Barking At Strangers

[alanthedog]

Hi I'm back for some more of your wonderful advice 

Paige is now 6 months old and Alan is 18 months old. They get on like a dream and Paige has settled in brilliantly. The one problem I have is when I take them both for a walk. Alan is not a barker, never has been, but Paige barks none stop at everyone that comes towards us. It started off as rather cute, but as her size increases I am worried she isn't going to stop as I have tried everything.

Any ideas about how I can stop her?

She also barks at home - infact she howls quite alot at home too - likes the sound of her own voice 

Thanks x

[mooching]

You say you've tried everything - what have you tried?

[alanthedog]

  - pet corrector spray from pets at home
  - calling her and putting her back on lead till we've passed (but she carries on barking anyway!)
  - distracting her with a treat
  - walking the other way

Thanks x

[vixen]

When you give her a treat, is it a very special treat?
I walk my dogs along the canal tow path and when my girls were puppies I used to be worried about them getting in the way of joggers, cyclists or jumping up at people.
I trained them to come for a special treat when they saw one of the mentioned 'hazards'  
Now as soon as they see one of these approaching, they are straight back to me for their treat.
It does help that my girlies are very greedy  
If you could use a special treat, Paige would associate strangers with nice yummy treats.

[mooching]

  - pet corrector spray from pets at home

Oh dear - that may well have added to the problem tbh, ie increased her anxiety.

   - distracting her with a treat

I agree with vixen about it being best if it's a special (high value treat).

Before I give my suggestion, could I just ask at what stage you tried distracting her with the treat?

[alanthedog]

Before I give my suggestion, could I just ask at what stage you tried distracting her with the treat?

[/quote]

Usually as we see a stranger approaching, but she ignores us and runs ahead barking with her hair standing on end! As she gets bigger she is going to look quite aggressive although she does nothing but wag her tail once there. It's small children I'm frightened of.

[Top Barks]

How far can you be away from people and her not bark? if there is a distance where she is quiet then that is your starting point, i would introduce a clicker and use it to mark the good behaviour which in this case could be rewarding her for looking at people in the distance and not kicking off. try googling Leslie McDevvits look at that game which is ideal for this sort of problem As well as remedial training you also need to manage the walks you have to minimise the triggers for this behaviour. If approaching people head on is a trigger then avoid that by walking in large open spaces.
Does this happen off lead?
When was she last checked by a vet including her eyes?
Do you tell her off for it or try and tell her to be quiet?
this sounds like a fearful behaviour that is being maintained by her environment.
Dogs often use barking to increase distance between them and the object of their fear so if folks walk away when she barks then she sees the barking as working to that end.
It could also be that your actions as a handler could be cueing and reinforcing the barking.
i could speculate away on here but the best advice i could give you is to employ the services of a reputable trainer or behaviourist who uses reward based methods to have a look at things and make suggestions.

[alanthedog]

So by the sounds of it, it could be one of many things!

She does it on lead and off, and starts as soon as she notices people walking towards us, (I can be walking on the path with the stranger walking towards me, and Paige will be in the middle of the adjacent field when she will notice someone approaching me, or hubby, and will run over barking)

I do tell her off and tell her to be quiet but it doesn't make any difference.

I used a clicker to originally train her to recall so I know that does have a positive result with her.

It is obviously going to be a lot of trial and error.

Thanks.