Our dobermann is nearly 10 months old and lately his barking is driving us mad.  We have been doing training with him, and we have been doing the ignoring for attention, he has always been attention seeking.  Lately he barks for everything that he wants.  If there is something on the side in the kitchen, he will bark, if he has a toy and wants you to play, he puts it by you and barks at you or generally if he wants something - but I don't mind him barking but it is just continuous.  He does know speak, but sometimes it is difficult to get him to stop barking.  I have tried "good boy - quiet" and a few other things.  Any suggestions?

I know they are very vocal dogs, and sometimes he actually looks like he is going to speak

Does he also use a bark to alert you that he needs to go out?

Have you been ignoring the barking? :)

If so, you will find that many dogs will just continue due to the fact that it can be self fulfilling anyway. Also, they may bark for different reasons - frustration, territorial, attention seeking, etc and you really have to work out what he is doing and when if you can.

My personal experience of putting the barking on cue (ie teaching the Speak and Quiet) was that my dog barked more generally! With a guarding breed i feel it may be best to teach Quiet and then to really reward well for  moments when the dog has chosen to be Quiet or is just whining instead, etc. especially in a territorial barking situation.

For instance, if my dog (a BSD) barks at kids outside, i say Quiet and praise. If next time the kids are outside she just whines or does a small bark and then stops, i praise and usually treat or play with her. This is a bit basic but i hope you can see what i mean.

I used a clicker to teach the Quiet in the first place.

Hth a bit
Lindsay
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Thank you for your reply.  He does know "speak" - but he seems to have become alot more vocal over the last couple of months. 

He now barks at night when he runs into the garden, as a couple of months ago he chased a fox out of the garden, so now when he goes out and it is dark he runs down the end of the garden barking, often he is sniffing and nose to the floor, as the foxes have been in his garden.  He is a nightmare with the garden, often I ignore his barking as he is in and out so often, I do think this is attention seeking sometimes as he does it more when we have visitors, specially if they sit in the kitchen.  If I do ignore him he stands up at the kitchen window or at the back door looking in, normally I wait for him to be quiet and then I let him in, but believe me he is never left out very long, I do wonder whether I should leave him a bit longer.

After reading your email yesterday I started to do the "Quiet" but with a treat, I have been doing this but I just give him praise, yesterday the treat worked very well.

I also put his toys away, as when he has a toy he will keep giving it to you and barking, he continues even if you ignore him - so eventually I just remove the toy.  Sometimes its a bit like a spoilt child!!

Interesting Lindsay that you agree with me that in a vocal breed teaching them to speak in order to curb barking soesn't realy work, as the barking itself is rewareding.  I have always found a mild aversive (in my case with a non spooky breed) I use the water spray to get a moments atention and break the bark, and then lots of praise for not barking as well as getting the quiet command in.

If they all start such as when the door goes, I will say quiet and just pick up the bottle if they don;t stop right away.

With my eldest who has always attention barked.  suddenly needs to bhe let outsdie as soon as you are on the phone, paying someone else atention etc, then I found exclusion worked well.  If I knew she couldn't possibly really need out I would shut the kitchen door on her so she couldn't bug me.  then a few minutes later I would offer her the back door.

I also would make her wait before giving a release command to go outside so that she only got to do what she wanted when I said she could.  The NILIF program might help woth theis demanding behaviour.  the dog only getting what it wants by doing something you want.  So if he barks for a biscuit his dinner, going outsdie he will have to go through some training excersise, or a sit stay for a half minute what have you before getting it.  I found with my old girl who was doing the in out in out thing with th3 back door soon prefered not to ask :D

Hi Brainless,

I think that teaching the Speak may work much better with dogs such as gundogs, but yes, i totally agree it is best to not teach it to vocal breeds ;)

Hmm, i may have some fun later as at some stage i do have to teach Banya to Speak on command for working trials (when we get a bit further up the stakes) but i believe and hope that we have enough control and understanding now to keep the Quiet going well :D

Sometimes she gets terribly frustrated when others are playing with their dogs with a toy, and barks then, but that's a different scenario. Ha!

Lindsay
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Hi dgibbo

I think it may be a good idea to consider when he is allowed to bark. For example, Banya my girl is allowed to bark at cats and to bark territorially, BUT, must stop when i say. So effectively she barks maybe 3 times going up the garden, and the same if someone goes by, but i insist that, as she understands Quiet in these situations, she does stop when i say. I use voice inflections and lots of praise and attention and maybe the odd titibt when she does well. Shes not allowed to bark late at night either unless of course she was to spu an intruder or something.

If your dog barks lots in the garden, consider only letting him in the garden when you are there. Also if he barks say Quiet (once he understandds) and then bring him in if he does not stop. This will be a consequence for him. If you keep this up he should start to understand that you have the ultimate say in things.

Remember to be consistent and reward for good behaviour, esp. when you can see him choosing not to bark.

Llindsay

He firstly knocks the keys in the door and if I haven't heard him he will then bark to go out.  If we ignore him it gets louder and louder.  I do tell him Quiet, and we say sssh! but sometimes he has to answer back to this aswell.

You have a similar problem to me - which is why I always advise owners NOT to teach their dog to bark to go out, as they soon discover it brings you running :(  I've got part way there in that I can silence my dog with a visual command (which I never taught her, I just found out that by putting my hand up, flat palm towards her, she stopped barking), but ofcourse it still means I have to be in eyesight, and the rest of the family are hopeless are providing any consistency - which is the ABSOLUTE key in stopping behaviour like this, as the first time it gets rewarded, the dog thinks 'see, I knew it would work eventually, more is better!' :(

As he is only 10 months I would train him to ring a bell instead of barking - this is something you can have control of as if he starts to abuse it, you can remove it until he learns it only works for the desired purpose.

My dobe will bark for attention -he will bark to alert us and generally bark if someone sneezes in the next hemisphere !!
The attention barking we say 'NO' and remove ourselves from what ever it is he's pestering for ( he's 3 now so doesn't do it as much )
The guardy barking we tell him 'enough' and call him to us and praise him for being quiet -he does bark to go out but its more of a squeak than a bark and the same to come back in.
But I do remember the attention barking being a pain -he would stand and stare and bark ( it was like Chinese water torture ! :D ) so we found that by moving away he got the message quicker