Posted: Wed Sep 27, 2006 8:09 pm Post subject: The noisest puppy in the world
If there were an award for the above - Paddy would win hands down
Ok, so I am all out of ideas......Paddy is a barker, a really high pitched girly bark. He barks for his breakfast - easily solved he isnt allowed in the kitchen whilst we are preparing the brekkie.
He barks in the car, but does eventually stop (normally when Izzie has told him too )
But the worst he barks, and the most embarrasing of all - he barks ALL through puppy class....honestly our class instructors must go home with ringing ears We try to keep him working throughout the class, but he gets bored so barks - we take toys, he still barks, a rewhide chew - yep, still barks. What else can we do?? It must be a nightmare for the other people on our class with him barking all the time.......I am also worried that when in class the more he barks, the more we work him so the more treats he gets, we tried this evening doing situps with him with no treats, it worked for a while then he got bored so started barking Is he barking because he knows he will get treats? If so how can we stop this.....
Any suggestions......I have run out of ideas.....he is making me feel like such a failure - I am training to be a flamin dog trainer yet I cant train my own dog
Right ....Before anyone guns me down...I'm only repeating what I heard!!!
We have a dog in our class which is like this...barks constantly...We were all mighty fed up with not being able to hear the trainer speak...Anyway as I was putting Oyster in the car, I heard the trainer come over to speak to the owner of the barker from hell...so I earwigged (naughty I know ).
The trainer told her to get herself one of those Jif Lemon squeezy bottles, then as soon as the dog barked tell it firmly "No barking" and at the same time squirt a tiny amount of lemon juice in it's mouth....She made sure to tell the owner to never get it in the dogs eyes or even around it's face..but to make sure the dog got a taste of the sour lemon.
She then went on to say that after a few days remove the lemon juice, as you shouldn't need it anymore and just fill the plastic lemon with water and make sure you carry it at all times...Apparently, as soon as the dog sees the bottle (which is fairly distinctive) and hears the command "No barking" it should stop because it doesn't want a taster of sour stuff.
She said she had used this method on only one of her own dogs, a particularly vocal GSD and it had worked within a week (she just takes the bottle out of her pocket and shows the dog and it shuts up now)...She also pointed out that this was something she would only use, if every other avenue had been tried and had failed.
As I said, it isn't something I have ever had to use and I hope I never will....but I won't dismiss it from my mind, just incase the need ever arises.
Thanks guys. Am really not sure that I want to resort to squirting things at him
Am going to try actually asking him to bark - see what happens.
I have also armed myself with a clicker....he is a very intelligent dog and picks things up quickly - maybe boring puppy class isnt taxing enough for him
To be perfectly honest, its all starting to get me down - I am wondering if we are the right people for him.....I adore him obviously, but maybe he would be better where he gets 1-1 attention. Cant believe I am even thinking that, but I have no idea what to do - why does he always bark? I am not at all cross with him you must understand, more confused - maybe he is unhappy?
Just a thought does charlie and izzy bark for certain things, maybe paddy has associated barking with getting things cos he may have seen it with the other dogs just clutching at straws here
Awww Don't beat yourself up over it...Some dogs do just bark more than others...it doesn't mean he's unhappy. It more than likely means he's found a good way to get your attention .
I had a Toy poodle which I had trained to alert to the doorbell, phone etc, for my deaf mother....Only when she went into a nursing home and I had the dog, I just couldn't switch the barking off....She barked at everything, including when I stood up, sat down, drank my tea..She drove me nuts . She had worked out that barking meant treats.....so she was using all of her one poodle brain cell to try to get treats for everything, the only problem was she couldn't work out why treats came for some things and not others, so she barked all the time. The barking had become much too ingrained for me to change her behaviour and in the end I let her go and live with my sister on her farm. She had free run all day there to bark to her hearts content.
Have you tried the time out method.....Barking = taken out of the room and left on your own until you stop?...It could work, he is still very young .
Nope, quite the opposite - they hardly ever bark, well the only time they do is when someone comes to the door and even then only when they can be bothered
Maybe when paddy barks ignore him and fuss charlie and izzy and then when he is quiet fuss him may work as he will see the others getting the fuss and the only reason hes not getting it is cos he is making a noise
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