Hi Guys was wondering if you all agree you should ignore your dog when they bark constantly for attention. My husband gives in as he gets fed up with him but i was told just keep ignoring and he will stop. Anyone tried this and succeeded?
Yes it works! This is what we do with Poppy our Rescue Girl. She is a shocker for baking for attention. It does work, some times it gets worse before it gets better so hang on in there. wait a couple of seconds then i say good in a calm voice and sometimes she gets a treat. Maybe you husband could keep some earplugs in his pocket so when he starts he could pop them in. Good Luck
Oh, it's so difficult to ignore a persistent barker and not end up reacting out of sheer frustration, but that's the absolute worst thing you can do, because it rewards them. If you managed to last sixty seconds last time, they learn they have to bark for sixty seconds to get their reward... and if they don't get it, they'll carry on going longer. As soon as you "join in" (which is what you're essentially doing by talking/shouting), he's been reinforced and so you've strengthened the behaviour. If you can identify what situations he's barking in, you can try to either train your way around it, or circumvent it. For example, if he's barking for attention, maybe he needs more stimulation. If you know it always happens at a certain time, give him a frozen kong, some interactive play, a walk or some training just before that time. It may be that he's just not ready to be "left" (even if you're in the same room) for the amount of time you're expecting at present and you need to start with shorter periods and build up to what you're asking now, rewarding him regularly for calm and settled behaviour. If your husband finds it too hard to ignore it, the best thing to do would be to walk out of the room as soon as the barking starts, with no eye contact or talking at all. That way, your dog gets no attention and your husband won't be tempted to look at, talk to, or shout at the dog.
Tilly barks at things she hears or smells on the street in front of our house. She will stop as soon as some one acknowledges that there is some one there. Some times (one of us) just looking though the peep hole is enough, but sometimes we have to open the door so she can see. Cooper has a very loud, high, pitched sharp bark that she uses when she wants something. Often it is not clear what she wants, and it is an incredibly irritating bark. She will occasionally do it while riding in the car, and it has nothing to do with needing to stop. I think it is just "I'm Bored". We actually tell her to "Use your Outside voice" because it is much nicer. We are still trying to find a way to control this bark. It is ear splitting, and while she doesn't do it often we haven't found a command or activity that controls it. I don't want to reward the bark. The good news is that they don't bark much, and almost never when they are outside in the yard. They may exchange a few "woofs" with one of the neighbors dogs, but don't do the continuous barking that strain relations with the neighbors. When our friends bring their Samoyed over to play, he barks incessantly at dogs in other yards. (FWIW he also fits the description of a "Reactive Dog" in the other thread. He is fine with dogs he knows, but reactive when he is on leash.) He makes our Labs look well behaved.
