Barking mad

[emma]

How can I stop Bracken barking? He has started to drive me mad, its all day for no reason (except at the cat). He will just sit there looking at me with his big brown eyes and bark. I went to Training classes and the man said if you can teach him to bark you can teach him to stop. I never taught him to bark in the first place! Ive tried squirting him with water from a jif lemon but that doesn't work either. Any ideas before my neighbours stop talking to me. :evil:                    

[annemie]

That man from training has a good point. Every time if he barks you most give that a name (bark) At least he now what bark means. So  then you can let him bark in your command and give him then a treat. If he barks for no reason you most ignore him (also no looking at him).

This is the only way I think that you can get him out of barking for no reason. I hope that somebody has a better idea, I wish you good luck with this                    

[Gilly]

Hi Emma,

I think the theory is that you can train them to bark on command...and therefore train them to stop on command  :wink:  Bracken is still very young at 15 weeks so I think you should be able to train him to stop, although unfortunately it didn't work for me  
At 15 weeks I would say that Bracken is starting to get more confident with his surroundings, if he is barking at you he is attention seeking. To him any negative attention you give give him whilst he does this...ie, shouting at him to stop etc, is attention good or bad to him  :wink: You could try as Annemie suggested completely ignoring him, turning or walking away or you could try using a word to make him stop ie, "quiet", if he stops when you use the word, reward him,  or try distracting his attention, with a toy for example. A good book to have (if you haven't already) is The Perfect Puppy by Gwen Bailey, you can buy this from Amazon, if you go to the shopping section of the forum and click the link through there the site benefits  :wink:
As a last resort you could try a the Aboistop Anti-Bark Collar which uses Citronella, but with bracken being so young I would suggest using this as a very last resort    
Barking was also discussed recently in this topic http://www.cockersonline.co.uk/forum/viewt...&highlight=bark

Hope this Helps                    

[Louis]

Hi Emma

I think the best thing to do is to ignore.  My Louis is 7 months and he barks for attention.  We are doing the KC Bronze award and the trainer said the best thing to do is ignore him, don't even give him eye contact.  When the barking stops then praise.  I know it's difficult as you just feel like shouting "shut up" but it is a tried and tested method and it does work!

Gemma & Louis                    

[Laura]

From getting brogan as a puppy we consistently ignored him and avoided eye contact for barking.  If the barking was because of excited play - we ended the game.  As he is now 9 months I am hoping it stays that way - but I have probably changed fate writing this :roll: .  He does bark when he is  feeling stressed.
We whisper "quiet" to Brogan when he is silent and settled and then give a reward - usually something longer lasting to continue the behaviour.
One bark at the back door lets him in or out.  He sometimes wants to go in and out like a yo yo - if we are positive he doesn't need a wee we ignore him and he goes off elsewhere - gives up after the second bark or third bark.
With 3 children the door is constantly being knocked - doesn't bark at that - probably well desensitized by now!                    

[Louis]

Louis was doing really well with the barking, went to training yesterday and he made up for lost time and just barked and barked.  The trainer said continue to ignore him, when he stops, count to 5 then praise him, so he knows he's getting praised for being quiet.  I hope he is better next week, I think this is what will let him down on the day of the assessment if he barks all the time :cry:  :cry:                    

[padfoot]

Toby barks a lot too. We ignore him but it doesn't seem to have any effect on him as he is usually barking at Millie or the cat to get them to play  :roll:
He also likes to bark at us if we tell him off, but then he runs and hides afterwards   I think it's his age too, 10 mths old, adolescence...when is it they mature again?                      

[annemie]

It's also a behavior from the cocker   Our boys are almost 6 and 2 year, they like to hear their voice too.