Author Topic: Help with barking at other dogs  (Read 746 times)

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Offline PollySpaull

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Help with barking at other dogs
« on: December 29, 2017, 08:41:32 PM »
Hi All, haven’t posted in a while, but Monty and Ernest are getting along fine.
The only problem I’m struggling with is with Ernest. When we are walking, if he spots another dog approaching he will bark. It doesn’t seem to be an aggressive bark, more of a nervous/anxious type bark. He will bark and bark and I often have to explain that he is infact very friendly!
I’ve tried it with him both on and off the lead, off lead was slightly better but not by a huge margin. I’ve tried distracting him with his favourite foods, but I can practically push the treat into his mouth and he won’t take any notice! He seems to switch off his hearing and just go into bark mode.
He’s very friendly with a pug x that we often go out walking with, and he will also bark at other dogs so I don’t know if it’s a learnt behaviour from his friend...
Any ideas on tackling this? Thanks!

Offline wendall

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Re: Help with barking at other dogs
« Reply #1 on: December 29, 2017, 09:42:15 PM »
I have exactly the same problem with Pip, she is nervous of other dogs until she can get round to their rear end and have a good sniff, and then she wants to play. She too isn’t interested in any treats while she is barking so can’t use this as distraction. Look forward to seeing if anyone has a solution...
Rosie,rest in peace my beautiful little girl, you will be in my heart forever. 2/2/12-24/10/12

Offline PollySpaull

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Re: Help with barking at other dogs
« Reply #2 on: January 06, 2018, 07:06:12 PM »
Anybody? X

Offline Leo0106

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Re: Help with barking at other dogs
« Reply #3 on: January 06, 2018, 07:24:02 PM »
Hi, I don't have a huge amount of experience with this but sometimes if I stop to say hello to someone on our walks and they have a dog with them, Leo will bark and bark at the dog to get them to play with him.. it's purely play in our situation but it's bloody annoying if I want to have a conversation!!
Only way I've managed to sort it is by teaching him to occupy on something else. So I started stopping and holding kibble in my hand every time we saw another dog, I would drop kibble on the ground everytime he was quiet  and eventually moved it on to dropping kibble everytime he was quiet AND sitting down

Generally now if I decide to stop and speak to someone he just sits and waits.. sometimes he decides to jump up and try and get the treat out of my hand but it just takes me telling him 'down and he stops.

Other than that you could maybe try teaching a 'watch me' command? I use this command when Leo is off lead and I want to distract him away from something (he likes to chase joggers!!)
The idea is, you can distract pup away from what he/she is fixated on in order to divert their attention while the distraction is there..
I use this , as I said, when there is a jogger near by, all I do is tell Leo 'here' which means 'move toward me' and then ' watch me' which tells him to make eye contact with me. I then tell him to wait until the distraction has passed .  The reward then is either to carry on walking or a treat.


Offline Londongirl

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Re: Help with barking at other dogs
« Reply #4 on: January 06, 2018, 07:37:20 PM »
Hi, I don't have a huge amount of experience with this but sometimes if I stop to say hello to someone on our walks and they have a dog with them, Leo will bark and bark at the dog to get them to play with him.. it's purely play in our situation but it's bloody annoying if I want to have a conversation!!
Only way I've managed to sort it is by teaching him to occupy on something else. So I started stopping and holding kibble in my hand every time we saw another dog, I would drop kibble on the ground everytime he was quiet  and eventually moved it on to dropping kibble everytime he was quiet AND sitting down

Generally now if I decide to stop and speak to someone he just sits and waits.. sometimes he decides to jump up and try and get the treat out of my hand but it just takes me telling him 'down and he stops.

Other than that you could maybe try teaching a 'watch me' command? I use this command when Leo is off lead and I want to distract him away from something (he likes to chase joggers!!)
The idea is, you can distract pup away from what he/she is fixated on in order to divert their attention while the distraction is there..
I use this , as I said, when there is a jogger near by, all I do is tell Leo 'here' which means 'move toward me' and then ' watch me' which tells him to make eye contact with me. I then tell him to wait until the distraction has passed .  The reward then is either to carry on walking or a treat.

I think this is good advice. The only way to get a dog to stop doing something you don’t want him to do is to get him to do something else instead. It doesn’t really matter what that thing is, you decide! I too did the trick of getting Henry to sit and speed feeding him tiny bits of kibble when I want to stop and talk to another dog owner. Now he just sits and waits, and I don’t have to feed him treats anymore while he waits.

I’ve conditioned him to look at me the minute he sees another dog and am working on the same with squirrels. Once that’s conditioned, you can get him busy with something else that is focused on you - maybe nose touches in the palm of your hand, or some rapid fire sit-stand-sit commands as the other dog approaches and passes. All reinforced with treats where appropriate. Eventually he’ll forget that he barks when he sees other dogs, and the less he does it, the sooner it will be extinguished. It takes time and patience and consistency, but it does work.
Rachael (me) and Henry (him)


Offline PollySpaull

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Re: Help with barking at other dogs
« Reply #5 on: January 06, 2018, 07:50:03 PM »
Thanks both. Will start with sitting and dropping food and the try and introduce some training and rewards to distract him when another dog approaches! Good advice Thankyou x

Offline Koslg

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Re: Help with barking at other dogs
« Reply #6 on: January 06, 2018, 09:32:22 PM »
Hi. I. No we had a trainer for this. We have done watch me. But the treat I pay with must be worth it.

We hadn’t practiced for ages. But it worked last week.

I offer Humbug the choice of walking on or stopping and trying to move aside. Or walking a different route.

Chicken is good. After a while we changed to other treats so he doesn’t know what I might have toreward (we’ll pay him) for watching me. I just say watch.