[nagdu] Barking Puppies!

[Tami Jarvis]

Barb,

I'm glad you brought this back to the top. I was thinking about it, then 
never got back to Abigail.

Abigail, my girl has been known to get vocal in harness, so I know how 
embarrassing that is! When she was younger, she would sometimes bark at 
other dogs on the sidewalk or across parking lots. She's gone through a 
couple of phases where she would vocalize at other dogs in public, which 
I could have cheerfully strangled her for.

So what I did was take the rotten monster to places where we could 
encounter other dogs outdoors to work with teaching her to remember her 
manners. I use clicker-training, so my methods revolved around that.

The first thing to remember about barking is that it is an excited 
behavior and also a group behavior. So I made things a little worse 
because I let my embarrassment that my guide dog was barking get me 
excited. Sigh. Even now sometimes when our dogs are window-barking, I 
will just yell at them and wonder why they bark more... That's because 
they hear me barking with them. So I have to get up and move them away 
from the window if they don't respond to a calm, "Quiet."

With Mitzi, I found that using the GL to pull her head away from what 
she was barking at -- or even just using my hand on her long snout to 
turn her away was the most effective first step. That removed the reward 
from staring and barking at the distraction. Then I could move her on in 
the other direction or have her do something else like sitting. So the 
"quiet" command was to get the quiet, followed by an active command for 
what I wanted instead. Then I could reward that and also have her mind 
on something else (I hoped).

I found that including a "leave it" after the "quiet" was also useful. 
"Quiet" to keep her fool poodle mouth shut, "leave it" to leave the 
distraction itself, then "forward" (or whichever directional command) to 
get her moving again, which is the behavior I actually wanted.

The good thing about using the positive approach to barking is that it 
is calmer and less likely to add excitement to the bark event as a leash 
correction and sharp vocal tone might. I don't know what methods your 
school uses or that you are using, of course.

The other thing about barking is that it is self-rewarding. It's just so 
darn fun to bark! So dealing with it requires much, much time and much, 
much patience. Death threats and mentions of medieval practices in a 
sweet voice can help you express your feelings without exciting the dog. 
/lol/

Anyway, now Mitzi will sometimes give a low moan of misery at the effort 
and sadness of not running off at the mouth. Most of the time, it seems 
she's decided to give up on the whole thing and just do her job without 
commentary. Whew! We recently moved to a rural town, where there is much 
walking for us past many, many dog distractions. So that helped me, 
since she had done some backsliding when we weren't doing as much of 
that before we got moved. She's downright civilized these days! /smile/

It can also help to figure out what, precisely, the dog is responding to 
and which emotional trigger starts the barking. So, say, with the phone 
ring, it could be she thinks she's alerting you. It could be she is 
telling it to be quiet and go away -- chasing it off, so to speak. Or 
maybe she thinks it will attack you and is warning it of her intent to 
stand guard? Who knows with dogs. Like I say, it can be helpful to 
figure that part out and work from there. It's not always possible. And 
sometimes, as near as I can tell, it's just fun to bark and the phone 
reminds her of that.

Don't know if any of that is helpful for you, but it's about all I know. 
/smile/ Sorry you don't feel you can get help from your trainer on the 
behavior at home and/or where it's actually happening. Hope you can get 
it worked out.

Tami

On 11/25/2013 08:35 PM, barbandzoe at comcast.net wrote:
> WOW, first, the school tool your dog, do I dare ask witch one, I am looking into getting a dog and I haven't settled on  a school yet.  Second, this isn't a guide dog issue, it sounds like a dog issue.  If you have the money or can find someone who knows dog training to help deal with the dog issue.  I would not want the school to take my dog over barking if I could find some help near by.
> I would look up dog trainers in my area and talk to them and see what they can do.
>
> ----- Original Message -----
>
> From: "Abigail Marie Bolling" <violingirl30794 at gmail.com>
> To: nagdu at nfbnet.org
> Sent: Wednesday, November 20, 2013 3:45:24 PM
> Subject: [nagdu] Barking Puppies!
>
> Hi All,
>
> My sweet little Jada has a little bit of a barking issue.
> Unfortunately, I am a bit hesitant to call my school for help because
> last time I called because she was barking, they took her away from me
> for a month...
>
> But anyway. Jada barks at doorbells.
> And not just the house one either.
> She barks at them during movies, on TV and even the ringtone on the
> IPhone. (I'm not kidding.)
>
> I've tried to incorporate the doorbell on the IPhone into our daily
> obedience sessions, but it's not seeming to work.
> I have at least 3 rings before she will lay or sit quietly, then she
> is fine. But instantaneous doorbells make her bark and I can't seem to
> break her of them.
> I've tried grabbing her muzzle and staring her down, I've tried verbal
> corrections and collar corrections. (I don't think it should warrant a
> high collar unless she is aggressive but I could be wrong.)
>
> She seems to also bark at men for some reason. If a man walks into the
> Pizza Parlor where I work and Jada is in her crate, she will bark.
>
> "Quiet," doesn't really work. She will however go from full bark to
> belly bark. Should I settle for belly bark as long as it's not
> distracting?
>
> The other thing is that she will bark and whine at other dogs while
> working in harness, but she will also work past them just pulling a
> little. (And not necessarily toward the other dog.) Should I just let
> it go if she is working well?
>
>
> Thanks, and hopefully I didn't ask too much! :)
>
> Abby and Princess Jada
>