Now that the puppy is growing some and gaining some confidence, he has taken
to barking. Loudly. Indoors. This is not acceptable. I've talked to the
trainer about it, but I'm not having much luck. She teaches only positive
reinforcement methods. She says to ignore him while he's barking, and then
click and treat whenever he stops. She claims that waiting 3 seconds after
the last bark will be long enough for him to forget he was barking and only
associate the treat with being quiet.

Okay, for the first couple of nights this worked okay. He'd get distracted
by the treats and then stay near me and forget about the barking. But he
soon learned that in order to get treats, he had to bark, then stop. So the
third night it became an incessant game of "bark, bark, bark, bark, bark,
[pause]" followed by a click and treat. Then "bark, bark, bark, bark,
bark, [pause]" followed by a click and treat, and so on. I tried extending
the time he had to be quiet by a little, but that didn't seem to work. He'd
stop barking, come over and sit for a treat, then after a few seconds he'd
bark some more before trying for the treat again.

Tonight, in desperation, I gave him time outs in the bathroom instead. The
time outs were oh, maybe 5 minutes. Yes, I know that at the end of 5
minutes he doesn't have any idea why he was in there, but I don't know what
else to do. That seemed to work tonight, but no idea if it will continue to
work.

FYI, he barks in the following situations:
1) He wants something that he can't get to.
2) (related) Cassie has something he wants
3) He wants the cat or Cassie to play with him and they won't.
4) He's playing with the cat (well, he thinks he's playing, I'm not sure
the cat agrees), and will run up to her, bark a few times, she'll swat at
him and he'll run away, and then start over again.

Bizby

"bizby40" wrote in message
...
Now that the puppy is growing some and gaining some confidence, he has
taken to barking. Loudly. Indoors. This is not acceptable. I've talked
to the trainer about it, but I'm not having much luck. She teaches only
positive reinforcement methods. She says to ignore him while he's
barking, and then click and treat whenever he stops. She claims that
waiting 3 seconds after the last bark will be long enough for him to
forget he was barking and only associate the treat with being quiet.

Okay, for the first couple of nights this worked okay. He'd get
distracted by the treats and then stay near me and forget about the
barking. But he soon learned that in order to get treats, he had to bark,
then stop. So the third night it became an incessant game of "bark, bark,
bark, bark, bark, [pause]" followed by a click and treat. Then "bark,
bark, bark, bark, bark, [pause]" followed by a click and treat, and so
on. I tried extending the time he had to be quiet by a little, but that
didn't seem to work. He'd stop barking, come over and sit for a treat,
then after a few seconds he'd bark some more before trying for the treat
again.

Tonight, in desperation, I gave him time outs in the bathroom instead.
The time outs were oh, maybe 5 minutes. Yes, I know that at the end of 5
minutes he doesn't have any idea why he was in there, but I don't know
what else to do. That seemed to work tonight, but no idea if it will
continue to work.

FYI, he barks in the following situations:
1) He wants something that he can't get to.
2) (related) Cassie has something he wants
3) He wants the cat or Cassie to play with him and they won't.
4) He's playing with the cat (well, he thinks he's playing, I'm not sure
the cat agrees), and will run up to her, bark a few times, she'll swat at
him and he'll run away, and then start over again.

I taught Pebbles to "hush" but it was only because she was a seriously smart
dog and I must've just repeated myself enough times, at the right times, for
her to figure it out. I also use a very loud, very short, human-buzzer type
noise as a catch-all for "stop doing that right this minute!" and it too
seems to work as an interruption. Its catching the pauses in barking to
praise that can be a PITA. Dogs barking in the house, if they're doing it
at me, get that loud correction and my back turned. When they quiet down I
turn back around and issue a "good girl".

What breed(s) is he? That can make a difference. My mother's GSD/wolf mix
(fools in Colorodo bred them on purpose) barks so loud and long that its as
if its an OCD behavior. Her bark vibrates through you so what's happened is
that they've always given her their immediate attention when she barks.
Whether to yell at her to stop, to see what she's barkign at and, always, to
give in to whatever it is she wants just to shut her up. They've reinforced
her barking. She's the sweetest dog and after 11 years they're used to her
barking but when we went to visit last month all I wanted was a roll of duct
tape to make the dog be quiet.

--
Tara

Now that the puppy is growing some and gaining some confidence, he has
taken to barking. Loudly. Indoors. This is not acceptable. I've talked
to the trainer about it, but I'm not having much luck. She teaches only
positive reinforcement methods. She says to ignore him while he's
barking, and then click and treat whenever he stops. She claims that
waiting 3 seconds after the last bark will be long enough for him to
forget he was barking and only associate the treat with being quiet.

Okay, for the first couple of nights this worked okay. He'd get
distracted by the treats and then stay near me and forget about the
barking. But he soon learned that in order to get treats, he had to bark,
then stop. So the third night it became an incessant game of "bark, bark,
bark, bark, bark, [pause]" followed by a click and treat. Then "bark,
bark, bark, bark, bark, [pause]" followed by a click and treat, and so
on. I tried extending the time he had to be quiet by a little, but that
didn't seem to work. He'd stop barking, come over and sit for a treat,
then after a few seconds he'd bark some more before trying for the treat
again.

Tonight, in desperation, I gave him time outs in the bathroom instead.
The time outs were oh, maybe 5 minutes. Yes, I know that at the end of 5
minutes he doesn't have any idea why he was in there, but I don't know
what else to do. That seemed to work tonight, but no idea if it will
continue to work.

FYI, he barks in the following situations:
1) He wants something that he can't get to.
2) (related) Cassie has something he wants
3) He wants the cat or Cassie to play with him and they won't.
4) He's playing with the cat (well, he thinks he's playing, I'm not sure
the cat agrees), and will run up to her, bark a few times, she'll swat at
him and he'll run away, and then start over again.

Bizby



When Maui was first learning to be quiet, he would do the same thing as Lexi
(bark lots then stop and wait for a treat). What I ended up finally doing
was keeping a spray bottle near me and whenever he barked, he got one quick
spray to the face (avoiding the eyes). I know some people probably really
disagree with the use of the spray bottle but with a sleeping baby in the
house I was out of ideas and it was only water he was getting sprayed with.
The water kind of stunned him for a second and then I could call him over to
me and give him a treat and praise for coming over to me. Then, at
different times throughout the day, when he was being quiet, I would say
"yes, good quiet" and give him a treat. Later I could just say "quiet" when
he was barking and shown him the spray bottle and eventually I could just
say "quiet" and he knew what to do.

"bizby40" wrote in news:c_WdnSk0mooUSYbeRVn-
:

Tonight, in desperation, I gave him time outs in the bathroom instead.

Queenie is a barker, too, and gets very wound up and seems unable to calm
down. I think time-outs are great for this. She calms down in there, and
then I let her out. I usually make them just a couple of minutes.

Like others here, I sing to the dogs to calm them down as well. I have a
made up "we don't bark at the neighbors" song, and also I like Mairsie
Doats. This technique works really well for Zoe, and pretty often for
Queenie (but not always, thus the time outs).

--
Catherine
& Zoe the cockerchow
& Queenie the black gold retriever
& Rosalie the calico

I believe in positive re-inforcement but sometimes it has it's limits. I
wouldn't automatically jump to an ecollar at this point but when all else
fails it might be an option. In Ladys case it was the collor either worked
or I had to find her a new home back on a farm somewhere.

I have a collie/shepard that came from my sisters farm at the age os 11
months. She wasn't exposed to all the noises she hears in town so we had an
issue with barking. I thought we had it licked until she got spooked by the
neighbor shoveling snow across the street one night. After that as soon as
you'd take her out the door she'd start into barking like a raving fool at
any type of noise outside and nothing would shut her up. Finally as a last
resort I bought a remote e-collar one that I manually control by hand. It
was the best 95.00 I have ever spent in my life. It took less than two days
of verbal commands and few low dose zaps to get her to understand what Quiet
means. She still will bark and she is allowed to bark but after a couple
yaps when I tell her quiet she listens. The collar also came in handy when
she started chasing rabbits now it's no longer an issue.

Celeste


"bizby40" wrote in message
...
Now that the puppy is growing some and gaining some confidence, he has
taken
to barking. Loudly. Indoors. This is not acceptable. I've talked to
the
trainer about it, but I'm not having much luck. She teaches only positive
reinforcement methods. She says to ignore him while he's barking, and
then
click and treat whenever he stops. She claims that waiting 3 seconds
after
the last bark will be long enough for him to forget he was barking and
only
associate the treat with being quiet.

Okay, for the first couple of nights this worked okay. He'd get
distracted
by the treats and then stay near me and forget about the barking. But he
soon learned that in order to get treats, he had to bark, then stop. So
the
third night it became an incessant game of "bark, bark, bark, bark, bark,
[pause]" followed by a click and treat. Then "bark, bark, bark, bark,
bark, [pause]" followed by a click and treat, and so on. I tried
extending
the time he had to be quiet by a little, but that didn't seem to work.
He'd
stop barking, come over and sit for a treat, then after a few seconds he'd
bark some more before trying for the treat again.

Tonight, in desperation, I gave him time outs in the bathroom instead.
The
time outs were oh, maybe 5 minutes. Yes, I know that at the end of 5
minutes he doesn't have any idea why he was in there, but I don't know
what
else to do. That seemed to work tonight, but no idea if it will continue
to
work.

FYI, he barks in the following situations:
1) He wants something that he can't get to.
2) (related) Cassie has something he wants
3) He wants the cat or Cassie to play with him and they won't.
4) He's playing with the cat (well, he thinks he's playing, I'm not sure
the cat agrees), and will run up to her, bark a few times, she'll swat at
him and he'll run away, and then start over again.

Bizby

"bizby40" said in
rec.pets.dogs.behavior:

Now that the puppy is growing some and gaining some
confidence, he has taken to barking. Loudly. Indoors.
This is not acceptable. I've talked to the trainer about
it, but I'm not having much luck. She teaches only
positive reinforcement methods.

I've had great success (even with twice-a-week daycare dogs)
using negative punishment: Outside, if it's non-play barking or
excessive play barking, the dog goes inside. If it's
inappropriate inside barking, they get a very short (and
consistent) time-out away from the other dogs.

One of the dogs that I've had here twice a week since he was a
puppy is apparently an incredible barker (most Mudis seem to be)
everywhere but here.

--
--Matt. Rocky's a Dog.

"MauiJNP" wrote in message
...
When Maui was first learning to be quiet, he would do the same thing as
Lexi (bark lots then stop and wait for a treat). What I ended up finally
doing was keeping a spray bottle near me and whenever he barked, he got
one quick spray to the face (avoiding the eyes). I know some people
probably really

I tried that already (hey, it worked for the cat!), but he looked
just a little surprised, and then thought it was a game.

Bizby

Thanks guys. It sounds like the time outs are a good thing to try.
Unfortunately most of the barking takes place at night. Or maybe it's
fortunate since I'll be motivated to be consistent with discipline. When I
say night, I mean, after the kids are in bed, but while I'm still up.

Besides the barking, everything seems to be going well. He's finally caught
the knack of the housebreaking thing. He's still a chewer, but the
downstairs is pretty much puppy-proofed, as is my bedroom. I'd like to get
him out of the crate at night soon, but he doesn't seem quite ready, though
he will happily take a nap with me on my bed. At night he jumps down and
goes sniffing around for trouble. And my room isn't *that* puppy-proof --
there is the alarm clock cord he could chew on for example.

Bizby

"bizby40" wrote in message
...

"MauiJNP" wrote in message
...
When Maui was first learning to be quiet, he would do the same thing as
Lexi (bark lots then stop and wait for a treat). What I ended up finally
doing was keeping a spray bottle near me and whenever he barked, he got
one quick spray to the face (avoiding the eyes). I know some people
probably really

I tried that already (hey, it worked for the cat!), but he looked
just a little surprised, and then thought it was a game.

My dog *loves* the spray bottle. I could never use it to punish her,
because she just thinks it's fun to try and catch the mist/stream of water.

"bizby40" wrote in message
...

"MauiJNP" wrote in message
...
When Maui was first learning to be quiet, he would do the same thing as
Lexi (bark lots then stop and wait for a treat). What I ended up finally
doing was keeping a spray bottle near me and whenever he barked, he got
one quick spray to the face (avoiding the eyes). I know some people
probably really

I tried that already (hey, it worked for the cat!), but he looked
just a little surprised, and then thought it was a game.

Bizby


Oh, that's a shame, it worked wonders. I started out with room temp water
and he didn't seem to mind it so much so I switched to ice cold water with
the spray setting not the mist setting like someone suggested to me and he
hated it. Not sure if this would matter to Lexi or not though especially
since it is summer now and he probably would like the cold blast (unlike
when I trained Maui in the winter).