Super Reactive in House, getting worse

[chinyereukoha]

9 month old Malinois, who gets regular exercise. He is becoming increasingly more and more reactive inside the house. ANY vehicle that drives by (especially loud trucks/motorcycles), any kind of "not normal" noise (for instance: a truck beeping in reverse), ANYTHING is setting him in to barking fits, and if the windows aren't covered, he's hopping on the couch to bark out the window.

I did do some "sound desensitization" work when he was in the socialization period. I've also tried redirecting his attention when these thing occur, and then marking and rewarding when he diverts his attention. Nothing is seeming to help, and it's getting so bad he's recently started barking at random noises from the TV. Could this be a part of his adolesence "phase"? I'm really looking for any type of plan/protocol that may help. I've tried the "LAT" (

) type training, but nothing is seeming to help.

Please advise.

 

[imagebeastmarkbeast]

@chinyereukoha Confine the dog to a crate and put it on a strict schedule. Also, it's a working dog, what do you do to work it other than exercise? Malinois need to work their brains; they are highly intelligent and if you don't give them enough of a job they will find one on their own just like you are finding out.

 

[orlando_wcbc]

@chinyereukoha My German Shepherds are pretty responsive to being corrected when they bark inappropriately. You'll want to establish a word association for them and pair that with a firm command to stop it (e.g. "NO bark"). If someone is coming to my door, I'm fine with them barking. But, if it's just a car going by, they need to knock it off. They are smart enough to understand the distinction. I use e-collars so it's fairly easy to pair the command with a correction if they don't heed it even if they're running around the back yard or whatever.

 

[chinyereukoha]

@orlando_wcbc Thank you for the response. Some valuable insight there

 

[aylynfaith]

@chinyereukoha I agree with this. After ecollar training the dog with general obedience so that it's familiar with the collar I'd have it on at home and punish any barking indoors.

 

[delcrux]

@chinyereukoha o boy Malinois and no word of working.

 

[chinyereukoha]

@delcrux What do you think I just described? Thats him working…..He’s guarding the house

 

[davecb]

@chinyereukoha

What do you think I just described? Thats him working…..He’s guarding the house

That's not working. You described it correctly the first time as "reactivity".

If you have to cover the windows and hope that Amazon isn't dropping something off at your house, that's not a working dog, that's a bored puppy who is spiraling up and up.

You can correct him all you want, but since he doesn't know any better, and he is a baby working dog, eventually he'll just redirect onto you.

Teach him what you want: and work him, really work him. He needs to learn to turn on for work, and do the work, and then have an off switch, and use it.

If you allow a puppy to dictate how the house is run (covering the windows because the baby dog can't handle things), he's not going to magically wake up one day and be a clear headed, trustworthy dog.

And if you're using an E collar on this dog, and you didn't work with a trainer to learn how to use it, again, the dog probably will redirect onto you at some point.

Corrections are fair, especially in an older puppy, but a dog who has no clue what he's doing wrong, and who has no boundaries to his behavior, will probably redirect.

Even clearheaded Mals with experienced owners will redirect out of frustration at times.

And I wouldn't just stuff this dog in a crate and call it good. The dog NEEDS work and real training. You need to make time every day to teach the dog things to the point where he's glad to be back in a crate to chill.

A dog who is just looking for excuses to bark at stuff is a dog who is a combination of bored, not well trained, and not properly mentally and physically exercised.

 

[sarahtoo]

@chinyereukoha Two things that really helped with my Mal barking at the window.

1)The nice way. I got her looking out at things she doesnt normally bark at and reward, while shes looking ask for a down or sit and another reward. I found it much easier to get her attention and make her sit/down after praticing that a bit. Still didnt fix the problem though.

2) The not so nice way. Have you heard of a "bonker"? Read about them in Sheild K9's book and thought I'd try one. Holy cow they work amazingly well for my dog. More effective punishment than a high level e collar stim yet its totally painless. One "bonk" and shes pretty much stopped the problem barking, one "quiet" and she stops now.

Bonker description from the book - This is an empty plastic jug with five to ten pebbles or marbles in it. Large jugs like a windshield washer fluid container work well but smaller dogs may require something smaller like a 500ml water bottle. Ensure you are not using any rigid plastic containers with a large hard cap. Once you make one, test it by striking yourself in the head with it. If it hurts don’t use it, you made it wrong. (Don't do this if you have any kind of medical condition or previous head injury.) The bonker is used as a punisher. It is the most effective punisher that exists, including the electric collar. The best thing about the bonker is it does not cause physical pain or discomfort which for some dogs only amplifies undesirable behavior. It works more in the mind of the dog. The correct way to use the bonker is to mark NO when the dog offers the undesirable behavior and throw the bonker at the dog’s head or shoulder. Do NOT HIT the dog with the bonker in your hand. Throw the bonker at the dog’s head or shoulder such that it strikes and bounces off. The reason we aim for the head or shoulder is that it creates a flinch response in the dog that yields immediate general suppression. When properly used the bonker is a great way to kill all forms of excessive arousal which are the bedrock that underpins most dangerous behaviors. - Othman, Haz. No Nonsense Dog Training: A Complete Guide to Fully Train Any Dog (p. 32). Lulu.com. Kindle Edition. Sheild K9's book.

 

[christopher000]

@sarahtoo This is the first I've heard of this and I'm making one today. We have been struggling with door and window reactivity as well.

 

[sweetapple]

@chinyereukoha This doesn't sound like a reactive dog to me and honestly I think the term reactive is a bit of a scam from the dog training industry. In any case you have options.

Want to extinguish barking all together? Bark collar.

Want control over the barking? Teach him to bark on command then teach him the quiet command. Reward only the quiet reps. This dude has a tutorial:

Bark on command:

View this content on Instagram

View this content on Instagram

Quiet on command:

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View this content on Instagram

One thing to note is that you will likely need strict place bed boundaries and rules. I could be totally wrong here but I'm guessing he's a fairly high drive dog and he's free roaming your home.

 

[chinyereukoha]

@sweetapple I don't get why you are getting down voted. Training an incompatible behavior is a real solution.

 

[sweetapple]

@chinyereukoha Shot in the dark but it’s probably the bark collar bit. I’m not a fan of the bark collar because I prefer clarity and control but they have made things better for a lot of people.

 

[clintpauljohnson]

@chinyereukoha I don't have any advice but hope you'll get some suggestions. I find sound reactivity difficult since it's hard to manage compared to visual, which can just be blocked when needed.

So he stops barking when you redirect his attention? But his barking overall is increasing?