the barking during adolescence is driving me insane
- Thread starter ntenda
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- adolescence puppy 101
justincann
New member
@ntenda Barking can be to draw attention to a situation. If he barks at people get in his sight line and front him. It will let him/her know people coming are your problem not his and reward him within 1 second of him stopping. Practice with friends. They approach he goes off get in his sight line let him now with I got this calm down then approach your friends with him behind you he stays calm then big rewards and praise. He barks at the window get between him and window and say i got this. He calms instant treat. He might feel obligated by accident to be the alert system. Sometimes you have to reward just a couple seconds of stopping then he starts up again. Bottom line steal his job from him lol. Another issue might be pent up energy. Good luck.
jenniferbelovedchild
New member
@ntenda I don't know how to make it stop but I will say that I had a trainer tell me that they bark at people or things when they see them because they are afraid of them and if they bark and those things keep going away they will do it again .like a person walking by or kids playing or whatever.but if you make the dog turn around and go away and control the situation then they know that they have nothing to be afraid of and that that thing is not going anywhere no matter how much they bark
@brendaj63 his main barking is at his toys when he wants to play, so he’s definitely not afraid. and the people he barks at are people he’s seen literally since the day we brought him home multiple times a week, i think he’s just excited more than anything.
justincann
New member
@ntenda Westley isn't a barky breed so when he does bark I know something is bothering him. That said I used half of a trick I saw on a Victoria Stillwell video. When he gets barky, I don't do anything, after 3 seconds of quiet (I just count to three) he gets a treat. The three seconds is short enough to make it possible but long enough that they associate the treat with the quiet not the barking. We have some resource guarding happening now that I need to deal with but he rarely barks out-of that.
@ntenda He barks cause it works.
To extinguish the behaviour take every situation as a separate one and start working on it. Pick up a toy and he barks, put it down. barks at you on the couch to play? get up and leave for a minute or till he is quiet. Barks at friends? well they can leave again or you can manage the situation by putting him in another room with a kong or chew before they come until he gets better at the other things. The barking will get worse before it gets better, but if it gets worse you know what you are doing is working, keep going.
Now start rewarding something else such as sit on his bed/mat. on the mat treat, on the mat play ect ect if you ask him to go on the mat and he barks for his treat, then I would walk away. see if he starts offering mat sitting instead of barking. Reward him for doing nothing instead of for barking.
Its worth the work, I inherited a 13yr old JRT with a barking problem like you wouldn't believe. I just made barking stop working for him. He would bark at any opportunity constantly high pitched barking it was horrific going form 2 dogs who only bark if someone is on the door step to this nightmare ... but Tonight when I was cooking food he lay down outside the kitchen (which I have been rewarding) instead of barking at me, his choice got rewarded heavily.
Be consistent. Everyone in the house must do the same thing.
To extinguish the behaviour take every situation as a separate one and start working on it. Pick up a toy and he barks, put it down. barks at you on the couch to play? get up and leave for a minute or till he is quiet. Barks at friends? well they can leave again or you can manage the situation by putting him in another room with a kong or chew before they come until he gets better at the other things. The barking will get worse before it gets better, but if it gets worse you know what you are doing is working, keep going.
Now start rewarding something else such as sit on his bed/mat. on the mat treat, on the mat play ect ect if you ask him to go on the mat and he barks for his treat, then I would walk away. see if he starts offering mat sitting instead of barking. Reward him for doing nothing instead of for barking.
Its worth the work, I inherited a 13yr old JRT with a barking problem like you wouldn't believe. I just made barking stop working for him. He would bark at any opportunity constantly high pitched barking it was horrific going form 2 dogs who only bark if someone is on the door step to this nightmare ... but Tonight when I was cooking food he lay down outside the kitchen (which I have been rewarding) instead of barking at me, his choice got rewarded heavily.
Be consistent. Everyone in the house must do the same thing.
@ntenda Ugh I feel you. My pup was coming good and now is barking at everything on sight.
I think adolescence has something to do with it as his balls are dropping at a massive rate so I’m just trying not to reinforce the behaviour and let him know that he won’t get what he wants by barking ie you can’t greet that dog/person if you bark at them you nutter
I think adolescence has something to do with it as his balls are dropping at a massive rate so I’m just trying not to reinforce the behaviour and let him know that he won’t get what he wants by barking ie you can’t greet that dog/person if you bark at them you nutter
@ntenda Haven't tried it since my boy doesn't bark too much but I'll let you know what one of my friends did and sounds like it could work. Being honest I'm not too sure of the approach he took but you can decide for yourself.
He got his puppy excited and ready to play. He then put his puppy into his crate. Naturally your puppy will whine and bark this is when you wait for him to be quiet on his own and reward him with a treat while saying quiet.
He got his puppy excited and ready to play. He then put his puppy into his crate. Naturally your puppy will whine and bark this is when you wait for him to be quiet on his own and reward him with a treat while saying quiet.
salvationislord
New member
@ntenda If he is barking for attention ignore him and leave the room etc
If he is barking at something then tell him “Quiet” firmly and once he stops treat him. They’ll slowly associate it. You could also tap him on the nose etc to get him to stop while saying Quiet and treat right after.
Im Unfortunately dealing with a howly boy but it’s expected as he’s a husky mix haha
If he is barking at something then tell him “Quiet” firmly and once he stops treat him. They’ll slowly associate it. You could also tap him on the nose etc to get him to stop while saying Quiet and treat right after.
Im Unfortunately dealing with a howly boy but it’s expected as he’s a husky mix haha