Hi Everone, what do you do when a seven month old pup decides that she is going to bark at EVERYONE and ANYTHING,? she seems to be very confrontational! once she is approached she is ok (its at a distance she is worst) ,but its making some people wary,!she is a very cute looking pup and so we are approached a lot ,i can see the children are not sure what to make of her ,i am wondering if pups have the equivalent of the "terrible twos"(oh how i remember those)has anyone else had this problem? if so , how did you deal with it?there is nothing wrong with her being protective .. just not so confrontational ..hope you can help its making going out in the car and for walks a bit of a problem(she has only started this behaviour in the last week or so !)Regards Sue T. xx

hi - what do you do when she barks? how do you react?

Hi Chloe,thanks for taking time out to get back to me , i know i am probably going to get shot down in flames ,but i do tell her off! i dont shout or yell but i do say "Lola no"if it were not so embarrassing it would almost be funny !she has to have the last grumble (you know what i mean ... not quite a bark just a ....grumble!!!!! ) so she knows that i dont find this behaviour accepable,but actually does not give a s**t,i just want her to be the way she was a couple of weeks ago ,she has become very protective of us all (me especially)i have to admit of the three dogs i have had (and loved )she has touched somthing very special ....i think she knows this ,!she has had a dicky tummy all day today and has been very quiet ..and i have been fretting all day ,isnt it scary how these little monsters get to us ..i think she has me sussed !!!!!!!Regards Sue T.

Vinnie (7 months old) started doing this - so I've started to take her "tuggy" out with us - when she opens her mouth to start "trapping" - she gets her tuggy stuffed in - rather like a baby with a dummy :) - she so loves her tuggy that she can't then bark!!:D

Margot

Hi Margot , i am off to the pet shop tomorrow !!!!!!! but even with her toy ostrich (dont ask !!)in her mouth she "grumbles",as i have said before,i have met my match,Regards Sue T.

Well, we carry a tuggy - or a lion (that growls!!) :D Margot

Hi Margot,this pup has toys galore!!they sqeak they scream , you name it they do it !!and what does she love the most?.......flower pots!........!!!!!!.first off empty ones .. today she has eaten my runner bean plants .... and we thought it was snails .....Take Care Sue T.

hi
you know what my pup loves flower pots too!!! plays all day with them if you look down my garden all you can are different sizes of pots everywhere , i also highly recomend swingball she'll chase the ball round the pole and have a great time on her own keeps her occupied and out of mischief!!!

jackie

I started a puppy obedience class a couple of weeks ago. This past week we learned about nuisance barking. I am using this method and IT WORKS! Make sure the puppy is on a leash. When she barks, give the leash a good clean pop and firm enough for her to notice. Don't snap it hard enough to take her head off, but don't make it a wimpy little love pop either. You want to startle her. Do not say anything after the pop either, you want her to associate a consequence for her action--she barks, she gets a pop in the neck. Every time she barks, give the leash a firm pop, and then put slack in the leash. She will no doubt look at you like "what the heck was that?" If she is anything like my Lab, she WILL test you and bark more after the first couple of pops. When she has been quiet give her a lot of praise, and a treat, saying "Good dog, good quiet dog, no-bark" something along those lines.

Another tip he gave us is a little more direct, but it works too for the pup barking in a crate. He uses a plastic dust pan. When the puppy barks, you use the dust pan and bang HARD on the top of the kennel, and then say "quiet", nothing else. For the next couple of times she barks, do the same thing, "bark" BANG "quiet".

Don't give in! Be consistent, and believe it or not you will see results. Lynn ;-)

when she barks walk away without saying a word totally ignore her whenever she is just sat being quiet praise her like mad and give her a treat.

jag

Sorry, i oughta keep quiet but seriously, that is the horriblest advice i have EVER heard!!!!!

Whilst giving a pup or even an adult dog a 'pop' with the lead might shut it up, you will also do damage to the dogs neck, and possibly give it a fear of leads/collars, or even of the owner. Great result im sure.

If you want to make sure your puppy HATES his crate, then by all means, scare the living cr@p out of it by bashing the top of the crate really hard when the pup is upset.

Train your pup with kindness and respect, prevent or ignore bad/unwanted behaviour, and reward good/wanted behaviour consistently, adn you will have a pup that grows into a friend who respects you and loves you.

Alternatively follow Lynns advice and have a pup who grows up to be a cowering wreck, with a sore neck, who bites you when you put a collar on, and is terrified of his crate, and of you!

Emma

each to their own Emma.

I must be interpreting the term "pop" on the lead different to you as I do not read Lynn as meaning it to hurt the dog in anyway at all - more like giving someones sleeve a quick tug to get their attention.

I have to say I'm not sure about the banging on the cage bit though as I do wonder about the scariness of that.

I'm have to say I do not hold with this "ignore bad/unwanted behaviour" although I do agree with "prevent it happening where possible". Both my dogs know NO, have had a slap of the backside once or twice in their lives and both are happy well rounded individuals. I don't beat them or hurt them but they know that what I say goes and that I will not tolerate certain things.
I am happy to use a mix of praise and firmness - works for me and my dogs.

Hi,

Dont get me wrong, all my dogs (well, apart from Saffi, shed just melt if u ever smacked her, or shouted at her) have had the occasional smack on the backside, i just think a well timed, well earned smack on the backside can be a lot more productive, and a lot less damaging than a pop with a lead.
Certainly when my lurcher pup was going through his bark at everything stage, a pop on the lead would have had to nearly decapitate him to shut him up.

It all depends on the individual dog, an i prefer to steer away from physical punishment whereever possible, so id never give out advice to someone to physicallyl reprimand their dog without seeing/knowing the dog very well.

Em

:)

You're right it is a very individual thing and all dogs react differently to the same actions. My oldest one just needs his name saying in a certain way and he knows , the younger one needs a much sterner voice.

It is very difficult to understand what people really mean by actions they describe. This is a perfect example of us both interpreting the same post in different ways - I agree that the lead and collar should not be used to jerk the dog so it hurts the neck but have to say I was reading the "pop" more as the noise a half check would make therefore startling the dog rather than hurting :)

It all depends on the individual dog, an i prefer to steer away from physical punishment whereever possible, so id never give out advice to someone to physicallyl reprimand their dog without seeing/knowing the dog very well.

I don't disagree :) In this case though it was a trainer at a class who suggested the action and it could well be neither of us are seeing in our minds the true action that was meant by the trainer :)

I just find that some days I get quite frustrated when I read posts (not this one in particular) about pups doing stuff like guarding bones etc and the poster is told to ignore the bad behaviour and praise the good etc. I worry about what happens when that dog is bigger and decides to guard something knowing it got away with it before. Your reply to me suggests though that you'd probably react as I would - with firmness but not pain. It is hard to get that fine line over in words - when my pup growled at me over a stick (not a play growl - it was definately a swear word she was repeating ;) ) I scruffed her, shouted in her face and slapped her backside. The whole thing took a second and didn't hurt her but shocked her. She never did it again. However to read my actions some people would see it as cruel, some would interpret it as hurting the dog, and some people would have timed it wrong therefore not helping the situation at all :rolleyes: Also unfortunately some people cannot recognise the difference bewteen play growling and nasty growling in the first place so may "punish" the dog when it's only playing :(
It is hard to get advice and ideas across clearly and politley and that is part of the reason I've been quieter than usual recently as I was finding I was wanting to answer posts I saw but was concerened about misinterpreation or by being jumped on by others with totally different views. I'm always open to sensible discussion - like this is - its refreshing :) I have the feeling that inside we are probably quite similar in our views and treatment of our dogs - we just express things differently ;)

SaraW :)

I was not advocating taking the dog's head off with a forceful yank or a jerk. It is a pop with a slack leash on a collar meant to interrupt the behavior and startle the dog. The same thing with the dust pan on the crate. It is meant to startle the dog and bring them to associate the action with the reaction "bark" pop or bang. When he is quiet, you praise him a lot and give him a cookie. This is not something that is maintained either. Once the dog associates an unpleasant (mind you I said unpleasant, not painful) response, they don't do it anymore. Like SaraW said, it is firmness with praise training.

My intention wasn't to start such a fire storm! I was offering some guidance that I had received from a reputable trainer, who, by the way does not advocate physical abuse to an animal.

I have gotten some good tips and advice from this board, and I was just happy I could finally have something to offer.
Lynn

Hiya,

Sorry, for one thing i was probably having a bad day, but for another, i know with my VERY yappy Lurcher, that a 'pop' with a lead to get him to shut up would most definately involve removing his head!!!!! If it didnt, it simply wouldnt work.

I think it is different for your trainer to give you that advice, with you and your dog in front of him/her, but from a short post, none of us on here can know how someones dog is going to react to that treatment.

Out of my three, they would all react differently, Dill would ignore it till his head came off (an serious damage to his neck done, being long fine necked dog), Rocky would eventually listen, and i suspect Saffi would never let you put a collar on her again!

The other thing is, it is very veyr easy, especially if you are very frustrated at the noise teh dog is making, to take things to far, to yank too hard, or to bash the crate and scare the dog too much. Another reason why i would avoid giving advice like that online.

All that said, however, yesterday i stopped the pup and Saffi from fighting over a bag of flour they had stolen, by walloping the pup on the backside, since shouting NO didnt work. The slap DID work, but i wouldnt try it in another situation, and i wouldnt give that advice to someone else either.
we should all be aware that every dog and owner are different, and that one method may work for one person and dog but may well not work, or in fact cause damage for another .

Em

My Yorkshire Terrier bitch is a yappy dog. She barks at anything and everything aswell. When we are on a walk and she starts barking at something I let her go over to whatever she is barking at so se will see its nothing. If its someone she is barking at then I pick her up and hold her mouth closed. She loves walking so when she cant she doesn't like it. When she is calm again, I put her down and we walk again. Obviously with bigger dogs, this would be difficult. When she just barks at home for no reason, I go and check to see what she is barking at and then I tell her to stop and if she carrys on, I leave her in a room on her own, or if I cant I ignore her completely and get everybody else in the house to ignore her aswell. It hasn't worked so far but shes better than she was.
from Ciara