Well, its true he is!
Jack now 71/2 months is just too badly behaved around other dogs. He is good natured, and that is great but he is so desperate to be set free to play when we are attempting any kind of training. We gave up on obedience classes as all the teacher was doing was winding him up further with the water bottle! He is a BARKER you see, and not too bad at home but in group situations it is quite embarassing. Daughter does Junior handling classes with him but gets quite distressed so swops for a friends 'nice dog' He then started ringcraft with me as it was suggested he really would learn to calm down there . He doesn't though, the whole way he tries his damndest I feel I should be providing paracetemol to everyone, and yes they are all holding there heads. I am getting a citronella collar thingy today as has been advised, can any body else suggest anything, any thing at all that we may be missing.
Karen:rolleyes:

i've got a gobby little blighter too although he tends to shut up in company rather than the other way round! i also have a deal of success with a combination of "stow it!" and the occasional time out but since i don't have an "outdoors" problem and am no expert, i hope one comes along in a minute to offer some rather more practical tips. all i would say is that i'm certain a citronella collar would excite nips all the more since added stimulus tends to lubricate the vocal cords but that's not necessarily going to be the case with jack.

Is he an Australian Shepherd? :)

Do you know why he barks? for instance, is he just overexcited, is he stressed (lots of barking in show situations can be due to this although it's rarely recognised), wanting to play, wanting to go home, does he want to be with someone else, is he bored, etc etc...understanding the "why" can sometimes provide the info to work on the problem and then solve the barking (hopefully!)

Lindsay
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Foods that have a high protein level can make some dogs hyper,

Well thanks for replies am very grateful, Jack is an australian terrier, amazingly when he has twice been in real show (albeit small local) situations he has been brilliant! The better adviser at ringcraft said to use lower protein adult food, which we were changing to anyhow so that was good. But I now have the collar...£87.00...Sorry I didn't look on e-bay first. This lady also said the important bit was the citronella, which figures, as with Nips, water squirting just encourages him. She recons he desperatly wants to win out....get to the other dogs to play!
I am hoping (what patience I must have) that he will be a perfect dog when he is 2 or 3 years old. Daughter so wants to show and handle otherwise I would keep him out of the way and content myself with him as he is.
Karen

Hi there

I would suspect that the reason your dog is barking is because he has used it in the past to get attention and it has worked.  He is also an earth dog and while I don't know the origins of australian terriers, most terriers do bark a lot.  It is just something that they do.  What you could do is teach Jack to bark.  When he is barking say "bark" and give him a treat.  Do this lots of times until he gets the message that he is "barking".  When he is quiet between barks then say "quiet" and give him a treat.  Do this lots of times and he will get the message as to what "quiet" means.  Then when he is barking and you tell him to be quiet he will know what you mean.  Quite simple really and something that I would have thought a trainer would have been able to advise you to do.  You will never stop a terrier barking but you can train him to stop barking when it is inappropriate!!!!

A citronella collar will probably do nothing to stop your dog barking and in fact could make him worse.  Terriers are clever little dogs and he will learn very quickly that when he has the collar on if he barks something will happen.  IMO they are a waste of money and can do much harm to dogs.  I would never ever use one;  I would always, as Lindsay says, get to the root of the problem by trying to identify a trigger but also remembering that you have a breed from a group of dogs that are renouned for barking.  He will not automatically stop barking at 2 or 3 years old unfortunately.  He will bark for the rest of his life.  If your trainer was scooshing him with water, throwing stuff at him etc., etc., it says to me that they weren't a very good trainer as modern methods don't encourage this type of behaviour modification technique.

So my advice to you would be to take the citronella collar back to the shop and get your £87 back.  Look for a good training club that uses reward based methods; recognise that your dog is bred to bark and retrain him as I've said above so that he knows exactly what you want from him.  This will not be a quick fix and aversives almost always make the situation worse unless they are used by a responsible, experienced trainer.

I really do feel for you because there is nothing worse than having a dog that yaps all the time.  However, when you shout at him to shut up etc., he just thinks you are joining in with his enthusiasm.  Also, have a look at the breed standard in the KC website.  I can almost guarantee that it will say that this dog is not a quiet dog and will bark.  So basically it is a case of readjusting the barking to when it suits you.  Don't try and stop him barking completely because you will then be taking away his natural instincts and that isn't fair on the dog.

I do hope this helps some way.

Kind regards
Annie

Don't know if you've tried this, but what about giving him a really good run before trying to train him or do ring craft.  Very often young terriers are just so full of energy they need to let off steam before they can concentrate :D :D    Is there somewhere you can let him off lead to rush about safely before training sessions?   chasing and retrieveing a ball would be ideal :D :D  You may find that he's quieter too ;)

I like a young show dog to be lively, they take a while to settle but usually show their socks off once they get the idea of it ;)

Something to add is that citronella is a powerful scent and will be on and around the dog after being sprayed, thus the dog will still scent if even after he has stopped barking. If he associates it with barking and he is quiet, he is effectively still being punished for barking, even though he has stopped -  if you see what I mean.

Lindsay
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Thank you all, I will take on board all comments and ideas and will post in the future of his progress.
Karen