NINKOjIN

The last couple of months, Riley's really been getting frantic over anything that moves outside of the house.

I was working with him in similar fashion to how I work on his leash reactivity, Look At That, giving him treats for being quiet when cars and critters go by, etc., and blocking him from the window if he doesn't stop, making him sit, and be quiet before I let him go look out the window again. He does PRETTY GOOD in my bedroom, because there's just one window there, and it's been easy to work with him in there - he doesn't react to 99% of the things going on out there, save for a random bicyclist, but any other part of the house, it's like that all goes (for lack of better term...) out the window!

I'm guessing it's one of those "dogs don't generalize" things?

Unfortunately, our main living area has a huge set of windows out front, and there's no way I can effectively work with him there. I've tried. A lot. Even bringing him into his kennel when he wont give it up after "leave it" or "sit/quiet" commands. It has been too long now and he simply wont stop growling, barking, and going into fits when something's outside that living area. He's already a leash-reactive dog, so I don't want him to be horrible inside now, too!

We tried the water bottle with other problems (not this problem), but that only escalated things, so I stopped that pretty quickly and found other ways to work on them... wondering if I should try that now, since others seem to have luck with it? I just hate the thought of the water bottle, myself. I also heard of the can of coins, but it always seems like when he's upset, no sounds affect him, so I'm not sure that will work, either.

My family is starting to get mad because I keep wanting to close the blinds when he's in the living area, just so he wont keep practicing that bad behavior so much. I know I need to do something about it. Just feels like I'm not getting anywhere right now.

By the way, how do you teach the quiet, enough command? He knows speak, so should I make him speak continuously, and then say quiet? Or would the water bottle + "enough" work when he's barking at the window, to eventually teach him "enough" means to stop barking?

Thanks again, DT forum Gods!

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avianantics

I had the same issue with Wheeler and now Lola is starting. What I did with Wheeler that worked (and am now doing with Lola), was to get up, look out the window, tell him what it was/is "oh that's just the neighbor (or whatever) -- that's enough", I then moved him away from the window and put him on a down/stay.

You have to be consistent and it doesn't work overnight, but it does work. Now I just say "Okay, that's enough", and Wheeler gets in the last word and walks away from the window.

Good Luck!

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Shelly Wing
AKC GCH/UKC CH Lyndobe's Wheel of Fortune, "Wheeler"
AKC Ptd Lyndobe's Loquacious Charm, "Lola"

lolonurse

We basically do the same as Shelly - since the furkids feel they are warning us and protecting the house from potential breach, we "respect" their attentiveness, but then explain why it's OK ("just the birds", ït's the school bus", "that's Rita"...) and then tell them it's OK, that's enough, good job, and then redirect their attention elsewhere. Once they realize we aren't concerned, or that we have the "situation" under control, they relinqish responsibility to us. If they are truly upset, we let them out, with "go see"... and they race to check out what they though was an issue, and lose interest quickly (unless it is the yappy little ankle-biter next door, who likes to stir up a ruckus!) Then they race back and forth along the fence line until all are exhausted.

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Zeusy Boy's Mama

These are great suggestions from avianantics and lolonurse. Again, since this is a behavior that has been practiced for some time, it will not go away overnight. You are right, however, to be concerned about it. Being over-diligent and constantly reacting to triggers outside will not help his reactivity overall. Some other suggestions on how to deal with this include:

• Putting window foam on the windows that he has access to. They can be very decorative and look rather nice.
• Rearranging the furniture so he cannot get to the windows
• Putting up a gate or x-pen to limit his access to the windows.
• If you haven't done so already, I would also work on Dr. Karen Overall's Relaxation Protocol in these rooms. This helped my guy tremendously, since the whole goal is for him to be relaxed and do nothing while I do all sorts of weird things. The activity outside the windows were just more weird stuff for him to ignore.

Barking at the triggers can also be self-reinforcing, so you must find a way of making NOT barking at the triggers MORE reinforcing. This goes along with what was already suggested - notice what he is alerted to, praise him for doing so and then release him with a "That's enough".

Personally, I would avoid using anything along the lines of the water bottle, can of coins, etc. These approaches do not give your boy an appropriate alternative behavior to do. Instead, they can actually increase the negative association of the trigger outside which is causing him to react in the first place.

Best of luck and please keep us posted.

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GingerGunlock

You've had very good suggestions, all along the lines of what I've done to keep Elka from barking at the windows.

I will add that I made it clear to her that if she was going to bark at the windows, she may not look out them. Any time she hopped up on the loveseat to look out, I watched for the tense up and ear flick that told me she was going to start growling, and I said "Off." If she didn't to it on her own, I went and got her, saying "Thank you, all done."

I definitely appreciate the bark when there's somebody at the front door or in the driveway. I do not when it is a squirrel or the person who lives next door getting home. For the most part, she seems to have come around to this level of distinction (it doesn't help that our current neighbors rev their engines like Fast and Furious movies and fishtail in/out of the gravel driveway).

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Matt Vandart

Also aversive punnishments like water bottles have to be more motivating than the reward he is getting for the barking, in other words you have to be really mean in order to solve an issue like this, so unless you want to do that I would forget the water bottle.

The other ideas are better IMO.

Sam1491

I'd def. try the above suggestions. Mabel get's a "good girl, that's enough" if she won't stop barking she gets taken off the couch or away from the door and crated for a few minutes.

She grasped the concept pretty fast once she was being rewarded for her "job" and now just quietly grumbles at most while watching out the window.

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"The Red Devil Diva" & Her Shamelessly Obedient Human

NINKOjIN

Thanks all!

I am going to share this information with the rest of the family as it's been pretty hard to convince everyone to stick to just one method that everyone agrees with. It's really difficult raising a dog when you believe in positive reinforcement methods, but the others were brought up using harsh discipline and don't understand why I want to do things differently... it's a struggle every day for me to keep the peace.

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avianantics

The problem with water bottles or other disciplinary measures, is that you are not teaching the dog the desired behavior. You need to replace the unacceptable behavior with acceptable behavior.

So, dog barks at window you squirt with water bottle, dog moves away from window. You sit down and dog is again barking at the window and you have to get your water bottle, get up and repeat the process. It is a never ending cycle. And what happens when your water bottle isn't handy? Dog continues to bark until you go find the dang thing.

Replace this with "Good dog, that's enough" or "Okay, that's enough" or whatever, and have the dog lay down somewhere, relax and reward. You are training the dog that "that's enough" = go lay down and be quiet. So, now you don't have to get up find a water bottle.... You just say "Okay, that's enough." Dog leaves window and goes back to chewing your rug or whatever he was doing before he was barking at the window.

You have now taught the dog to stop the unwanted behavior on command and replaced the unwanted behavior with an acceptable behavior. So, the dog knows what to do! This, of course takes time and consistency, but it works and Dobes are pretty smart and pick it up pretty quickly. If your dog is food motivated, then reward with a treat once he has relaxed and quit focusing on the window. If toy motivated, then reward with a toy/play. If your dog learned the command "sit", he can learn this also.

There are 3 key ingredients here; 1. Time 2. Consistency and 3. (as my father used to say) you have to be smarter than the dog.

Good luck getting the entire family on board. Hopefully, they can understand that the dog needs to be "taught" what to do, rather than just being squirted. Although I have generally found dogs to be much more trainable than people.

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Shelly Wing
AKC GCH/UKC CH Lyndobe's Wheel of Fortune, "Wheeler"
AKC Ptd Lyndobe's Loquacious Charm, "Lola"

StarlightDobe

Thank you for this link. I have a dog who is very reactive to most everything, and I believe she suffers from anxiety. I read this entire thing and it sounds as if it is a real good method to retraining her.

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R.I.P. Mysti 1/25/02-10/21/10

NINKOjIN

Just wanted to say an extra THANK YOU for this document! I think it will help tremendously and we're going to get started right away!

He knows so many commands and tricks, but I honestly have not been practicing with increased distractions in this way before during my sessions with him. I think making a table chart and keeping track of progress will give us goals to look forward to as well.

I agree entirely, LOL!

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