machine gun" them - feed him rapidly until he returns his attention to you (eg is not looking back towards the other dogs in between treats), then slow down the delivery but keep feeding. Once he can reliably remove his attention away from the other dogs you can think about being more sophisticated, but at first, just stream treats.
Def ignore the attention barking - sometimes Murphy will do this if he is behind the baby gate - or he'll sit in front of me and do it - I just yawn and look away - no attention at all. In terms of barking at the other dogs - try and keep him focused on you, this means getting his attention when he is only looking at the other dog - before he even starts barking - we are taught this at dog training, stopping the behaviour before it even starts - so when he starts to get a fixed look in his eye at another dog, get out a nice smelly treat and get him to divert his attention to you - I put the treat up near the top of my nose to encourage him to look towards my eyes - you can then say "watch me" or whatever you want to use - and this encourages him to look at you. Then reward him from the other hand.
"Watch me" is a good strategy - but for me, it needs to be only part of my toolkit, and not the main tool. I don't want a dog that only behaves when he is fixed on me. I want to be able to leave him in a line of dogs and go out of sight, and not have him fuss. So I don't want him depending on diverting his attention to me to stay calm. I find this point is very different between gundog training and pet dog training. At gundog training, we are taught to have the dog look out at the world (we want the dog to mark the birds coming down) - and I like the idea of getting the dog to watch the world and be calm about it. At pet dog training (which we also go to each week) everyone does the "watch me" thing, I excuse my dog from that and stand having him watch their dogs, watching them.
The idea of the watch me is to divert their attention when they become fixed on something, so as to avoid them getting hyped up and going into the state where they would start barking. If the dog is happy to look at other dogs and not bark then of course you wouldnt need to do the watch me. Through repetitions he learns look at dog, be non reactive, then refocus and look at trainer and repeat - so he LEARNS not to respond to the sight of other dogs by barking. I dont think any puppy would just learn "watch the world and be calm about it" without a little direction here and there as there is just too much to be seen and too many exciting things happening (like the presence of other dogs) - a little training and they will become habitual in looking at a stimuli then automatically looking away and back to their owner.
I know how it works, and that almost all pet dog trainers teach it and it works - in a way. It's not the only way though, in my view is not the one to start with - there is a better way.
But you were suggesting to feed treats constantly to keep their attention on you in the vets? surely this is the same thing (i.e. distracting them from the thing thats making them bark?) and no different, other than the watch me puts this on cue - so eventually they do this automatically?
My new clicker training book doesn't help with barking - damn! A good question to post, thanks, I read anything about barking but haven't cracked it myself .... Yet
