We have a 2 year old male, complete lab who is very vocal at night when he is in with my wife.

He jumps up barking at every car that comes into our cul de sac until i return, where he will settle down.

we are looking for ways to stop this as our neighbours have just had a baby and we ourselves are 6 months awaty from our first child too.

we have went back to establishing dominance via food, etc but was wondering if there was any other way to stop him.

i have read several sites about holding across his muzzle, not too tightly and hissing at him to stop, apparently acting like the leader in the pack.

does anyone have experience of this or any other types of controlling this?

cheers

To be honest, establishing "dominance" won't help in this sort of situation, and in dog training many now think the whole pack leader/dominance idea is not all it was cracked up to be :)

The best way is to train a dog rather than try to use dominance techniques.
Find out why he is barking - is he hearing the cars and expecting it to be you?

Have you or your wife attempted any training with him, and if so, what have you done?

Lindsay
x

Has he always done this?    Does he expect YOU to be in every car that turns into your cul-de-sac?

I think this is where you have to train him to NOT to bark - we use the order "settle" if ours start barking unnecessarily.     I've reinforced this, when I've had to with a.....water spray :rolleyes:

In other words, barking dog is told "thank you" (ie you've notified me that someone is coming) "now SETTLE!".     If the barking has continued after being told SETTLE, I've then used an ordinary household spray bottle - well washed out, of course - with some water in it - and then sprayed it across the nose!   It does work - to the extent that if Loki is continuing to bark after being told settle, I only have to pick up ANY kitchen spray bottle - show it to her - and she stops!  

Might be worth a try rather than all this Dominance rubbish :D

Margot