Hi eveyone, we seem to have developed 2 new challenges the last couple of weeks with Indy. The first is his energy levels, they seem to have doubled over the last few weeks. we have increased his walking time appropriately and he has lots of off the lead fun aswell to run around and let off steam. We play some games in the evenings and I also do little training session to mentally tire him out aswell however non of it seems to be working. He still thinks it is play time at 10pm and me and my partner are having no time to relax in the evenings at all. This leads me onto my second problem which is attention seeking in the form of barking. I read to ignore his barking which we have done however next door have small children and sometimes he just keeps on going till one of us snaps. i have read to resrict his access to the living room when he is doing this so we were thinking of putting the baby gate back up across the kitchen, we took it down as we kept tripping up over it. Does anyone else have any tips for our 2 challenges, I know fixing one of them will fix the other. Any help would be greatly appreciated as we are getting towards are wits end with him, he just seems to be getting naughter, Many Thanks Pippa
Walking him longer won't necessarily do anything for his energy levels. Of course, you need to be giving him an appropriate amount of exercise, but it's been said here before that walking an excitable dog for longer ends up with a fitter, excitable dog! It sounds like he needs more mental stimulation, maybe? At seven months, he can cope with more than just little training sessions - you might try reducing his walks to give you the time to do maybe thirty minutes of structured training with him? He also needs to learn how to self-manage and settle. So he gets no attention when you want him to be still - no eye contact, no talking to him. If needs be, put him on the lead in the house in the evening and tether it (or hold it) so he can't bounce around. He may whine to start off with, but he'll get the idea that in the evening, people are boring, so he may as well just settle down. If it helps, give him a kong or two to work on. Barking is a tough one. I certainly wouldn't be letting him continue barking, because that in itself can be self-rewarding. Dogs learn to like hte sound of their own voice, which is a bad thing. I think lots of people have had success in actually teaching their dogs to bark and then teaching a quiet cue. The idea being, once they learn that they get a treat for barking when asked to do so, but nothing when they aren't asked, they reduce the frequency they bark uncued. I like this video for explaining the concept: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0vtn8NhofOw - obviously, though, this is not an overnight solution, but since you need to make his brain work more anyway, it's a good place to start To be honest, once you address his boredom and energy levels - which should be easily done through more training - he'll probably be more than happy to curl up and have a snooze, or chew a kong for a while, rather than barking for more stimulation. Lastly, try to get out of your head that he's being "naughty". He isn't. A dog doesn't understand the concept of naughtiness. He is simply trying to communicate with you in any way he can.
Our dog Obi is a big chatterbox too, so I understand your pain! He used to bark at us continuously if we sat down the read, eat, watch TV etc. One solution is choosing and then training for (ie rewarding) an alternative behaviour like being quiet and/or lying down. You start with a very high rate of reinforcement (frequent treats) and gradually build up the time lapse between treats. The downside is that the dog learns to be kind of on alert for the next treat and doesn't truly switch off. However that can be preferable to continuous barking!! This article might be helpful too: http://www.thelabradorsite.com/when-labradors-start-barking-for-attention/ Like Snowbunny I also very, very strongly suspect that more mental stimulation is needed. He is a smart animal, like all dogs, and he wants more to do.
I have a very excitable, energetic dog (thankfully, he doesn't bark but that's just my good luck). I have also had 2 extended periods of restricted exercise (8 - 16 months, and now). Not enough exercise definitely makes things worse, but just more and more exercise doesn't mean things keep getting better. What helps is a) training, and lots of it and b) routine. You don't want to put your dog in a crate all the time, but a crate can be useful in establishing set periods when it is quiet time. So Charlie is on a routine, and when it's quiet time it's quiet time and that's that. So crate it is if he doesn't settle. This also kept me sane and gave me a break. He will settle on cue now, but that's only been in a last few months (he is 2 years 3 months now). Training really helps - not just training quiet, but any form of training helps. It gives them something to do, and tires out their minds. I clicker train stuff a lot. Cross paws, walk backwards etc. This really does help. Although, it helped more when my dog was a bit older and could concentrate for quite long periods so we can train very productively and Charlie works quite hard. Very short clicker training sessions when my dog was young didn't help all that much. But of course we were able to build it up over time.
Gypsy was a real barker for attention - she would stand and shout at me! Now I say 'settle' and she says 'humph' and settles down. I taught this by catching her (properly) relaxed and treating her saying 'settle' over and over. It really works! She's a very keen alert barker too, but now after a couple of woofs I use the same command and she comes and lays down. Hope you get it sorted, it can be very wearing!
Thanks everyone, I will definitely increase training session we usually do 2 20 minutes ones a day but i shall up this to 30 minutes and see if that helps with some extra special treats. I shall also use "Settle" command when he does finally calm down with treats and see if we can stop the barking. I have been ignoring him when he barks and sometime walking away not even looking at him however we are first time puppy owners so we never know whether we are doing it right or wrong, having a dog is definitely more challenging than we imagined lol I defo think I will try the on the lead in the house thing aswell as he can be very excitable and have made dashed where he pelts up and down the room at full speed and there is no stopping him, this usually ends up with him in his crate for a 10 minute chill out.
Oh, and something else - we go in the front room to settle down at about 9pm and we have always made sure there are no toys, chews etc in there. Whenever we go in there it's for everyone to snooze, dogs included
Does Indy really like to play with toys or play tug with you? I've started doing a bit different type of training with maisie, mostly with commands she already knows, on suggestion of the trainer. I get out of a special tug toy (only used to play tug with me, never left lying about). I get her to do 1-3 commands (sit, down, paw) and then reward by saying "take it" when the toy and doing a bit of tug. Then drop, and we do another 1-3 commands, then reward with tug. I find it really helps tire her out because she has to do a bit of thinking and her reward also helps with the tiring as it is play. This is also good for when you've run out of treats, etc. Some people prefer to reward after every behaviour, so you could just ask for one command/behaviour, then reward with the tug toy. I took Maisie to a park and did this for 20 minutes and she slept longer than when we do a fetch session in the park followed by a 20 minute walk, so it is effective for her!
He does love to play those sort of games so I think I will give this a go as well, we tend to remove toys at around 9pm as well which has been helping as he seems to understand no more playtime. We have had a better weekend with him (fingers crossed) so will keep trying all of the above and hopefully this will help. He has his final puppy class tonight so that should tire him out. Thanks
