Hello, I'm new to the forum and am looking for advice regarding my 4 year old black lab Alfie and unwelcome barking. Over the past few months he he has developed a really annoying habit of barking at me for attention when friends visit. This is only directed at me, not my husband, and if a friend calls round for coffee he will stand by me barking very loudly when we're sitting around the kitchen table! I've tried giving him attention although suspect this is probably exactly the wrong thing to do. I've also diverted him with a chew but again realise this is only rewarding his bad behaviour. If I leave the room the barking stops but that rather defeats the object of having friends round in the first place! Although he's quite a sensitive soul, Alfie is not short of attention. We're home based so he's rarely left alone for any length of time and he has two decent walks with us every day. Has anyone any useful advice?
Hello! Mine also barks when he wants attention. When friends come round, I usually have a chew or frozen kong ready for him, so as soon as they arrive I tell him to go to bed and give him the chew/kong. You could try giving Alfie the chew in his bed before he starts barking, then you won't be rewarding the barking and will show him what you'd rather he did, which is lie in bed and relax. I hope this helps and good luck with it!
I'm wanting to hear any advice, so adding my post here so that i get thread notifications. Snowie barks at me if I stop on a walk to chat to someone - his way of saying let's go. It is very loud and very annoying.
When we got our dog Obi he was 9 months old and had lived in a backyard and didn't understand being around people who were doing people things (watching tv, eating dinner, talking to each other etc). So he'd bark at us continuously. What we did was start to teach him to lie down and be quiet in as many situations as possible. So, for example, on walks we'd sit down on a bench or wall. Obi would start barking. We ignored him until he lay down and gave up barking for a few seconds, then we immediately started walking again (which is what he wanted). At first this took quite a while before he lay down and was quiet. But he got better and better at it and was able to lay down for longer and longer. We also gave him treats while he was lying down and being quiet. We applied this approach in every aspect of his life. First we taught him to lie down on cue in the house. Once he could do that, whatever he wanted (attention or food) he only got if he was lying down and being quiet. At times we had to get up and leave the room till he was quiet. Another even better approach that'd I'd use now is teaching him to lie down on a designated mat (first training this with no other people or distractions around and only slowly making it harder). You can use that when people come over or anytime you want him to be more chilled. You might need to start with him on lead and with one person nominated as 'trainer', delivering treats as fast as is needed to keep him on his mat. When you have a behaviour you don't want the biggest tool in your toolkit is actively training your dog to do something else that you DO want.
I had exactly the same problem with mine! I got him at 7 months, and I think he'd also lived in a garden his whole life, and he would bark at everything and when we stood still on a walk he would start barking, and once he started it was like it was self-reinforcing and would just keep on barking incessantly. I think everything was just so exciting and overwhelming. I just stood still and ignored it and then gave him a treat when he stopped. And did the same thing as you Rachael, sitting down outside, giving treats for being calm etc. But, I do still have problems with him barking sometimes, and once he gets worked up and starts barking he finds it really hard to stop. We've tried working on mat training, but I've never made much progress. I wasn't sure how to transfer it to outside of the house, and then I just gave up and focused on other things.
