Tips for reactive barking

[ChockysChimichanga]

I’ve looked online but our situation doesn’t seem to match what’s happening. Our year old terrier has started barking in two main situations:

• when she hears next door’s dog or the dog in the house behind bark (unfortunately, they both bark quite a bit)
• she will stand in the garden or go to the fence and bark as if she’s trying to attract their attention

She doesn’t really bark much at any other time but it’s becoming a big problem in the garden and I’m paranoid that people will complain. I’ve tried distracting her but she basically ignores me and all I can do is lure her inside with a treat then keep her in which is not ideal as it feels like I’m rewarding the barking. She’s a very friendly and confident little dog generally.

I’d really like to get on top of it before it gets any worse. If anyone’s had any success in these situations I’d be grateful to hear it.

My previous Lab started barking at people in the street from our balcony. I used to bundle him in, not saying anything, then shut him away for five minutes. It only took a few repetitions before it stopped.

Getting her in from the garden is a bit trickier unfortunately! She will just run away and hide under a bush if she thinks I’m going to grab her.

It’s like she’s ‘talking’ to the other dogs or trying to get them to ‘talk’ to her.

Long line so he's got room to move about in the garden but I can still bring him inside when he's starts being annoying by barking at other dogs/squirrels/the neighbour's cat/the magpies.

Just returning to this because we’ve been on holiday with her this week and the barking has been awful. She’s barking at everything - flies, other dogs in the distance, birds, people walking on the gravel where we’re staying and often seemingly nothing at all.

It’s so wearing. We’ve tried making a pen for her outside so she could be with us when we were sitting outside. She barked. We kept her in the kitchen with a board up at the door. She barked. We sat inside with her. She barked. It’s not constant, she’ll just sit there for a bit then it will be barkbarkbarkbarkwooooowooobarkbark.

We did try a long line which was good except she basically wound it around every tree and piece or garden furniture in sight. 😂

She will have been on high alert because she was in a new and unfamiliar place - she’s perceived them as possible threats and has been letting everyone know she’s there. I’d write off last week as just one of those things and try again from next week. Terriers can be barky, they’re lively things! Keeps going with the long line to bring her in when she barks, reward when she’s quiet - we name the behaviour with a calm “quiet” and then use our marker word “yes!” before treating immediately. ChenDog is still a work in progress too - there are days when I could happily hand him back! Also screen off gaps in the fence where they can l see through. There’s loads on YouTube - Kikopup, Susan Garrett and Spirit Dog are good for advice and practical tips.

Thanks, that’s really helpful. She’s seemed to enjoy exploring so it didn’t occur to me she might be feeling a bit tense somewhere new.

Hi OP, I have no advice but I'm following the thread in the hopes of some tips! My 1 year old dachshund is exactly the same and barks constantly, I know how you feel it's exhausting x

Just coming back to this as we’re now having a problem with her not settling and barking at night.

She goes out for a short walk/toilet 9-10pm then sleeps in our bedroom. She has a bed but will often jump on our bed which is fine. The problem is then that she will hear something in the night and either start barking or start agitating to go outside by pawing one of us until we wake up. We use white noise but it doesn’t seem to help much and DH and I are both knackered from constant broken sleep!

We give her a calming treat before bed and we’ve created a bedtime routine for her where she plays with her ball and has her tummy tickled on the bed with us. I’m reluctant to put her back in the kitchen at night because she’d wake up then too and she clearly feels happier being with us but really not sure what to do.

The only thing that worked for pain in the arse barking spaniel was to teach him to bark on command (speak!) and then to teach him to quiet on command (quiet!) so when he was an arsehole outside I’d have a stinky treat like hotdog and say quiet! And 9/10 he’d shut up for the hotdog.

Terriers are shits for barking and stubborn so I’m not sure if this would 100% work for her.

Have you been to the vets to have ears checked? She could have in infection and noise is irritating.

She is slowly getting commands not to bark but as you say, stubborn terrier!

I would recommend getting help from a professional behaviourist at this stage, as it's very easy to inadvertently make anxious behaviours much worse.

You need someone who can come and see your dog in person, how she behaves (and more importantly, how you deal with her behaviour).

Anxiety related issues shouldn't be dealt with by well-meaning strangers as it has the risk of going very wrong.

I wouldn’t play with the ball or tickle her before bed - both of those will excite her and flood her with adrenaline. If anything, practise calming exercises before bed - there’s loads online you can use.

Is she getting woken by the birds? They’re on the go from about 3am here, it’s very annoying!

It’s birds and foxes mainly I think. The white noise works up to a point but if it’s particularly loud then it doesn’t.

Good point about the play, it’s not particularly vigorous but she does seem to enjoy the attention and is affectionate with it.

I don’t think she’s anxious, just young and interested in everything around her!

Try to slow things right down before bedtime. If you’re interested, there’s also stuff online about dog massage which they can find very relaxing. DH thinks I’m mad - but what does he know!

Have you taught the calm settle?

Dog Training Advice and Support Group on Facebook is often recommended on here, it's excellent

Thank you, I will look at those suggestions.

Is it the one with the green banner?

👍 yes

I don’t think she’s anxious, just young and interested in everything around her!

That's probably true as well, but most dogs who struggle to settle and who are reactive (as per your original issue) tend to be quite anxious overall.

A calm and confident dog shouldn't feel the need to be constantly on edge and bark or react to every single thing.