Dog constantly barks at the TV

[FloralLove]

I have a 4 year old Westie. She barks at the TV all the time, mainly when other animals appear on the TV. She will sit and watch the TV and her eyes scan the screen constantly. She has also learnt when animals are going to appear as she has learnt to recognise cues from adverts she regularly sees. She will bark and jump up at the TV.

She is quite a nervous and reactive dog in general. However I am usually able to train her out of the behaviour. For example she used to bark and lunge at the vacuum but I used positive reinforcement to stop that and now she just ignores the vacuum. I have even made some success with getting to stop her barking at dogs she sees on walks. However with the TV my attempts so far have been unsuccessful.

Does anyone have any advice?

Thank you

[vanillandhoney]

Sounds frustrating! I don't have much advice but didn't want your thread to go unanswered - mine ignores the TV but barks when I'm on the phone!

I've had some success with putting him on his lead - which is fine if I'm making the call, but doesn't stop him barking when someone calls me

You could try distracting with a chew? Or when she barks, turn the TV off? So if she wants to have the TV on, she has to be quiet? Not sure how far you'd get but might be worth a shot?

Hopefully someone with more experience comes along soon!

[Keepsmiling1]

We are having the same problem. DDog is 1 and never barks at dogs in real life, only on the TV. We have started taking him outside when he starts barking and closing the door. He comes back in quickly and we just take him back out until he can come back in without barking. It's quite tiring but I'm hoping it will work eventually.

[Shambolical1]

If your dog is nervy/reactive she may react better if you get up and go out of the room when she barks at the TV.

Say nothing, just get up and go. Don't close the door. She'll probably get a bit confused and come to find you. When she does and is quiet, or if she stops barking because she doesn't have you as 'back-up', you can reward her and go back in (or go back in and reward her if she stays in the room with the TV).

It's a bit less of a disturbance than taking the dog out, letting her back in, etc., and she should learn that she gets your company (and attention) when she's being a nice calm member of the family and not when she's barking at the TV.

With a bolder dog, removing him/her from the room and excluding them works well but with an anxious dog that approach can cause more anxiety on top.

[scullie]

We've had this. Every time our dog barked at the TV (usually at other animals) I picked her up without saying anything and put her out of the room we were in and shut the door. When she was quiet she was let back in and if she stayed quiet I told her she's a good girl and she got a small treat.
If she barked again she got taken out again and only allowed back in when she was quiet. And I rinsed and repeated until it worked... which it did.
She now only has a little grumble when they come on and I'm ok with that 🙂
It may take time but it worked for us. Good luck!