Hello everyone,

I have a cocker spaniel (show type) who is nearly five years old. Other than being an incorrigible food thief, she's well behaved most of the time, has good recall off the lead, can stay and wait, fetch etc. However, over the last year or so she's started barking whenever anyone (usually men?!) come over and talk to me on a walk - other dog walkers, I mean, not just random men, haha.  She does the same thing if the postman comes, or the window cleaner, or the electricity reader...you get the gist. She's not aggressive - she just barks, non stop. Currently, we're on holiday and for the first time we've brought her with us. It's a lot of fun and she's having a whale of a time on the beach. However, today we were camped on the beach (our kids playing nearby) in a small cove. A family came and sat a short distance from us, with a friendly, placid Labrador. She barked almost continuously at this dog, and anyone who else who came near us, the whole time we were there. She's always been so good with other dogs, so friendly and placid. Does anyone have any ideas about what's going on, and how we deal with it?

Get your vet to check her out to rule out physical problems, since the barking has persisted.

Thanks for the reply Jessica. I'm pretty sure there is no connection between her physical well being, and the barking. I think she's being protective of us - but I don't know how to get her to stop doing it!

You are probably right but changes I behaviour can be from health problems that don't show. Thyroid being one that is often missed , dog appears well but behaviour changes are present. Might be worth getting that ruled out .
Try and avoid letting her practice the behaviour. ie take her away from the problem that promotes barking, you don't wan her practising the behaviour. You could try taking her places where you will see men or whatever the trigger is and work at distance she is comfortable with and not responding by barking . give  her treats and focussing on you while she is not barking. you then need to get closer step by step and slowly get to a point where she associates the trigger with good things. This can take a while and may need help from a behaviourist. Try not to shout at her  as tempting as it is when she is barking as it will make things worse

Furriefriends, thanks for the reply. I have tried giving her a treat when she quietens, but yesterday she just took the treat, then carried on barking! She only stopped when the Labrador walked off, so my cocker obviously thought her barking had worked!  I'm wary of letting her think that the treat is her reward for barking. However, today some of my husband's family came over to spend the day with us - amongst them, his dad and brother. Typically, she barked when we first met up with them, so I asked THEM to give her a treat. She took the treats happily, then shut up! So, I'm going to start asking delivery people etc, to give her a treat. Sound like a good idea?

By all means a treat when she is quiet and calm.if not just remove her from the situating and ignore or your visitors ignore her and walk away not allowing her to follow and bark  otherwise say out and about .your aim is to let her see the trigger but at a distance that she doesn't bark and treat her then eg man other side of park she  is quiet so she gets a treat .you walk towards and she barks.turn and walk back to her  safe distance she sees trigger and doesn't bark so gets a treat and so on .this may be a lot of work at a distance .as soon as you step towards the trigger and she barks you remove her to her area of comfort .again she is further a way sees the trigger but far enough thay she doesn't bark so gets a treat.  You work at her speed and you are treating for being in presence of trigger and  not barking.atm presence could be other side of the park but trigger in view.  It's can be along jib but depends on the dog she may be eager to work and catch  on quickly .must get her to walk off not as you say happened when lab walked off so she saw it as I bark lab goes .success

Can u get to some good training  classes ? Explain the problem and any good class will help.yi work on this.it might mean a lot of walking in and out tje room or whatever but with someone to guide you with timing it may help

Thanks for all that, Furriefriends. Really great advice. I will work on that when we're out and about, but the worst barking is at postman, delivery people etc, or friends coming to the house. So at home. I will definitely enrol her in a training course. I didn't when she was younger because I trained her myself, and also because I had three very young children and getting out in the evenings to classes wasn't an option. I thought I'd done a good job with training her, but it seems not.

Great stuff.u won't conquer  everything g in one go it's kind of work on progress.if she won't be quite for visiorsr ignore and remove if this is your priority problem .if she quietens she can see them amd if no barking gets a treat .if not remove . Just try amd not allow her to practise what you don't want

The other thing you could try is to give her an alternative behavior to do. You could teach her to go to bed and reward that and then introduce sending her to bed the second the doorbell goes or a visitor arrives- all of which you can teach by yourself or with help from a friend. My terrier x would redirect his excitement at the door onto my older boy. I taught him to grab his tuggy toy instead and he can rag that to his heart's content. Whenever there is someone at the door now he will run off to get the tuggy which is kept on the floor by the back door and the old boy can be left in peace.

Thanks for the reply Harley. This is a great idea: So to teach her to go to bed, I put a treat in the bed and then get her to go and get it? She's really strong willed - I imagine she will go to bed, eat the treat, then come out and resume barking at my visitor until she gets attention. There's no way she will stay in her bed if someone is in the house. She's also not motivated by toys at all, so unfortunately that's not an option either. Getting her to go to her bed is something I ought to teach her though anyway, as it's useful.

Good.point harley. Similar to using sit be for greeting to prevent jumping up. Can't sit and jump lol

Shoe-dweller - if you clicker train I would use that method to teach her the go to bed. If you don't I would start by asking her to lie on her bed and once she has done this reward her straight away. Do this several times and then introduce your command for that required action. Start off by having her actually on the bed, then once she has got the idea that the command means go to her bed then ask her to go from just one step away and reward her once she has done this. Once she thoroughly understands what is required of her then increase the distance from her and the bed and reward the correct behaviour. Build up the distance in tiny increments and if you need to go back a step then that is fine.

Eventually you can build up to being able to send her to bed from anywhere in the house. Once she has that behaviour fully proofed I would then get someone to ring the doorbell and as soon as they do that give her the command to send her to bed. You may have to do that from close to the bed to begin with and make sure you really reward her when she gets it right and then you can build up the distance again. The same can be done with visitors - train the go to bed first and have it as a secure behaviour and then do the same procedure as you did for the doorbell - I would imagine most visitors would be ringing the doorbell rather than just walking in anyway. She will learn to associate the doorbell (and thus visitors too) with the action of going to her bed. It takes time and patience but if done correctly it should make life easier for all of you.

Don't be tempted to rush the process - tiny steps and quick use of rewards is the key. She may well get up straight away the first few times and that is fine because it is all a new process to her. Once she has associated lying on the bed as the key to getting the reward you can then slowly increase the time span before the reward is delivered - so she understands that not only does she need to go and lie on the bed but she needs to stay there until she is released. If you don't have a release word for her (so she knows she is allowed to break from whatever you have asked her to do) I would introduce one - I use the work "Okay" for mine so my dogs know that they have to remain doing whatever they have been asked to do such as sit or wait and shouldn't move until I have said the word Okay. The other important thing to do is to reward her when she is actually doing what you have asked her to do - as in lie on the bed so you reward her when she is lying down not as she is released. Hope that makes sense

Harley,

Thank you so much for the advice! I'm really excited to get home and start this now. We're moving house on Friday, and our new house has doorbell fitted (current house doesn't) so that's a good opportunity to start a new routine with her. She won't associate the doorbell with visitors. I've never clicked trained, but again, wish I had done. I really would like to get her behaviour sorted properly, because I want a second dog later this year and don't want the puppy picking up bad habits. Otherwise, she's a brilliant dog - her recall is excellent, she's rock solid on the house (was housetrained in two weeks, through the night too), but she's always been a demanding madam with visitors. And the barking at people while out is a new pastime!

By the sound of it I think our two Cockers would get on - mine barks at any sound that's 'scary', even if it's someone next door chopping wood, or a couple of kids shouting. Generally she is better since I upped her exercise routine. So I would suggest taking a look at how often she is exercised & for how long. Look at her food too - some are high in energy & could be contributing to over excitability/hyperactivity.

Thanks Jessica.

She gets over an hour a day, most days - half hour walk in the morning, and forty minute/hour walk in the afternoon. Sometimes more, especially at this time of year. She doesn't react to any other noises - she's grown up with four noisy children, so she can sleep with world war three going on around her and not flinch! It's just the excitement of visitors, and now this protecting thing. I wouldn't describe her as hyperactive at all, and in fact she's really calm for a cocker. She's show type.

Going to get into the new house and really knuckle down again with her training. She's such a great dog, and so smart. I'm sure she'll pick it up in no time - I hope!

Moving house is an opportunity for a fresh start, but it could also upset your Cocker even more. A new house is something new that needs protecting. It does sound as if she is trying to protect you (barking to ward off strangers). My Cocker is also show-type and will sit on the back door step, 'guarding' me inside, and goes mad if someone walks by.

Oh No! I hope not. I'm enrolling her in a class in September, so hoping that will help. We've been packing today, and she's been moping about the house, looking concerned. I think she thinks we're leaving her behind!

Oh poor little thing! A new class should help. If you know anyone with well-behaved dogs you could invite them around and let them all play together.