My Lab Brixton has been amazing. However he has recently started barking around the appartment. The barking is loud and is usually accompanied by some fearfull whining and pacing. He is most likely reacting to faint noises he hears from downstairs at my tennants. But its hard to tell what triggers it. I’ve hired a behavior specialist and her advice was to ignore attention seeking barking, but to calm and give him treats to calm his anxiety when it triggers. Im getting alot of conflicting input from what i read online Anyone out there have any potential solutions/ advice they’d like to share? Thanks!
Hullo and welcome to the forum. Yup, you'll find all sorts of conflicting advice online, from good to downright bonkers. On this forum, we only advocate positive methods of training. With any unwanted behaviour, you need to change the emotional response to the trigger. I'm sure you'll have seen some advice for using anti-bark collars, throwing a can of coins on the floor, squirting the dog in the face etc. Now, some of these methods can work and it would b wrong to suggest that they never do, but the problem is you're simply making your dog too afraid to bark, rather than fixing the underlying issue. More to the point, these methods can actually make the dog more fearful and that can transfer to other problem behaviours. Instead, and what I believe your behaviourist has advised, you want to change the way your dog feels about those noises. In an apartment environment, it can be hard to train this reactively (that is, simply by responding every time he barks), because you're not going to be prepared every time he hears something. Moreover, he's probably finding that when he barks the noise goes away - completely coincidentally, of course, but he can make the association between barking and the noise stopping. This is called passer-by syndrome. So, instead of simply trying to manage it, it would help to set up some proper training opportunities. To start with, this could simply be you sitting by a wall r your door with him. Knock gently on the wall/door and immediately scatter some really high value treats on the floor. Bring out the big guns, think warm roast chicken. Scattering a few pieces he has to sniff out will likely be more effective than feeding them to his mouth. Repeat a few times and you should hopefully notice that when he hears the knock, he starts looking on the floor for his treats. This might take three turns, it might take fifty, depending on Brixton. Don't rush it. If you find he won't take the treats, you might have to make the noise less interesting/intimidating to him to start, and gradually build it up. You can get noises you can play on your phone - Dogs Trust as a whole range of sounds you can try out: https://www.dogstrust.org.uk/help-advice/dog-behaviour-health/sound-therapy-for-pets. You would start these quietly and slowly build up the volume. Once he has the idea of the game and is starting to look for his treat whenever he hears the noise, you can start delaying the time between the sound and the treat. Mark any silence immediately with "yes!" or "good!" and then give the treat. Over time, you can make the noise more exciting/unpredictable. It may help to enlist a friend or family member to make noises in the hallways of your apartment building once you have a good behaviour with noises you're controlling. Go back to the beginning whenever you make it more challenging, and start scattering the food immediately without waiting for any duration of quiet. With time and patience, your boy will change his emotional response from "Noise! Scary! Bark!" to "Noise! Treats! Yay!". Whilst you're doing the above (which you want to do in short sessions of 2-3 minutes a few times a day if possible), you'll obviously still have to be contending with "real life" noises that you can't control. So, keep treats with you and mark (with your "good" or "yes" word) whenever he makes a good choice in relation to the noises. So, if he looks at you, or has a brief pause before barking, make sure you reward that. If he does get into a barking frenzy, some people find it helps to "investigate" the noise, so open the door, and acknowledge the noise with whatever phrase you want: "nothing for you", "not your business", or simply "thanks for telling me". It doesn't matter what you say (it could be "rhubarb rhubarb" for all your dog knows), but you're telling your dog that you've heard it too and there's nothing to worry about, so he doesn't have to keep going. Now, all of the above is for alert barking. This is very different to attention barking. It's quite hard to verbalise the difference between the two, but you should get a feel for it. Alert barking will normally manifest by him barking towards the door or window, even if he then turns back and barks towards you. Whereas attention barking is normally a persistent barking directly at you. When this is the case, I find the best option is to immediately get up and walk out of the room. It might be inconvenient for a while, but if you're consistent and don't respond to him at all (don't even look at him or say "no", simply get up, turn your back and walk away from him) your dog will quickly learn that barking at you for attention results in the precise opposite. I used this method with my puppy and it worked really well. Good luck and let us know how you get on
Mollie has begun alert barking, I was advised today to deliberately turn my back on the sound. She will look to me and realise that we don’t turn our back on a threat so all is fine. Tatze will alert bark but only when she sees someone/something ‘untoward’. Mollie will bark at sounds I can’t even hear! Mollie attention barks too - but, with her, it’s very clear which is which. Attention barking involves looking straight at me and woofing! I leave the room when she does this, she’s almost entirely stopped now. .
Red has just started alert barking at 10 months. She has been a silent dog up until now - just the odd bark/woof. Yesterday, she barked a lot - well it felt like a lot as our other Lab Sky barks once in a blue moon. The barks are in response to a noise mainly so I just say ‘listen to that, that’s only .......’ in a quiet way. She is used to me saying ‘look at that’ and ‘listen to that’ when out on walks And looks at me when I say this. Today we are having new outside doors in our dining room so we are ‘holed’ up in the sitting room. It’s very noisy right now but she is snoozing after a long walk. We have had one big bark when she saw a man in the garden. I said ‘look at that, that’s a workman’ and she stopped. I have noticed for a few days she is a bit more fearful of things - I guess that’s just her age. It must be more difficult when you don’t know what the triggers are.
Harley is going through this a little late, at 12 months. We usually just say "come let's go see" and we all go together. She was never supposed to be any sort of protection or investigation dog anyway so as long as she isn't afraid, and is a little wary I think it is good that she doesn't run off into situations
Thank you Snowbunny. You’re advice is very helpfull! Brixton isnt in theclear yet, but the barking is starting to turn into a look towards me for treats It wont be easy as many noises trigger the barking. Including most of which i cant hear. But theres been some significant improvement. Merci!
