Our puppy is turning into "a barker". I was sweeping our deck with a broom she barked like crazy at it over and over. Also when given commands such as sit or stay, now she barks and barks and mostly ignores the command. She still barks at my wife as well. To try and stop this we started trying to bark back at her. It's silly yes but we are not sure how to stop the barking. Is it bad to bark back? Any better ideas?? Pippas book finally arrived and we are reading it. Have not found answer to this yet though. Thanks
Re: Excessive barking? It sounds like excitement and if you bark back I would have thought it would just add to the excitement. When she barks I would gently, without saying anything, lead her to a confined space (bathroom?) and leave her for a few minutes. When she is quiet, let her out again. As soon as she barks, repeat. I once had a dog that barked at a neighbour's dog and cured it very quickly by doing this only a handful of times.
Re: Excessive barking? I have recently started using this for Edsel when he decides to mouth off. Works like a charm. Lori
Re: Excessive barking? I'm not sure if this might not help with the barking? [quote author=Oberon link=topic=4857.msg60492#msg60492 date=1394663421] When we got Obi he would sit and bark at us during every meal. For the whole meal. We did what you have done and now he lies quietly - but he still expects and gets the occasional treat. I am happy to pay that price. But at least he is quiet, unlike Scott. First, if you are not doing it, do as Julie suggested and start to increase the length of the 'quiet time' before you C&T. Gradually increase the time, but - and this is important - yo-yo up and down to include some short times as well. So it might go: 0.5 seconds of quiet, C&T 1 seconds of quiet, C&T 0.5 seconds of quiet, C&T 1 seconds of quiet, C&T 1.5 seconds of quiet, C&T with jackpot (handful of treats or extra good treat) 1 seconds of quiet, C&T 0.5 seconds of quiet, C&T 1.5 seconds of quiet, C&T 2 seconds of quiet, C&T 2.5 seconds of quiet, C&T 1.5 seconds of quiet, C&T 2.5 seconds of quiet, C&T 3 seconds of quiet, C&T with jackpot ...and so on... Overall, you are gradually stretching the time, increasing the average time, but you are also dipping down below the average regularly. The other thing to try is a totally new marker for this exercise. Not a word, as you will sometimes have your mouth full Something you tap with your foot, or hit with your fork...? Once you have got to where you want to with the whining, then you could add in another criterion like lying down, or staying on a mat (expect the whining progress to slip a little when you add in a new criterion - that is ok, don't worry about that, work on whining again once you have made progress on the new criterion). [/quote] It is from a thread which started out with stopping whining. It might help to put it into context by reading the whole thread What am I doing Wrong?. I think elsewhere there is some information about teaching a cue word for bark, and one for quiet so you can then prompt to do one or the other when needed. All good clicker-training stuff. Hope this helps and gives you some ideas. jac
