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Barking out the Window

kylith

So, I've had Finn about 6 weeks now (How time flies!) and in general he's great apart from 2 things. Even with the front attach harness he pulls like a train, we're working on that and it'll take time. Secondly, he barks at people passing the house. I can understand why: he'd have learned to bark at anything and everything in the rescue, and after being here a while he's probably feeling territorial. However, I can't spend the rest of my life with my curtains drawn so he can't see out. And it's not just barking; the hackles go up and he races up and down the living room in agitation.

Any suggestions on how to stop this behaviour?

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Eric Marley

You can try shouting at him everytime he misbehaves. He'll eventually learn that everytime he hears certain words from you he should stop whatever he's doing, cause it's wrong. Dogs learn to obey, just the same way they learn hunting and so on.

OldmanMondeo

Eric Marley wrote: »

You can try shouting at him everytime he misbehaves. He'll eventually learn that everytime he hears certain words from you he should stop whatever he's doing, cause it's wrong. Dogs learn to obey, just the same way they learn hunting and so on.

No shouting is wrong. Try call him over and give a treat, so after a while he will learn that when called it is good and he will stop barking after a while.

Dubl07

Shouting at the dog can be misconstrued as you joining in the hullabaloo and could reinforce the behaviour. :pac:

Zak George breaks it down very well here. Get Finn's attention (train look at me when he's calm as a first step) and reward, reassure him that you have things under control. Reward heavily when he does what you want.

Arkady

kylith wrote: »

So, I've had Finn about 6 weeks now (How time flies!) and in general he's great apart from 2 things. Even with the front attach harness he pulls like a train, we're working on that and it'll take time. Secondly, he barks at people passing the house. I can understand why: he'd have learned to bark at anything and everything in the rescue, and after being here a while he's probably feeling territorial. However, I can't spend the rest of my life with my curtains drawn so he can't see out. And it's not just barking; the hackles go up and he races up and down the living room in agitation.

Any suggestions on how to stop this behaviour?

I'm not sure, what does your dog think about Finn doing this ?

kylith

Arkady wrote: »

I'm not sure, what does your dog think about Finn doing this ?

Lol

I've been trying the call, distract, treat method (as recommended in that Zak George video) and it seems to be going petty well, either that or I've just trained him to randomly growl at the window when he wants a treat. Now I stink of hot dogs.

I'll persevere with it and hopefully it'll pay off. His really explosive bursts have no preceding warning that I can see so hopefully the ones where he does give the starting growl will transfer over.

DBB

Eric Marley wrote: »

You can try shouting at him everytime he misbehaves. He'll eventually learn that everytime he hears certain words from you he should stop whatever he's doing, cause it's wrong. Dogs learn to obey, just the same way they learn hunting and so on.

Shouting at them teaches them little of any value, but it will at best encourage barking, and at worst give your dog something to fear you for.
Dogs don't learn to hunt, as such. Whilst I appreciate that they can learn to fine-hone their hunting skills, the actual hunting ability itself is a fixed-action pattern, an instinct. It cannot be taught. That's why they don't use chihuahuas as ratters, or rottweilers as gundogs. You just can't teach them to do something they're not wired to do.

Kylith, as well as the distraction technique, you might find that it helps, whilst you're working on it, to put that not-quite-see-through contact film on your windows up to head height... Finn head height. It'll help tone down the external stimuli a bit. Also, perhaps have the TV or radio on just loud enough to mask the sound of passers-by.
Another trick that can help with a barky dog is to put the bark on cue. This leads to two things...
1. Once well established, dogs are less likely to carry out the cued behaviour unless they're asked to, and
2. To complement the bark-on-cue, you can concurrently teach the quiet-on-cue. A damn handy cue when you've a noisy dog!

If you want to know more about how to, I'll post it, but I know you're clued in and probably have a fair grasp of how to go about it

Dial Hard

kylith wrote:

I've been trying the call, distract, treat method (as recommended in that Zak George video) and it seems to be going petty well, either that or I've just trained him to randomly growl at the window when he wants a treat. Now I stink of hot dogs.

Reminds me of someone I know who bell-trained their dog for going out to the loo. Of course, any time the dog saw anything remotely interesting outside that she wanted to investigate, off went the bell.

They're definitely training us sometimes!

Cherry Blossom

I taught speak and quiet commands and progressed to using quiet for unwanted barking. Poppy used to go nuts at the post woman, so I asked her to post treats through the letterbox before and after the letters and that solved that particular problem.

Posy

DBB wrote: »

Another trick that can help with a barky dog is to put the bark on cue. This leads to two things...
1. Once well established, dogs are less likely to carry out the cued behaviour unless they're asked to, and
2. To complement the bark-on-cue, you can concurrently teach the quiet-on-cue. A damn handy cue when you've a noisy dog!

If you want to know more about how to, I'll post it, but I know you're clued in and probably have a fair grasp of how to go about it

Could you post it please for those of us who aren't clued in? :pac:

kylith

We're doing ok so far. The main problem with the furious barking is that it seems random, some people he won't react to at all, some he'll bark at, and some he will go totally bananas at. I wasn't prepared yesterday and wound up getting raked down the side with his nails and smacked in the side of the head with his whole weight as he threw himself around the place. I think I'll just open the curtains on one side so I can be safe while we get this sorted.

On a related note; I dehydrated some sweet potato slices in the oven for about 3 hours and to say they're a hit would be an understatement. He loves the things, I'm going to have to make a pile more!

mymo

My two love sweet potato strips too, make them good and chewy, I use them after a training session to wind down.

Toots

My Bella went through a phase of doing this, and one thing I found brilliant as an all around 'stop' no matter what she was doing, was the Pet Corrector spray. Basically it's just a can of compressed air, but it makes a loud hiss, and would distract her from whatever she was doing. With the barking, once she heard the hiss, she'd stop barking, and we'd call her over and ask her to sit. When she did this she'd get a treat. It got to the point that all I'd have to do was move my hand towards the can and she'd stop barking.

kylith

He's so nervey I don't think that'd be a good idea, but thanks for the suggestion.

Posy

Could someone in the know please post how to get a dog to bark on cue and be quiet on cue?

I've been googling it, but that's just left me more confused, if anything.

DBB

Posy wrote: »

Could someone in the know please post how to get a dog to bark on cue and be quiet on cue?

I've been googling it, but that's just left me more confused, if anything.

Feck! Sorry, I forgot to get back to you on this one!
Okay... I personally prefer to get a bark going outside of the problem context. In other words, don't try to "capture" the barking when the dog is in mid-emotional looney place.
You can very often prompt a little vocalisation by asking your dog to sit, then doing little bit of gentle teasing... If your dog likes a ball, then show him the ball but don't let him have it, at least until you get a little noise out of him (you may get a full bark straight off).
The second the vocalisation happens, big verbal praise and give the dog the ball (or treat, or toy).
As the vocalisation becomes more predictable in this scenario, then the verbal cue can be added just ahead of the vocalisation... You should be able to see the dog drawing breath, or the jaw tensing just before the bark.
You can then develop it so that when you ask for the "speak", wait for two barks before the reward is delivered, then 3, then 4 etc.
This is all potentially achievable in the space of a couple of training sessions, depending on the dog.

Now, you can start to introduce the "quiet" verbal cue. When the dog barks several times on cue, say a clear, lonnnggg "quiiiiiiet" cue. I also use a hand cue, a sort of back and forth swipe with my two hands... Visual cues tend to work quicker than verbal. Most dogs will stop to consider what you're doing... Bingo! Big praise and treat/ball/toy.
From hereon in, the two cues can be used in concert... You verbally start the barking, and verbally stop it.

Time now to start practising this in different, gradually more difficult scenarios, including the scenario that has been causing problems.
I will add though, that where there's a problem scenario where the dog is barking *at* something as the op describes, it is important to also remove him from the window and go to his bed too, just to remove temptation and not have him in a position where he's almost forced to ignore your cues.
Hope this helps. Shout if you're more confused now!

Posy

Thank you so much!

That's my weekend activities sorted.

DBB

I should add, even a little noise is enough to reward at the start.... You'll often get a little rumble at first... Grab this with your praise and reward, and build it from there

kylith

I haven't had much practise at this yet since I can only do it at weekends. I'll let ye know how it goes though.

Noahboah2014

My dog barks day and night at everything. Just barks and barks. I am at my wits end and with a baby due to arrive soon need to help her settle down and relax on the barking.
She barks at every stranger & car that passes but strangely the only time she doesn't bark is when she sees myself or my husbands car pull into the drive.