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Help with barking problem!

7 replies

StrawHats · 19/11/2021 19:40

Hi
We have a four year old border terrier who drives us potty with barking but only at specific times so I feel it must be something they could be trained out of.

The triggers are:
-seeing / sensing a fox or other animal in garden at night (we have huge windows don’t have blinds)

  • people coming to the house (she’s quiet as soon as she can say hello)
-us going down the stair case to the garden and her thinking she’s going outside so gets excited

We try to shush her and make her heel on the stairs when she barks like mad accompanying us down the stairs but it doesn’t really work. We then try to look for pause in the barking to say well done but it’s not that effective.

Any advice? The bark goes right through us and is especially annoying in the evening when we’re trying to relax!

She’s generally a sweetie but this is driving us potty.

OP posts:
TotoBay · 19/11/2021 19:51

Hi OP I have a barker too. The fox and people are alarm barking - she’s telling you they’re there (or them to go away). Foxes are hardest I found, she’s literally defending her territory. The best way to deal with it is deter foxes/put up blinds/keep her away from the area eg change where she sleeps.

I’d start with the walking downstairs to the garden one - does she sometimes get to go to the garden and sometimes not? Stair gate?what starts the barking as this is different to the others it’s not about an external thing, it’s something you are doing.

Back to alarm barking - I’ve had huge success with mine with managing the triggers/ moving furniture/ frosting windows / having background noise but there are ways to teach them ‘quiet’ which you can google - however with alarm barking it helped me to remember she’s not barking for attention, she’s doing her job. Weirdly, acknowledging it and saying ‘yes thank you - ENOUGH’ does now work for mine - but it takes time.

StrawHats · 19/11/2021 20:02

Thanks for your response Toto

The stairs barking is about us going outside and her coming too. So if we empty the kitchen bin for instance she’ll know it’s time to go out and will start to bark. The weird thing is she can go out when she likes and back door is usually open. But she’ll bark like mad whilst charging down the stairs but only when accompanying us. She’ll hold back and keeping barking while waiting for us if we’re not quick enough!

We honestly cannot get blinds as it’s a vast open plan space which is mostly glazed.

I like the idea of a ‘thank you enough signal’ but is that really all I would say?

OP posts:
StrawHats · 19/11/2021 20:05

I will google ‘quiet’ signals. Thanks

OP posts:
TotoBay · 19/11/2021 20:58

It’s so interesting- but also frankly the most annoying thing I’ve ever had to deal with because when I got mine I had a memorable few weeks of night barking on the hour, and I was on my knees with tiredness, so have done a LOT of research. I’m not a trainer or behaviourist though so there is that option for you. I did get one who was able to help teach things like distraction as there’s a moment they take a breath before launching int alert barking where you can treat and stop it, but you have to be there!

If your dog is 4, has she always barked whenever you’ve gone outside or is it since you moved? Did something happen outside once? I guess I’d be trying to figure out what she’s trying to tell you or get from it and working backwards. Does she get a reward when you go out like play? So for example don’t let her go with you when you take the bin, what happens? Is she warning you about something or is she asking you for something?

Always worth considering the basics too. Mine doesn’t bark and bugger about when she’s too tired to bark and bugger about. For us that means routine and lots of work - she’s a gundog and I try to give her a day which means she comes back ready to sleep, not run about looking for mischief/excitement/invaders. Yours was bred to run after foxes (which is why I think you’ll struggle to train out anything triggered by a fox) ALL DAY. Is she bored?

More questions than answers sorry, and like I say a behaviourist would be able to figure this out a million times better than me, but I do feel for you so wanted to help. Good luck - and if you find a way to stop a dog barking at a fox, please come back on and let me know Smile

StrawHats · 20/11/2021 10:17

Hi toto, actually I think that everything you say really rings true (about it being better when she’s had a longer walk and it not being about attention etc) so really helpful to have you draw all these points together.

I think we need to work on the quiet command and increase the walks.

She sees the trip downstairs as a signal for playtime as we have a huge garden and sometimes play games outside instead of walking her. (There are reasons for this).

So …I think we also need a signal to tell her that it’s okay time vs another reason for going outside.
Any ideas on that?!

OP posts:
StrawHats · 20/11/2021 10:20

*play time not okay time!

OP posts:
TotoBay · 20/11/2021 14:15

I have a dog doorbell on the floor next to my patio doors - some people use this for the dog to ring to go out to toilet but you might need to watch that as I suspect yours is clever and will use it to summon you for some attention SmileI press it with my foot to signal she’s to go/come out. It’s just a cheap 5 pound thing like an old fashioned doorbell and the ping is not like my actual doorbell (obviously).

Honestly I’d start with your routine and really active walks where she gets to do some work like finding a ball or whatever. Same in the house or garden - brain activities not racing about. Easier to teach quiet and settle and everything else if she has worked her brain. Lots of time with other dogs if she’s happy with them.

She’s telling you something, I just don’t know what it is! But what did work for me was ‘thank you - enough’ with quite a firm ‘enough’ and also looking out the window just helped her realise I’d seen the stimulus too, then massive praise when quiet. Reassurance also worked ‘it’s ok pup all ok out there’ and distraction. That can include treats but you need to make that treating the quiet and different to feeding her everytime she barked.

Further down the line you not only need clear signals to her (playtime now) but to change her signals to you (yapping). So what also works is replacing the behaviour with something else. We basically want them to STOP doing something, right? Then train something else. When someone comes to the door, your job now little dog is to pick up a toy and bring it to them or me. Or go sit in a spot (harder). Whatever your job is, the reward when you do this is better than barking. Picking stuff up is really good as it’s harder to bark with mouth full! You’ll need to break this down into steps to teach it and maybe a very patient visitor/couple of visitors who can come and spend an afternoon ‘visiting’ repeatedly and making an enormous fuss of the dog with some really high value reward as it meets the steps. You’ll need to go really overboard with praise/steak here as you’re competing with the adrenaline from barking so it has to be worthwhile to her.

What never worked was raising voice or telling off. Dog clearly just thought oh yes there is a reason to be barking, even she’s doing it…or maybe she thought bad things happen when people come/I see things so I am right to be concerned. Who knows, mine is bonkers, bless her.

I learnt barking is rewarding and adrenaline kicks in. So we might not punish it, but also don’t reward it. I’d never go out to play when I’ve been told to by barking, I’d be looking to decide when it’s playtime and tell her (bell would work well here).

You’ll need to be patient. Even as I type this mine is looking out the window at a delivery van considering if it’s worth a bark. But she’s had a good walk today and 20mins of hard work (just finding a ball in hedges) so she contented herself with a grumble and I told her that was ‘alright, good quiet, good girl’ and we didn’t have a meltdown. Sometimes we sit at the big bay window and see that these things are ok, just fine, together. I’m not going to intervene over a grumble or a little yip, don’t sweat the small stuff. Six months ago I’d have been building a headache from the yipping and racing up and down. A year ago nobody slept a full night for weeks. I’m very proud of her, but always working on it.

Do come back and update on what worked if you can, as I’m also always looking for more ideas. As you can tell from my long rambles, I’ve found it really rewarding and it’s built our bond, and the huge bonus is the (more) peaceful house!

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