A Socialised Dog Barking

[Guest G.S.D]

Hi Dog Owners, I have a much loved 11 month old speciality show gsd who has just recently (within the month) started randomly barking at other dogs in every situation- while we’re walking on the waterfront, at obedience class and fence barking.

Even though we’ve done pup school at 8wks, 12wk obedience course right after that, daily walks and regularly participated in show training weekly, it’s as if he has never been socialised with dogs before!

I decided to enrol him into obedience class again and have consulted a dog behaviourist. Our dog behaviourist explained that he is going through an adolescence stage and testing both leadership and the reaction of other dogs and that it was quite common in dogs this age. Our obedience trainer who is also a gsd breeder mentioned the same thing and said to keep firmly correcting the unwanted behaviour. She also said the reaction my dog is giving off is not aggression rather dominant, as if he is demanding the other dog’s attention. It’s our third week and I still haven’t seen any improvements with his barking at other dogs even though there is daily socialisation during our walks with other dogs pasting and weekly training sessions (obedience on Sundays). I feel that maybe I’m missing something and wondering if any other dog owners have experienced this kind of behaviour with their dogs? Is this obsession, anxiety or dominance towards other dogs? Any tips on how to overcome this behavioural problem?

At the moment I've been walking the other way when he tries to pull or bark until he has returned to a calm state of mind, its proving to be extremely difficult as he is just that focused to get his way. He completely ignores food in front of his nose and also disregards verbal corrections/tone when he sees another dog.

I’m desperate to get my dog’s state of mind back to what it used to be around other dogs and hoping there is light at the end of this tunnel.

Also the bark is not a sharp bark but rather a huff of barks.

Edited February 25, 2010 by G.S.D

[Kavik]

Have you done any focus work with your dog?

I have found that clicker training attention on me to be very useful. I used the method from Click to Calm: Healing the Aggressive Dog by Emma Parsons. I found it useful even if your dog is not necessarily aggressive, but if it reacts by barking or other things to other dogs (or people). Teach it first in a quiet environment before taking it on the road. When taking it out and about I started at a large distance (across the road from other dogs) for my dog aggro dog (and shorter distance for my other dogs). You want to start at a distance where the dog will not be too worked up by another dog and where you know the other dog cannot get close enough to touch your dog so you can work on being relaxed and focus on the training.

What I did was click/treat when the dog looked at me, then wait and allow dog to look at the other dog, and wait to see if the dog looks back at you (which it should if you have a good reward history for that behaviour first). When the dog looks back at you from looking at the other dog, click/treat.

[Nekhbet]

why dont you use a check chain and give him a little correction when he wont follow. Then follow up with showing what the correct behavior is and reward that