Anyone have a magic wand for barking? :(

[Miffki]

3 dogs aged 3 to 7. All small breeds.
Lovely doggos but they absolutely hate anyone coming to/near the house. Postie/amazon man/leaflet through the door = apocalyptic barkdown.

I've given up having anyone in the house because my pug just does not calm down and she runs/lunges at people. She doesn't bite, just acts like she is going to.

If I put the dogs in another room and they can hear an unfamiliar voice they will bark until that person leaves.

To be clear, they are not barking all day everyday. Its only when we have a delivery or someone new is in the house, which isn't often.

But now it's summer and the windows are open and we are spending time in the garden they bark if they hear people talking whilst walking passed or neighboursnin the garden.

I have tried things. I have tried some individual training but my pug is genuinely stupid. I know that may seem unkind but she is either daft or incredibly defiant. In 6 years she has refused to even learn 'paw'.

I tried the 'sit on the dog' technique for calming. Didn't work and was just not right for our household.

In desperation I have tried spray bottles, which do work to shush them but its not nice is it and it doesnt really tackle the problem at the root. It doesn't fix them, just temporarily stop it.

Crate training, they don't settle if they hear someone.

I got those vibrating collars for barking, didn't work.

And eventually I paid £140 for a highly recommended trainer to come round and he hit my dog! I am not kidding. He karate chopped him and yes it shut him up but he was terrified and it probably made the problem 100% worse and now he has confirmation that outside people are scary!!

I don't have the money for a trainer right now, had sone expensive vet bills layely.

I think the main problem is there are 3 of them and its a chain reaction. The youngest is fine with people coming in the house and greets them. The oldest is happy to, but does bark until he is introduced but the pug hates everyone and once one starts barking they all kick off in a whirlwind.

It's really getting me down. Please don't judge me too badly. Ive had a lot of illnesses since getting the youngest dog and I should have tackled it earlier but i really wasn't able.

Any constructive help would really be appreciated.

They are fine outside the house/on walks. They don't bark at all.

I think its a house protection thing.

Watching with interest as my pooch is very vocal! I got a trainer for her, and she was great but moving forwards, it would require me constantly being able to anticipate a bark and get in there first with a distraction. I had to disable the ring doorbell chime on my phone as that set her off but now if I say hello at my phone, she still bloody knows there’s someone outside and woofs!

Following- we have a 2 year old Spaniel, who barks and growls when kids have friends over. Fine with my parents etc, but not other people. Can shhh him or tell him to stop but its hit and miss.

I feel like I could work with them all individually and make some progress but when they're all together it would just go out the window.

Yes my pug has a tolerance for my mum and a genuine love for one friend but everyone else is a mortal enemy and traitor to the state!

I found this too. The trainer did give some good tips and the dogs responded to him implementing the techniques but they were much less effective coming from me and I found it impossible to try and control the behaviour of all of them at once when a letter came.

I had 4 ddogs. All followed suit from original ddog 1 and honestly never barked in the house or garden. Ndn commented they never heard them. Consistently and putting the time in.
Anyone barks =they all go inside.. Every time and every one..
Bark at home? All removed into the designated room. Literally a few minutes /until they stop.
Can you use window film to mask them seeing people passing?.
YouTube have lots of ddog calming music for when you aren't home
Plug ins?
Currently have a dpuppy and she is learning fast.

We have window film, they don't see anyone.

And that is exactly what I do, as soon as they bark in the garden they all go inside. They don't care. They just come out again and are OK until they hear a person or another dog and start again.

Inside there isn't another room to put them in. Theres just the living room and kitchen.

I really don't think they understand the correlation between them being taken inside and the barking.
If we were in the living room and someone knocked on the door moving them to kitchen wouldnt make a difference, they'd just go crazy in the kitchen instead.

Also you say your puppy is learning fast, but also that your older dogs don't bark, so its obviously a lot easier to deal with.

My oldest is a shihzu. Absolutely notorious for protection barking.

google Victoria Stilwell she has a great programme to stop dogs barking like nutters at doors. she is good no shock collars etc

A friend used to bang saucepan lids together every time the dog barked. It always shocked the dog into silence and she improved hugely.

Focus on the pug. You may need to have her on a lead for a while so you can correct her immediately. A waist belt one is useful for this. Pugs are notoriously hard to train) but it can be done. You have to be 100% consistent though. You could always call the Dogs Behaving very badly man!

Surely thats just going to annoy my neighbours even more 🤣🤣

Imagine a guest coming in the house and theres 3 dogs going crazy and me banging lids together

Well I would more do the training if say someone walks past the house and she barks bang the lids. It shouldn’t take much before she stops barking as they don’t like hearing the saucepan lids and then associate barking with hearing it

You have used a lot of aversives, (including the spray), which have made your stressed and worried dogs worse.

This can be fixed, but not in one paragraph and if you have told yourself your pug refuses to learn, you have lost the battle already.

The training needs to be done one-on-one with each dog in parallel, so they can focus and learn. Are you willing to do this?

I agree with @Theraininspainishere you’ve chosen to use aversive training techniques on your dogs so you’ve stressed them out even more.

We use hand signals with our dogs and they have a signal for quiet, whatever you do don’t shout at them as this can make the barking worse. The lunging is worrying when someone comes into your home, that’s a different training need from the barking issue. I know you say you can’t afford a trainer but from what you’ve said you’re going to need help with the lunging dog. As someone up thread said Victoria Stillwell is very good, look her up and be very very careful who you take advice from either online or saying they’re a “trainer” in person. If any “trainer” had raised a hand to any of my dogs they’d have been booted out the front door and I mean literally booted.

I also agree you’ve already given up by thinking your dogs can’t be trained, unless you change your mindset and stay consistent they’re behaviour isn’t going to change.

Poor dogs. They're bred from wild animals who need space and freedom, not to be forced into captivity with 1000 other dogs within a kilometre radius, let alone thousands of humans/cats constantly coming and going. They're probably severely anxious and stopping the barking by disciplining them isn't going to stop the anxiety; just repress them. The things we impose on other species. Sad.

I've also done lots of positive reinforcement training. Including clicker/treat training.

It just doesn't helpnwith the barking. As soon as the door goes they lose all focus

Clicker training is how we trained them. Toileting, walking nicely on lead, not pulling, sit, lie down etc (except for the pug, she just sits staring at you like you're the idiot for asking) but the barking is just different. I can't even give them a command because they're going mad, they can't hear me and have no interest in anything I do at that moment.

🤣🤣

Yeah, poor doggies, kept in a nice warm house with 3 walks a day. One in a private field with a stream . Eating premium food that costs me a fortune. It must be so hard for them cuddling us on the couch at night instead of being free in a forest in the rain, catching rats for tea like they would have thousands of years ago.

They must be proper gutted.

You know humans used to live like that thousands of years ago too? I assume you don't live under a tree though? (Maybe under a bridge? Clip clop)

The wild animal was roughly 30000 years ago I think dogs are fine now.

Look for a trainer using positive reinforcement methods only:
https://www.imdt.uk.com/find-a-qualified-imdt-trainer
I hope you showed the person who hit your dog the door. Appalling behaviour - I'd be asking for my £140 back.

Initially get a new door bell BUT do not put it on the door.

Ring the bell at home in the room where their beds are and put the best tastiest chicken treats in their beds. You will be close to the beds and they will see it.

Do this daily and frequently. Ring the bell and they will run to their beds. When they are doing this all the time you can then fit the door bell to the door. Bell rings and the dogs go to their bed.

Re general noise talking etc. When it is quiet say a word "nice" "thank you" or what ever you like. When you say the word give them the best treat ever. They hear the word and they come to you for the treat. Even if they bark but come to you give them the best treat. Not kibble high value treat.

When they are waiting for the treat and stop what they are doing you can start to say this when they bark. You may initially need to go up to them as they are barking buts say Nice go to them and treat. If they ignore you then the distraction was too much and go back to just saying he word and treating.

This willl work but you need to be consistent and patient. if it does not work look at working when the distraction is not so great.

Positive reinforcement alone won’t work for this. It already hasn’t worked for this, you’ve tried, with help. That’s because barking is a self rewarding behaviour. You either get a good, balanced trainer who knows how to teach what behaviour you don’t want with an aversive, and what you do want with positive reinforcement.

I have high drive working breeds. Jokers like Frilly above think that R+ is right for all dogs. It isn’t. It’s what leads to some dogs living extremely restricted lives, injuring other dogs and people, being injured themselves, being unsafe and often later being PTS. thankfully you have small dogs that don’t sound like high drive working breeds so your only issue is noise/restricting visitors.

Aversive training techniques are not supposed to hurt a dog. Whoever hit your dog is stupid and abusive. You need a proper balanced trainer to help
you. Jamie Penrith is great, he does online sessions if you’re nowhere near him. We personally used UnleashedK9 in the NW who changed our lives, and our dogs life for the better. Best money I’ve ever spent… after wasting 2 years and thousands of pounds on very well rated,
’qualified’, reccomended R+ trainers.

If you don’t want to do this then ultimately the answer is you have to learn to live with it or get rid of the dogs.

Am only 45 mins from unleashedk9 but it seems you have to go to them for training which might be a bit pointless as they absolutely wouldn't display the behaviour that needs correcting. They only do it inside the home. Visiting anyone/walks/vet visits etc they don't bark at all

They wanted £500 to assess them! Way out of my budget.