Isn't it wonderful when all your hard work pays off

[pigsDOfly]

My dog and I have worked so hard trying to overcome her fear of the hoover (lots of fearful growling and lunging).

Today I was hoovering the stairs with the small hoover and looking around for her, as she was very quiet, found her standing behind me watching.

Took out the big hoover to do the living room carpet and she quietly took herself upstairs, as I've been training her to do.

She sat upstairs in my bedroom until I'd put the hoover away and then came downstairs to lots of praise and her special hoover treats (chicken breast). Wonderful.

This is the third time she's done this, so not a fluke. So proud :) and very pleased that something so scary is no longer an issue.

That's great well done looks like the chicken paid off.

Thanks Tillypo.

Yes the chicken breast is also being used to stop her barking when I tell her and that's also working well. Definitely something I keep for the more tricky bits of training.

Hi pigs - can you tell me what you're doing to stop barking? I'm trying to stop my puppy barking which he does randomly, like when I'm standing still in the kitchen?

I don't know how to stop it except to ignore which I find really hard so I keep resorting to 'shush' and 'be quiet' when of course I know he doesn't understand that at all!

Sorry it's taken me so long to reply Mintchocchick, I've only just seen this as I've been out. Wasn't ignoring you.

Tbh I probably didn't do it by the book iyswim, as I'm not a terribly experienced dog owner - she's my first dog and she's 2 and a half - so not sure I'm qualified to advise you.

I live on quite a busy street (lots of people walking by, Victorian houses opening on to the street) so she would sit on the stairs and bark at everyone. When she started I would just say 'that's enough' and if and when she stopped I would reward her immediately with a high value treat i.e. dried chicken breast, or dried chicken liver in her case.

It took a while, but I just kept doing it and made sure I always had the treats to hand. I also did this to stop her barking too much when the doorbell rang.

She's got it down to a fine art now as she'll often stop by herself after a few barks and come and sit in front of me waiting for her reward.

As I say, I have no idea if that's how you're supposed to do it but it worked for us and she's gone from being a small barky puppy to a nice quiet young adult.

She's small and fluffy and I really didn't want to be the owner of a small yappy dog :)

Thanks pigs - I understand not wanting to be the owner of a yappy dog. I've got a big breed - old english sheepdog - and they can be really barky. A bit scary for small children so I'm really motivated to stop it in its tracks.

Might try a command like you do and then treat when he stops. He tends to bark to tell us something though - like if I'm running the tap, he will bark if his water bowl is low - sensible really. If it's near food time, and I'm near the place he is fed, he'll bark so it's often 'nee' related which seems like positive communication.

Then again he also barks at me when I stand still sending texts and that makes me jump out my skin!

Sounds like he's really communicating, that's a lovely form of barking, my dog barks when she wants her tummy rubbed.

Obviously she's allowed a certain amount of barking, but it's horrible if it goes on and on (we're still working on stopping when she hears a dog barking outside) and it's nice to be able to have some control over it.

Hope it works as well for you as it has for me.