Apologies if this has been covered elsewhere. We took our 15 week old puppy Oscar away to a holiday cottage for the weekend. Whilst he was incredibly well behaved for most of the weekend (not a single accident in the lovely rented cottage!) he appears to have discovered that he can bark. Its a good bark too and shocked me when he first did it! The problem is he has started barking at strangers, not everyone and not people with other dogs (too busy trying to play with the dog?!). Obviously we tryed to ignore this behaviour but he doesn't stop until people back away or move their hands away from him, even if that hand has food in it! Is this normal discovering his voice behaviour? What can we do to make him more accepting of strangers and prevent the barking? Any help greatly apprecited!
Re: Barking Puppy There is an article on here called 'click for quiet' it may be worth you reading this. Training required! Here's the link: http://www.thelabradorsite.com/?p=4701
Re: Barking Puppy Hi there Natalie, we had quite an issue with Poppy barking and growling at strangers when she was a few months old. We managed to get on top of it by rewarding her for walking quietly with us past people. We also took her all over the place, and found she was actually better where there were lots of people (no barking at all), than when we were walking in a remote area and someone appeared on the horizon. Very odd. But at any rate, just keep plugging on with rewarding good quiet behavior, and a firm 'no' when he does bark at people. It may take a while, but I am sure you will sort it out, just like we did.
