Any suggestions please to help a dog who has just joined an Obedience Class, and barks excessively at the other dogs. The dog is from rescue, with no previous knowledge of background.

Any ideas or suggestions to help calm this dog would be much appreciated.

Thank you

Shouldn't the class be sorting this out?

HI guest

It would be interesting to know what sort of dog it is, as some breeds are hard wired for barking as we all know!!! And will tend to use that to show thier feelings rather than any other response.

Difficult without seeing but, as a suggestion I would try to work out why he/she was barking, for instance is it high spirits, fear, excitement, stress, the owner inadvertently rewarding it - the list goes on and on doesn't it!!

I have to say barking is not my favourite problem as i don't have a lot of expereince with it, (I am not an instructor either) but I would just say,try toworkout what the problem is and that may help.

Some people are now turningto Tellingtontouch and other "holistic" ideas which do seem to help, depending on dog, owner, situation etc.

I expect others who teach will have more practical solutions.

Oh, just one idea; I am goin gto a Good Manners class at the mo with my pup, and there is a lurcher there who often barks like mad, likewise a collie cross and another lurcher (first ones friend).

The instructor tells them to simply turn their heads away (so turn the dog around completely) so they are looking at something else. This worked surprisingly well when we were all sitting listening to instructions; also watch out for dogs eyeballing each other and winding each other up.

Perhaps the dog is just very excited or may not be used ot other dogs?

Definately don't let any eyeballing go on - make sure the barking dog and everyone else is concentrating on maintaining the dogs attention. Use of food/toy etc. Any other problems at home ( sounds like there would be ) need to be addressed as well as establishing the reasons why the dog is barking in class - excitement? or fesr? for instance...