Preventing Barking at passerbys

[drharps]

We have a small yard and my pup loves to bark like mad at anyone who walks by. I am trying to train her to not do this, but most of the recommendations I see online aren't necessarily viable in this situation. The main suggestion I see is to put distance between her and the stimuli and when she calms, to decrease the distance until she no longer barks at people. The problem is from distance, her view is blocked by trees/shrubs and she no longer cares about what is going on. She is either within 30 feet of the stimuli, or she can't see them at all and doesn't notice them.

One of the trainers we used said to put a muzzle on her (to distract her from barking), and tie her to a tree or post as timeout until she calms down, then release her. (I keep her on leash when we play outside so tying her up won't be especially difficult.) I am curious if people have tried this, or have other methods to teach their dog to not bark.

Part of the problem is we can't see when people are coming due to foliage so we can't prepare, and the yard is small so she only barks for a few seconds before the person is out of view, meaning by the time I get a hold of her, the person is gone.

Thanks. 

[D'Elle]

Run, don't walk, from the trainer who told you to put a muzzle on her and tie her up and have nothing more to do with anyone who suggests something like this. Ineffective, and a bad idea overall, not to mention unnecessarily harsh. It will only serve to cause frustration, further upset, anxiety and possibly physical pain and injury in a pup who is already over stimulated. It will not teach her a thing except that suddenly you may come at her and tie her up and put a confining object on her face. This kind of thing will do serious damage to the relationship and trust your dog wants to have with you.

I strongly recommend the "Look At That" game from the book "Control Unleashed". The whole book is good and there's a Puppy version of it as well. If you cannot get the book, you can look up the basics of teaching the "Look At That" game online. This is a proven effective method of training a dog to stop barking, using only positive reinforcement method to do so. 

[terrecar]

I would not muzzle and tie a reactive dog as a means to correct barking at the fence.  I suspect this would increase barrier frustration, which would only make the underlying emotions that prompt the barking that much worse. You do need to get distance between the dog and the stimuli though.

My entire property is fenced, with the front yard being smaller than the back. I'll explain what I did to solve the problem in one of my dogs while I was in the front yard with her. 

When I first moved into my current home, passers-by would elicit an unacceptable behavior in my dog; she would rush to the fence and bark furiously at them. So, I taught her a "porch" command using positive reinforcement. We made a game of it. Once my dog started going to the porch reliably without distractions, I started asking for a "porch" when there were distractions. This gave my dog a foundation for practicing an alternate behavior when someone walked by, with the added benefit of increasing distance without preventing my dog from seeing what was going on.

During the initial training without distractions, I use "GOOD!" immediately after the dog goes to the porch, then treat. However, you can use a clicker (click and treat) as well. Once my dog had the "porch" command down, I would ask for a "down" on the porch; once that was reliable, a "stay" (both trained in advance, of course). The "stay" became particularly useful for slow moving passers-by.

Once the "porch" behavior was set (learned), I'd ask for it when someone walked by, then follow immediately with a reward for complying. This had the dual benefit of rewarding the dog for going to the porch (operant conditioning value) as well as giving the dog a positive experience (treat) when the stimuli became visible (classical conditioning value).

I should point out that this is not a quick fix. However, it worked for me. My dog rarely barks at people who walk by now, but when she does I can send her to the porch.  She is more reactive to dogs passing by though, so instead of sending her to the porch, I increase the distance even more by asking her "get in the back", meaning to the backyard. The bonus is that my other dogs will invariably follow her to the back.

I realize I haven't dealt with the actual barking yet, but I found it necessary to put distance between dog and trigger first, because that helps calm her emotional state.  I was then able to use a "quiet" command (taught in advance) to get her to stop barking after a few barks. I don't have a problem with a little barking; my goal was to prevent my dog from rushing to the fence while frantically barking.

To deal with the barking, I first had to teach her to quiet herself while she was not reacting to emotionally charged stimuli. Frantic dogs are not thinking, so teaching this required a calm environment. However, I needed her to bark in order to teach her to stop, so I first taught her to bark on command. Then, in order to stop the barking, I taught her "quiet" to stop her while she was barking. Now, if I do have to send her to the porch, I use the sequence: porch/down/quiet/stay.

[jami74]

3 hours ago, terrecar said:

To deal with the barking, I first had to teach her to quiet herself while she was not reacting to emotionally charged stimuli. Frantic dogs are not thinking, so teaching this required a calm environment. However, I needed her to bark in order to teach her to stop, so I first taught her to bark on command. Then, in order to stop the barking, I taught her "quiet" to stop her while she was barking. Now, if I do have to send her to the porch, I use the sequence: porch/down/quiet/stay.

Thank-you terrecar for explaining what you did in so much detail, I find these sorts of posts so helpful.

Can I ask how you taught her to bark? The only way I can think of to get my dog to bark is to play him a sound of another dog barking.

[terrecar]

10 minutes ago, jami74 said:

Thank-you terrecar for explaining what you did in so much detail, I find these sorts of posts so helpful.

Can I ask how you taught her to bark? The only way I can think of to get my dog to bark is to play him a sound of another dog barking.

Well, yes, but it's not very dignified. I made woofing sounds and said "bark!". She is my barker, so it didn't take much. In my defense, I didn't do it in public. 

[jami74]

16 minutes ago, terrecar said:

Well, yes, but it's not very dignified. I made woofing sounds and said "bark!". She is my barker, so it didn't take much. In my defense, I didn't do it in public. 

 Thanks! I'll give it a go.

Feels a bit wrong though asking him to be noisy.

[ShellyF]

4 hours ago, jami74 said:

 Thanks! I'll give it a go.

Feels a bit wrong though asking him to be noisy.

Police dog handlers have to ensure their dogs can speak and stop on command and to do this they teach ‘speak’ first by getting them excited or by saying ‘speak’ when they are actually barking anyway! Then when they naturally stop Barking you can say ‘quiet’ accompanied by treats and/or praise

[drharps]

Thanks everyone for the thoughtful responses. 

D'Elle, I've been working on the Look at That command based on earlier suggestions you made. I hadn't thought to use it for people walking by because by the time I realize a person is coming, she's already on the move to hit the fence with barking. By the time I am anywhere close to her, the person has passed by and she's looking to play. Will see if I can get her to do it through staged walkers passing by. 

Terrecar, I will try the porch command. She already knows that as well as down and stay so I'll see if I can get her to go to the porch when she sees people and get a treat. Hopefully that causes her to relax and to stop reacting so aggressively to every passer-by. Getting distance is simply not an option given limited space/visuals. 

[D'Elle]

Terrecar, that is an excellent protocol. I used the same thing one time, under different circumstances. It took a long time because the self-reward of continuing what she was doing was a powerful one, but once it was learned it worked like a charm. All I had to do was say her name and point and she would put herself into a "time out" on the porch.

(People were ever so impressed that I had trained my dog so well. I usually didn't mention how long it had taken!)