My 2 1/2 yr old retriever, ellie, has always been a noisy dog, but just recently she has got much worse. SHe tends to bark a lot at anyone who comes in the house, its a very aggressive bark and often mixed in with growling, although she s better than she was. I have no fear that she will bite as it is all noise no trousers! We tend to manage this by putting her in a different room until the visitors settle and generally she is better, as it seems to be the door opening that sets her off. Out on a walk she will often bark at anyone within a few metres of our house. Just recently she has started protecting the car, not so much when shes inside, but on return to the carpark when finishing a walk. If shes offlead she will run and bark at anyone in the vicinity, and now that i am putting her on lead, just barking and growling. A few minutes away from the carpark she is absolutely fine, although shes always been a nervous dog, particularly when on lead. Its always just a noisy display, but obviously i want to stop it as not everyone knows that! Its particuarly annoying as it sets my other two dogs off barking as well, even though they are normally fine. Obviously i will be putting her on lead long before the approach to the car park but how can i nip this in the bud?

Hello

I'm sorry, this is not a helpful answer to your question.  It is rather another plea to all the helpful doggy owners 'out there' to give you an answer , or are they none for this kind of behaviour?  Because I have a similar thing with my six month old pup (barking at people), and am keen to know what to do about this.

Regards

Bagpipe

We have problems with this too :( Unfortunately our older rescue dog was like this at home when we got him. We did get to the stage that he would be quiet when told. The problem got gradually worse as our younger dog started to join in the barking when she was about 8/9 months. Separately they aren't too bad - but together they are terrible - if we get one quiet, the other starts. The main problem being when we have visitors and are shut in another room :( If we let them out they will settle in with us quietly - but they hate hearing strangers around the house and not being there :(

Does your retriever carry anything ? Our older dog used to bark at certain people when out on walks and we found that the problem was solved by letting him carry his ball around with him on every walk :)

Daisy

Not an animal behaviourist. But I saw a programme on TV the other day (Its Me or the Dog).  There was a dog that did just as you describe.  What the trainer said was that the dog was hyping itself up by barking at people and therefore was getting some degree of pleasure from it.  She walked the dog in the other direction as soon as she could see the dog starting to wind up (distraction therapy), then after a few moments she turned the dog and walked towards the people, if she started to see a reaction, she turned the dog and walked away again.  Won't be easy when you have other dogs with you but it may have become a habit now that you will have to break.  The only other thing I can suggest is a spray collar, but you would have to spend out about £150.  It has a remote control with it and as soon as the dog starts, you hit the button on the remote whilst shouting NO, that sends a jet of spray under her chin and they normally start looking for where the a) noise came from or b) spray came from.(Distraction therapy) One of my puppy owners has just bought one for her Golden as he is a barker. Not towards people or dogs, just likes the sound of his own voice. As soon as she puts the collar on he just doesn't bark any more.  Also now that he has got used to the word NO, he shuts up even when the collar is not on.I wouldn't advocate this on a small puppy (he is now a year old) But I would try some sort of distraction to break the habit.
Good luck
Alison

When it happens in the home, to visitors, it's usually because the dog is trying to find its 'job' and in the absence of any instruction, it makes it's own choice.  Most dogs would rather be told what to do, which is where a ball or large soft toy comes in very useful - train your dog to find that particular toy, and make it VERY rewarding for them to do so, then that when somebody calls, you can ask the dog to find the toy (the larger and the better it fills the mouth, the better ;)) - it can't bark and hold the toy at the same time (it may still make a somewhat muffled noise though :D)

The dog on the TV programme was a little different if I remember rightly, it was actually scared of the approaching buggy, so it was handled in a different way.

I would NOT advocate a spray collar on a dog I'd never met - it could turn a welcoming but boisterous dog into a nervous wreck each time the doorbell or knocker went :(  You also shouldn't use them as AlisonGold has described - the dog should have no connection between you and the collar/distraction.......

Unfortunately AlisonGold, it is impossible to diagnose the reason behind a dog's behaviour over the net; all dogs are different and often dogs are not ACTUALLY doing what owners THINK they are doing.  There could be a myriad of reasons why the dog is behaving in this way and I certainlly would NOT advocate a collar that punishes the dog for this behaviour as IF the behaviour is a symptom of the dog being uncomfortable, I fail to see how making him feel even MORE uncomfortable could be beneficial.

Spray collars CAN be an interruption device only, ie a jet of air or water, however they can also be a punishment device ie jet of citronella or mustard.  They do not work on all dogs and some learn how to empty the reservoir by barking a lot in a short space of time so they can bark all day some time after!

Quick fixes often have long term side effects that are not always immediately obvious.

Well, what a lot of negative replies.  Unfortunately, no-one has given any positive response to this lady.  This is potentially a very serious situation.  If this behaviour is not stopped this lady's dog could be reported and then what will happen.  The dog I was descibing on the TV programme WAS barking at people not buggies. One gentleman got quite shirty with the owner for not apologising for her dog barking at him and he did not have a buggy with him. Also the spray collar, used with the remote (hence £150 worth) cannot empty itself as the owner controls it, hence the dog hears that owner shouting NO and connects the command and gets distracted.  The whole idea is to distract the dog, if this can be done by another method then fine, however I have used this collar myself when my dog (chasing a cat)was running towards a main road taking her puppy with her and managed to distract her and call her back to me. I would call that a BIG success having both dogs back by my side unhurt. I have also seen it being used on dogs which have had horrendeous behaviour problems with other dogs and can now sit and socialise with those same dogs in the class (without the collar on). It has learnt to listen to the owner and respond, especially when other dogs are coming to say hello. I agree that we cannot know what lies behind this dogs problems, but I thought the idea was to throw some ideas around and the owner could take some thoughts from these and perhaps be able to connect them to her dog. I look forward to this lady getting some good advice as to how to stop this behaviour

Actually, my response to the OP was positive - it was only the suggestion of using a spray collar on a dog you haven't seen or have any knowledge of I responded to in a negative way, because the potential for damage is large. The dog MAY cease the original behaviour, but what other behaviours surface because the original shortcomings have not been sorted out?

Personally I think if you talk to her when you know she is approaching a stressful situation it may help. Then if she does bark a firm NO and turn around and walk away. The anti bark collars are good and the ones without remote control work well and are a lot cheeper. HOWEVER if she is a nervous dog then it may make her worse. If in doubt find a good behaviourist and have her professionally assessed as she certainly dosent need to be scared even more. It may also be worth checking that she is OK when one of mine recently started guarding a lot, it appears to have been triggered by his being in pain from his hips.

Exactly, none of us know what ails this dog and therefore it helps to have people throw ideas into the pot and the owner can decide on the best course of action, after all the owner knows its dog best.  As I said in my first post, I am not an animal behaviourist, all I am is someone who enjoys showing her dogs and training them in non competitive obedience.  I have four boisterous bitches who live completely harmoniously together ( never have even a lifted lip).  They have all attained their KCGC Bronze, Silver & Gold awards excepting the puppy of 12 months of age who has her Bronze & Silver and is taking her Gold in April. The use of the collar as stated previously was for the girl with a very high prey chase drive who thanks to the collar can now be 'controlled' by voice only. I do take great exception to being told that I haven't used the collar correctly as the proof is in the pudding. With all this in mind I intend to leave the forum open for further ideas as obviously not having these problems myself I can only go on what I have seen at my Obedience classes with other problem dogs.  I defer to people with more experience of problems ( I do read other problem posts) and hope digger that you manage to solve your problem with your gnashing dog.