help! Beau has turned 10 months old, she’s a very well behaved girl generally and I’ve taken her to puppy class, junior class and just completed a pic’n’mix class trying flyball, agility, rally etc, she’s very well socialised right from day one, excellent recall and so on.....but......she’s suddenly started to bark at people when she’s setting off on a walk on her lead she has the deepest boom of a bark and can sound quite threatening if people didn’t know what a complete pudding she is. What could be causing this sudden behaviour? How do I stop it? I don’t want her to sound nasty or scare anyone
Hi there, our 11-month old, a very friendly, chilled boy, can sometimes get a bit freaked by people he doesn't know. If I see his body language tense up at all, I just call him back to me and have him walk to heel, giving him treats and telling him what a good boy he is. I find this works very well. My older dog, now six years old, was a terrible one for barking at strangers on walks - having her walk to heel and the use of lots of treats helped her to learn that a strange person was a good thing, as it meant she got a piece of cheese... I would say she grew out of the barking as she got to about 18 months old. I sometimes wonder if this 'adolescent' barking is at least partly due to their hormonal changes, making them feel more unsure of themselves? At any rate, staying calm and being upbeat and delivering treats worked well with my dogs.
Thanks Karen I’m a big believer in treats and praise so will try it. She seems fine if they have a dog with them or there’s more than one person, it’s mainly a single person by themselves and in particular if they have a hood up! We did the desensitisation thing when she was tiny such as hoods, masks, walking sticks etc at puppy class but she’s a bit unsure about all of those things.....especially statues of Buddha
Haha, my older dog hates snowmen!!! And yes, I agree it's usually one single person walking towards us that can freak the dogs. A group of people, or someone with a dog, somehow seems less threatening.
I’ve also noticed it’s only when we start our walk from the front door. If we drive somewhere to walk she doesn’t do it
Could it be excitement? Keir is eight months old and he’s taken to barking when we walk into a place. I’m certain it’s excitement because he loves visiting anywhere. I just distract him and he soon forgets he was barking. I think he’ll grow out of it.
I’m not really sure if it’s excitement, she’s not wagging her tail when she does it and sometime she’s even on her back legs yesterday when she did it I took her up to the lady she was barking at and asked her to fuss her so she could lose the fear of her, she did allow her to stroke her and sat down but as we moved off again she only went and barked again it’s getting a bit embarrassing
The first time I witnessed her do it we were walking just the two of us in a rather secluded place and she spotted a man around a corner throwing bread to ducks. She was straight on her back legs and barking her head off until I told her it was ok and we went to see the guy so she knew he was ok, that was about 2 months ago.
I think that's the thing; to let her know things are ok. From the sound of it, she reacts when she is worried/excited at the start of a walk. You are doing the right thing to reassure her. I've noticed with Merlin if I tell him off for barking, it actually makes it worse. Reassuring him all is well and giving him treats works far better.
I’d forgotten that Molly went through a stage of doing this - I think probably around the same age as your dog, though can’t be sure. If I had her off lead and we saw a person without a dog I used to put her back on lead and feed treats as we walked past ( otherwise she would run up to them barking). If they had a dog it was fine, no barking. The good news is that she grew out of it, or learnt not to be afraid (and it was definitely fear not excitement). I’d say it’s better to give your dog space from the people you think she might bark at and you feed her as you pass them, rather than asking them to feed or pet her.
