Advice for a Barking Problem?

[Laurie S.]

Cheyenne normally is not a barker, except for when I'm at home and getting dressed to go to work (she comes with me) and when I'm getting ready to take her for a walk. That includes at the office when I take her off her long rope and put the leash on her to go outside. And, it's a very LOUD bark. And, it's continuous. But, once we're going out the door, she stops. I've tried everything so far--quietly saying be quiet, yelling (yeah, I know that doesn't work), clapping my hands, grabbing her jowls and having a talk with her, and even dumping some water once on her head. I do need to get a water pistol. I don't want to use a shock collar since the problem is so limited, but I'd really like to get her to quiet it down, especially at my office. It's my company so I can't get fired, but it does annoy the staff a bit.

 

Any suggestions would be appreciated. I'm guessing that this behavior may be due to her original owner who neglected her and probably kept her confined. She is now just so excited to go outside she gets barky.

[Root Beer]

I'd probably try teaching an alternate response to the leashing-up process.

 

I would get a Kong and put something absolutely amazing in it, present it to the dog, clip the leash on (as the dog is quietly eating from the Kong), then pull the Kong away. Offer it back, unhook, remove. Offer it back, leash, etc. etc. etc.

 

I would start this at home in a small room where I don't normally leash the dog up.

 

Once the expectation of the Kong is evident, I would move the exercise to places where I normally leash up, and then to the workplace.

 

It may or may not work, depending on how strong her response to the leash is vs. her desire for the food, but it's worth a try and would probably be my first strategy.

 

Over time (not much, though), I would expect to be able to fade the Kong and get a quieter response to the leash.

 

I wish you the best in finding a good solution.

[Ooky]

I was JUST reading some Patricia McConnell to my husband. Odin isn't a barker, but he will bark occassionally - LOUD. He can be hard to stop when he gets going. Eric's response is typically to YELL at Odin to shut up or knowck it off. This never does anything! He quits much easier if I tell him very calmly enough, and if it's alarm barking then I usually go to take a look at what he's barking about. In any case, I can't train Eric to save my life, and I just hate it when Odin's barking and Eric's yelling and I just want to be like "are you CRAZY to add to the noise?! You might as well both be barking and then I have to quiet both of you!" Some of this may also be because I don't mind a bit of alarm barking, where Eric doesn't seem to like any barking at all.

 

In the office, I sympathise, because you just. have. to STOP it when it starts. However, heavy-handed positive pushishment-based methods seem to rile him up more. Calm negative punishment has worked much better for us at the office, especially for noises like whining (different that barking I know, but I've used it for barking too). Too much noise, and someone gets to sit in the car for an hour or so rather than with me at my desk.

 

Not all my dog's barking is alarm-based - he will give short loud barks when confused, opinionated, or too riled up. This seems more like the barking you describe - not that your dog is confused, but she might be opinionated and telling you to "hurry", it seems? I can pretty much tell when Odin will start this type of barking too (stimulated, confused by a command, maybe just wants to tell you about it while he does it!) I try to warn him off of it before it ever starts. Maybe some of Kristine's suggestions could help you do this - it would probably be better in that case to prevent the barking from starting rather than trying to stop it once it occurs.

 

Finally, if he barks at work anyway, I keep my voice pitched low and say noooooooooooooooo, and give him a meaningful look. Then he (assumedly) remember how much he'd rather not be in the car, I think, and quits it. Keep at it! Odin has only gotten better with time at realizing the office is a strict no-bark zone. He is even very hestitant to "speak" on command there.

[Olivia]

How about trying a approach based with letting her figure out what she is doing wrong. Start getting ready to go for a walk. The second she starts barking abandon your getting ready and go sit down on the couch. If she barks ignore her. Once she stops, get up and try again, if she starts barking, stop and go sit down. If she can stay quiet while you put your shoes on, etc go pick up her leash. If she starts barking just abruptly put the leash back on the hook and go sit down. Once she stops and settles go back to pick up the leash. Rinse and repeat until she is quiet while you get ready, leash her and go outside.

 

Allow her to figure out that if she is quiet she gets to go for a walk but if she barks then you abandon the walk and ignore her.

 

This can take several tries (but not as many as you'd probably think) so do it on a Saturday or other day at home so you can try as many times as it takes. Then perhaps take her to work on a non-workday and do it there. Then continue on with a normal day. If she forgets and starts barking simply look at her so you can make sure she sees what you are doing, put the leash away and continue working until she settles.

 

It seems to me that she has learned that if she barks you will hurry up the walk/getting ready; and since you are trying to get her to stop barking you do hurry and she gets what she wants. She is showing you that she can boss you around and make you take her out. If you can show her that you will only take her out when she is good then she should catch on very quickly and get much quieter.

 

Olivia

[Laurie S.]

Thanks, I'll try both the Kong and the ignoring her methods. She's such a good girl, except for this.

[shanty]

I second Olivia's suggestion. We used it to stop our dog from barking and jumping when we entered the house. Barking - we'd quietly back out - enter again and so on until he quietly let us enter. I can't remember how long we did it but we were consistant and it definitely worked. He was still a pup at the time and he's never forgotten.

[mbc1963]

My trainer uses the "withdraw expected reward until appropriate behavior revealed" thing to stop puppies from jumping on people, and it's remarkably effective. Like, within minutes, every single time. I highly recommend it!

 

My dog used to be a terrible barker - alarm barking at every single slightest twitch of a sound outside, for hours and hours a day. I used a McConnell protocol to stop that (call him to me, reward when quiet), and he does know what "eeeenoooouuuuggghh" means, though honestly he's not 100% for listening to me. However, his alarm has gone down drastically, so he only barks at serious threats like the people who walk their dog by our house, right under the window where he's sitting. (::Sigh:: It's the same dog you saw for the last 982 days, and it's never once tried to attack you or come through the screen.) He will still bark with excitement when we pull up to his favorite park, which is the kind of barking it sounds like your dog is doing.

 

Some book I read very early in my Buddy-training days stressed how universal it is for all animal trainers, in all cultures, to use long, slow, low sounds (whooooooooaaa, huuuusssssssshhhhh) to get animals to calm down and stop doing things, and higher, faster, staccato sounds (git up! let's go!) to get animals to pick up the pace or start doing something. I believe it was the same book that stressed that yelling at a dog who's barking only reinforces that there's something for the dog to be barking at - our yelling, to the dog, sounds like staccato, loud alarm barking, a pack alert. Maybe hubby will listen to that?

 

I adjusted the way I deal with different behaviors based on that idea - I use a low, deep "nooooo" or "eeeenouuggghh" to calm the dog down. He seems to respond. It does feel very instinctive to speak that way. I love it when I learn something about the universal programming that seems to be in our mammalian genes.

[Laurie S.]

Nothing really has worked, although ignoring her seems to have the best chance of working so far. This morning she got so worked up that she grabbed the bottom of my jeans and pulled hard at them. I won't tolerate her doing that to my clothes so I immediately pushed her away, sent her out of the bedroom, and slammed the door in her face. It was absolutely quiet after that. I took my time getting ready and then opened the door. She wasn't there, but she came in within seconds. I continued to ignore her and she remained quiet. I don't care what people say, she knew that she had done wrong. She is scary smart. I went to put my shoes on and she started to bark a bit. I stopped, made her look at me, and said stop. She did, although the pacing continued, but not as rapid as normally. She didn't pull or carry on when I got her traveling harness and leash on as she usually does and we went to the door calmly. I may be on to something here.

[Ninso]

Olivia's suggestion is what I would have suggested. Possibly you're trying to move too fast with it. For something like this, depending on how bad the problem is, it may take a few hours or more the first time to get out the door, but the next time it should take significantly less time, and exponentially less after that. I have a somewhat similar problem with my dog bolting out the door (he waits for permission, but once he gets it, he's OFF, potentially injuring himself and me in the process). I've been teaching him relaxation at the door. Our first session took nearly two hours, first waiting for him to relax just sitting on the steps at the door, then with my hand on the doorknob, then with the door slightly open, then relaxing on the landing in front of the door, then with the storm door open, etc) . Now it takes less than 5 minutes most times. We still go through each step, but it takes much less time. Still it's difficult because the level of excitement about going outside is so high.

 

Break down the steps you take in getting ready to go outside into tiny little increments. At what point does Cheyenne get excited and start barking? Do that step (putting on your shoes, or whatever it may be). When she starts barking, immediately undo that step (e.g., take off your shoes) and go do something else. Make sure you're not standing there waiting for her--that's giving her attention. Just go about your business like normal. When she is calm, try again. And this may take SEVERAL tries. Only when she is calm at step one would you move on to the second step (e.g., picking up the leash). Repeat the process.

 

This is also something you will need to be absolutely consistent with. If you're in a hurry one day and just let her bark, you will quickly undo all the work you have put in. Oh, and definitely don't let her get to the point that is so worked up she's grabbing at you. If that's the case, you've gone way too far, way too fast. Good luck!

[Laurie S.]

She's always grabbed at my pants when I've been getting dressed, it's not a new habit. But it sure is one I want to stop, along with the barking.