[TomAndKing]

Ok, well, ive read a lot on the net, but nothing really gives me a definatly answer on a spacific method on this.
What i need to know is...

How do i get king to not bark at every noise he hears outside the door? it is really frustrating. He will bark at EVERYTHING, and its like he looks at me saying, "Look dad, am i doing a good job?"
I have worked on recall, which works, and then sit, then down, then treat. Now, the recall is fine, but, the other stuff is useless(i think it may actually be encouraging). What would you guys suggest i do to curb this? Im fine with a small bark one in a while, but 2-5 min of constant barking is just plain annoying. plus im sure my neighbors arent too happy about it.


thanks guys.

 

[hotpursuit]

hmm i am curious to hear from others on this.... my first dobe never barked unless a good reason too, stranger walking by or such, he didnt even bark at neighbors... i have been told dobes only bark for good reasons.... is it really noisy around home? does he know the outside surroundings? sorry i couldnt give advice, but am interested in others opinions

 

[frznbuns]

Oh poor King he is just trying to do a good job! Well, I am not use I am the best one to help but since I am up early this morning I will give my first 2 cents and then the ones with more knowledge I am sure will have a little better advise to go along with mine... At our house we start to let the dogs bark and then go and see what the problem was.. if it was nothing the dog was scolded firmly told NO NO Monsters!! If it continued.. the AT word was used.. My dogs hate the AT word they know--OH No Mom is Mad..It would be like Bark Bark Bark... I would look and say No No Monsters.. Bark bark bark ATATAT go lay down baddddd doggggg.. Now if there was something to bark about... the dog was praised and given a treat or a lot of praise... we sometimes are not in the best of neighborhood and I am glad when my dogs bark... the other day the neighbor came to say that at 1am someone had thrown a rock through her window and slashed all her tires.. Now my dogs knew something was up as about that time they wanted out so I let them out . they went looking over the fence and towards the alley and started to bark but because of this neighbor complaining in the pass about the dogs barking at ALL I stopped them and put them in the house... she told my hubby that at least your dogs bark.. my dogs didn't even bark when the window broke.. well that is because she yells at the dog when it barks even a little... so good luck with the training... I am sure that a lot of the others will have a lot of better training advise but that is what we do at our house...

 

[2dobies]

This may not be the BEST advice, but this is what I do. Dar only barks if she has a reason to, but Sasha is our resident barker...she barks if she hears a car go down the street, a dog bark from a block away, the sound of cat feet outside on the sidewalk, literelly everything! And it goes on for several minutes unchecked. So I began by gruffly telling her "enough!" and if she didnt stop, she got a little squirt of water from a water bottle spray that I kept nearby. That progressed to all I had to do was pick up the water bottle and she would stop. Then I started telling her "quiet" and as soon as she would shut up, I'd give her a small treat, and tell her "good quiet" in a very excited tone of voice. I will sometimes take her to the front door and stand there with her as she looks out and wait for a kid on a bicycle, or a car, or whatever to go by, and reassure her that it's nothing to bark at. "It's ok for that kid to be out there." (I still have to shut the door fast if I see a cat coming by before Sasha does!!!) It isn't 100% perfected, but it sure helped a big bunch! I'm sure there are different ways and better ways to deal with this, but this worked for me.
Paul

 

[Kratty]

Here's my two cents, maybe this explaination could help. I would not give treats while trying to get King to stop barking, you are right that this is encouraging him and re-enforces this behavior. He probably seeing this as if he barks, he gets a reward.

We have this problem with our girl. We do not want to discourage barking, but we also don't want it going on and on. We have the command "enough", which means, for us, to stop doing what you are doing. When she starts the barking, we gave her a few seconds of barking and then said "Enough". If she persists after that, then we gave her a 30 second time out. We use her crate for time outs. We made her go in it immediately after we said "Enough" and the barking continued. We close the door behind her and once she layed down, usually 30 seconds, she came back out and was praised. We continued this same process on each barking incident. Sometimes it took a few time outs to make it click. then re-enforce this continuously. She still does the barking, but the "Enough" commands helps us stop this behavior. Time outs are a wonderful thing, they loose any privileage they have for a short time and once they settle down, they get it back.

I'm not sure what age King is now, but he might be at a maturing point and starting to be more of a protector role. Just be consistent, and show him that constantly barking is not acceptable. It does sound like you have some of process already in place. If during the barking, you get him to do a recall to you, that is really good. He is still listening to you. Run him through the obedience commands with him sit/stays or down/stays. His focus should totally be directed to you at this part. I like down/stays as a time out, if I do not have a crate available, because they can not move around so easily and it takes more energy and thinking than just sitting. Their reward is getting the privilege of moving around again...

Hopefully this can provide a few ideas.

 

[TracyJo]

I realize you will all think I'm completely nuts after reading this (of course that is if you didn't think I was completely nuts before reading it).
When Mark and I were here the first time, we had Storm (our beloved Pit) and Max (Max is still alive but with Mark's parents). Max was a shelti/shiba/corgi mix that I literally took off of the truck to take him to his death in a gas chamber. He was right around a year old when I adopted him and had been abused and neglected. Between his breed mix and his prior abuse, Max was quite the barker. He was so bad that he would get going and then have anxiety attacks, I felt so sorry for the little guy. His anxiety attacks presented like seizures. These really bad attacks where he would for no reason just go ballistic barking or would be just fine one minute and seizing the next always happened when he had been laying in front of our balcony doors.
We tried everything with Max; meds, training, t-touch, everything... We loved him but lived in an apartment and neighbors were complaining. One night, I was up very late and surfing the net for advice and came across a site for pet psychic. I don't remember exactly what I told her about my dogs, but I don't think that I gave her too much information, I think just names, ages and breeds.
She came back and told me that Max was friends with a little girl ghost that hung out on our balcony. Although he liked her, he was afraid of the other ghosts that hung out around her and was scared for her and that was what triggered the anxiety attacks and barking when he was at the balcony doors. So she took it upon herself to invite the little girl ghost into our apartment so she could get away from the big, mean guys that frightened both her and Max. I remember thinking the woman was nuts and being irritated because at that point Mark and I hadn't decided if we wanted children of our own much less a ghost kid! But never-the-less, Max never had another anxiety attack again after that... She also told me that he took his job very seriously. That when he started barking at people at the door, at noises or at Mark when he came home early (Max loved Mark but would get silly if he came home from work early or unexpectedly) I should just very calmly tell him that everything was okay, thank you for telling me and I'll take it from here. I swear this to be true, it worked. My mother in law does the same thing with him to this day. He still gets really barky when someone comes to the door but as soon as she thanks him and tells him she's got it under control, he'll go lay down...
She also told me that Storm had been an Australain Shep. in a previous life, which was odd because she didn't know that Storm's best friend was a huge, wonderful black-tri Aussie, Alex.
No, I'm not suggesting you contact a pet psychic but maybe King's deal is the same as Max's... He's just taking his job very seriously and somehow needs to learn that you've got it under control. I'm thinking NILIF and maybe more obedience practice in the house will help with that

 

[frznbuns]

OH My Gosh TracyJO that gave me the willeys!!! I belive in ghosts or should I say things that we humans do not yet understand... that is a great story...spooky but great...

 

[Gracie's_Mom]

Tracy no on thinks your nuts. We all no you are. Just kidding. That is a great story, a little spooky but good! I believe that animals can sense things that we humans can not sense. I also believe they can see things that we can't see or what we don't want to see.

 

[TomAndKing]

Awesome tips guys. Ive been letting have his few second of bark, then giving the "Enough" command followed by "Here" and he stops and comes to me...almost every time. Thank you so much guys. i really appreciate it.

 

[TomAndKing]

Id REALLY like to thank you guys for the advice. I cant even blieve it myself how much it has helped.
So my mom got a new job, and she decided to treat us by ordering in tonight. When the pizza guy got here, i put king into "Sit" and opened up the door. King not only stayed in the sit position, he also didnt even make a sound. I was so happy by this that king got MAJOR love, 10 bone and a slice of pizza all to himself.

Thanks again guys. You rule.

 

[TracyJo]

Awesome Tom!!! I love hearing success stories

 

[frznbuns]

Wow! Good Boy King! Keep it up!!

 

[2dobies]

YAAAYYY KING !! Way to go!

 

[Lil Arrow]

Hey Tom, when King starts have a spray bottle ready and squirt him and say No or enough. Be quick with the spray so he doesn't see where it's coming from. Worked on Pyper. Now I just say "Enough" and she stops. She does however give a once over growl at the door before she leaves. lol