Dog barking at passers by!

[Aquarius94]

After some advice please

We've recently moved from a 3 storey house where the living room was located on the middle floor at the rear, to a 2 storey where the living room is at the front of the house and has a large bay window.

My dog is not used to see people pass the house or go by the window and this seems to be stressing him out, he growls and sometimes barks while jumped up at the window and is struggling to settle in here if the blinds are open.

Does anyone know how I could encourage him to settle and show that the people passing aren't scary and he can watch them calmly? I don't want to sit with the blinds shut all the time if I can help it

He is very good with people and meets strangers happily so this is a totally new issue for us.

Thanks!

No advice I’m sorry but lots of sympathy as my puppy has started doing the same! She barks even when there’s a noise outside so just closing the blinds doesn’t work for us either. She wakes me up in the night when the milkman comes. We didn’t hear a sound from her for the first 6 months!

It's a tough problem to solve as you have to be there 100% of the time and catch him before he starts. IME once they start growling and barking, they're too hyped up to take a treat or to really learn anything, sadly.

Personally I would just put privacy film up at the windows so the light can still get in, but the dogs can't see out.

I would precent access to the room for a while or blick the view as you are doing.

If the dog is happy in the room with the view blocked I would acknowledge the noise from outside and treat. Hopefully the dog is not reacting and barking at this stage. If they are go into another room where you can hear some of the noise but at not such intensity.

Gradually over time treat the sound and then tilt the blinds to see some movement and treat when they see the movement.

Important that this is not distracting from the noise but acknowledging it and then good things happen when I hear the noist, you will then be able to do this with visual, see the people treat and your dogs reaction will change to turn to you when they see the people not bark etc.

At a separate time teach bed or boundary training and then when this is solid in a calm room bring into the sitting room. SO sitting room = calm and be on boundary.

Do short sessions no more than a few minutes a day to start with - use your dogs daily food allowance.

precent =prevent!

I would only let him in the room when you are in the room too and you can distract/reprimand him when he barks.If you are busy in the room and cant observe him all the time,have the blinds down.If he barks, I would use a sharp voice saying NO Barking,put him on the lead,remove him from window and sit quietly with him away fro the window.when he is calm and the window is not of interest to him anymore,give him a treat with praise.

You could get window film (Amazon have it for about £8) it lets the light in but stops the dog seeing out

It breaks the cycle of looking out to bark. Then in time you could remove it. Our pup started occasionally barking and someone recommended this and it’s fab. We have a very busy pathway outside and frankly whilst we could of trained her out of it I’m sure we didn’t want it to escalate and this solved it easily