Advice on How To Stop The Barking
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| Steel is about 1 1/2 yrs. old. He talks. I wouldn't exactly call it barking. It is annoying as heckkkk. He barks when someone comes to the door or when there is an animal outside so I know the difference. He talks when the other dogs are doing something he doesn't like or when my kids aren't listening to me. I would take a bark over his chatter boxing all day long! I have tried several things and to no avail. I will say I am nice though. I'm not going to blast him in the face with a squirt bottle or zap him. He has learned I don't tolerate barking or talking outside so he is capable of learning just stubborn. Haha! What I do now is grab his mouth and tell him to zip it. He has lots of hair so I am careful not to pull. I get a good grip or I just shush him with my finger and tell him zip it and he knows and stops but he will usually start right back up as the activity the originally caused it is still going on so it isn't a quick fix I have to continue. Several ways to get a handle on it just depends on how forceful you want to be. |
| Yes, I know what you mean by chatter. Georgia chatters or "talks" when she is waiting for me to get her food. But she barks at sounds and things outside. She's contained to our sunroom for most of the time, and so lots of windows and things moving outside this spring. This is causing a lot of barking. She also barked in the car while a truck was following us. The groomer said she was very vocal. This all just started happening within the last couple of weeks. I don't remember reading that this is a common trait in the breed when I did my research. I have tried the squirt bottle of water which works like magic on my havanese, but it doesn't phase Georgia. Thanks for your response! |
| I have three oes, Helene, Mickey Finn and Cubby. I also have 2 Aussies Asia and Declan, so you can imagine there is a lot of barking that goes on around out house. We also live in the country so they are "on alert" for everything and make regular trips out the doggy door together, meaning they all run out the door together barking. I'm sure they are talking about something and I often wonder how they don't run in to each other because they go out that door fast. Anyway, back to the barking. Mickey Finn is my barker followed by Helene. Mickey out shines Helene quite a bit in the barking however. I say stop barking Michael all day long. Anyway, quite by accident I found the solution that works for me. My husband had brought home some samples of wood floors from The Home Depot, so two small blocks of wood. One day the dogs had what I call "the bark on", where they are all barking at once, so I took the wood samples and clacked them together once. The barking stopped! A miracle! They can be outside in the backyard and if I clap them, they stop. It's wonderful. If they are in the house and see me going toward them, they stop, it is amazing. I know people use to say, put stones in a can and it will work, this works just as good. I now give them a command of "relax" and most of the time I use the command, but sometimes it's not enough, so a clap it goes. |
| Funny. Skye, the Aussie mix is the reallll barker. Going to protect everyone from the wind blowing. She starts the chorus every time! My dogs all have their own triggers but I must say none of them bark at passing cars when we are going down the road - That must have been a long car ride! I don't know about you but I'm going to get some wood floor samples from the Depot! That sounds like a great idea. I like my dogs to bark for the most part as long as we are inside and it isn't relentless. 3 of them are smart enough to know when enough is enough so if mommy has to stop what she is doing to go for the floor samples UH OH. I can see those 3 stopping before I even get there! Thanks, sounds like a great idea and didn't mean to steal your thread OESLuver. |
| My former pup would get very excessively mouthy while playing for no apparent reason when she was young. I used a citronella spray collar with her for just those situations. The spray would surprise her and then she would instantly shift her attention directly to me. As soon as I had her attention we would play some more. That combination did a great job in having her learn that fun play doesn't need constant barking. It was a great training tool and it only took about a month of consistent use during play time for her to figure out the connection. Getting a pup's attention always seems like most of the battle for training. My experience has been that sheepdogs are naturally inclined to use their voice as part of the herding instinct. I don't know if that makes them more likely to be excessive barkers. The citronella was a great training tool for excessive barking, but it's a strong tool and the instant shift in attention means that you have to be ready to quickly give positive reinforcement. And of course, be careful where, when, and how often you use it. Pups communicate through their barks and it's always important to figure out what they're trying to say before trying to keep them quiet. Possibly applicable to people too  |
| Great advice about the citronella spray collar. I will keep that in mind. Georgia is now almost one year old, and the barking has gotten so much better. I sprayed water in her face and said "quiet". Then praise once quiet. It has improved a lot. Thank you for your reply. |
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