Until recently Jasper didn't know he had a voice, he didn't bark at all. In the last 2 weeks he started barking, he's barked at a jogger, a lady on a bike, a man pushing a bike (who got very upset), at a park gardener, at my partner even. His recall has been perfect and so I have always walked him off lead (when safe to do so) but these random barking spates are starting to bother me, when he's off lead, barking at someone he looks pretty scary. He's 10 months old and weighs over 30kgs. I don't know whether this is a phase which he will grow out of quickly or whether we have an issue brewing that needs attention. If anyone has any tips on what I should do I would really appreciate it. thank you Sarah
Hi Sarah and welcome to the forum from me and my two, Willow and Shadow, who are two years of age. Mine went through a spate of barking at people and things that surprised them or they weren't comfortable with, especially Willow. It would have been around the same age as Jasper. I learnt that they were afraid of these things, so I did lots of work using a technique called Look At That! which is from a book called Control Unleashed. The idea is that you condition your dog that when something unusual or startling happens, it means something good is going to follow. You do this by clicker training - as soon as the "thing" happens, you click and give the dog a tasty treat. The more you do this in more situations, the more your dog will generalise that anything scary means a treat. You can use the same method for working on things the dog finds overly exciting, such as someone playing with a ball. It's a great technique and I use it for a lot of scenarios with both of my two.
My two both started barking at strange people we met when they were about one year old. I discovered with the first one that she did not bark at people we met in the bush that I knew. I would greet those people happily, "Hi, how are you? What a nice day to be out, isn't it?" Simple solution for me, all I did was greet everyone as if I knew them. To reassure both people that the dog was under control and the dog that I was in charge of the situation I would ask them to heel and stay there and sit or down with the ones I really did know and usually talked to a bit longer. Worked. The author of the book Snowbunny mentions is Leslie McDevitt. I have it as well and also was very impressed with the results I got. I did not use the technique with people, I already had my solution for that, but with approaching dogs and when walking into training class I did. I use some other techniques from the book too. It's probably the book I've recommended more than any other.
Without seeing Jasper's body language or hear the barking it isn't possible to say that he is barking from fear/surprise. As he is also barking at your partner the behaviour may be more related to him guarding a prized possession - you. A session with a good behaviourist will help identify the root cause of the barking and provide an action plan to resolve it.
