Teaching Not To Bark

[Jessie's Girl]

Hi.

We have recently taken on a foster dog. An ex racing Greyhound 6 years old. She has no basic obedience training but seem to be learning well.

The problem is she often will just start barking for an unknown reason at our other dog, a GSP, also 6.

The GSP does nothing to provoke her as far as I can see, and he also does nothing once she starts. He just stands there as she stands next to him, barking. She doesn't seem aggressive, but very persistent.

The other time this happens is when we are playing ball and the GSP gets excited. The Greyhound will often join in the play but sometimes she will just bark consistently at the GSP. She has also done this at the off lead park when a young excited puppy approached the park. This makes me think it is an excited bark. But she does not stop until the stimulus is removed. I would love to train her out of this and help her secure a forever home (and stop driving me neighbours crazy).

Any help would be great

[Agility Dogs]

It's a hard one because she must find the barking quite rewarding in itself.

My thought would be that you need to find something that is more rewarding than the barking so that you can interrupt it without having to take the stimulus away. That might be a toy, it might be a treat, whatever. BUT......you will also probably have to introduce the stimulus at a distance and work towards it.

[persephone]

hi - this dog has probably been in a kennel - and barking would be very ingrained after so long ....Perhaps ask the group for whom you are fostering?

[Mrs Rusty Bucket]

Any chance you could teach her to bark on cue, ie give it value so she doesn't give it away for free?

If a dog can bark on cue, then you can also teach quiet on cue.

Works with my dog.

First I had the bark - pretty easy to capture and reward - especially at dinner time...

then I started rewarding the "pre bark" which is the noise she makes as she starts to bark and is much quieter... so that became what she does for bark on cue

ie asking her to speak - shuts her up, unless I say "louder"...

And then you can add the cue - "who is best?" and invite her to bark her head off :)

[Jessie's Girl]

It's a hard one because she must find the barking quite rewarding in itself.

My thought would be that you need to find something that is more rewarding than the barking so that you can interrupt it without having to take the stimulus away. That might be a toy, it might be a treat, whatever. BUT......you will also probably have to introduce the stimulus at a distance and work towards it.

Thanks

That's what I thought to do, so I have just been calling the GSP away from the Grey if she barks. I'm just worried that tis is rewarding her with attention, although ignoring it isn't really an option.

The other foster people seem to think it will just fix itself now that she is in a different environment. I hope this is correct but I have heard many stories of adopted dogs coming back due to their barking and I dont want her to be one of them

[Jessie's Girl]

Any chance you could teach her to bark on cue, ie give it value so she doesn't give it away for free?

If a dog can bark on cue, then you can also teach quiet on cue.

Works with my dog.

First I had the bark - pretty easy to capture and reward - especially at dinner time...

then I started rewarding the "pre bark" which is the noise she makes as she starts to bark and is much quieter... so that became what she does for bark on cue

ie asking her to speak - shuts her up, unless I say "louder"...

And then you can add the cue - "who is best?" and invite her to bark her head off :)

I am willing to try. Sorry I am a bit confused could you confirm: you didn''t reaward her once she stopped barking. Just rewards for barking and then pre-barking. And pre barking basically turned into quite?

[Better Late]

Our rescue girl had been in the pound for five months before we took her on and has a world of issues we're working through, barking being one of them.

She's my first dog and has really opened my eyes to all things canine. I've noticed recently that she does have some separation anxiety and has been barking more to get our attention, and barking more at other things such as cars going past outside, something she can hear outside but we cant, in all honesty its an extremely quiet street with a person walking directly past the house maybe once or twice a week. Her separation anxiety seemed to be tied in with her being very dependant, demanding and clingy, and it made me realise it was more handler reinforcement than anything else.

So today, both myself and my partner ignored her for fifteen minutes after we got home in separate instances. She tried every trick in the book to try and get our attention...offered behaviours, climbed up on our knees, pawed at us, barked at us, sat underneath my partners work desk, brought me a toy...and eventually she gave up and went to lie on the couch. The biggest thing for me was my partner and I decided to slum it and eat lunch in bed, normally we'd have a petulant dog walking backwards and forwards to opposite sides of the bed to try and see who would give her any attention or food. Where was the dog? Sunning herself in the backyard. She hasn't barked at a single thing today and isn't pestering us for attention - she's quite content to self entertain and snooze in the loungeroom, but is totally up for play and pats when we want to!

So while our situations are different, and while I'm not saying that today has been a total cure-all for us and it might not affect your situation at all, AND while I'm not being entirely helpful, I just wanted to let you know that it WILL get better. Older dogs do tend to have these behaviours ingrained, particularly for an ex-racing grey from a kenneled environment

[Mrs Rusty Bucket]

Sorry I am a bit confused could you confirm: you didn't reward her once she stopped barking. Just rewards for barking and then pre-barking. And pre barking basically turned into quiet?

Pick one thing, the easiest thing, and get that first. So for your dog (and mine) that was barking on cue.

Shaping / capturing means you let the dog do what it want to do - and then you "mark" what you like (eg barking) by saying "Yes" (while the dog is barking) and then delivering the treat. Sometimes you can just deliver the treat.

So pretty soon the dog is barking at you for a treat.

Then when the dog has figured out barking gets a treat - you increase the criteria to get a treat.. ie add a cue. So "speak" (bark) "yes" treat...

and then you only reward the barking after you've said the word "speak" and not other times. The dog might not understand this straight away... and there might be a bit of frenzied barking... but the faster you move through the steps the better...

Then - you say speak and you say "yes" as soon as you hear any noise out of the dog ie the pre-bark. Most dogs are quiet as you hand over a treat... so that cuts out the super loud ie the yes coming early...

So eventually "speak" becomes the growl at the front of the bark and "louder" has become my cue for a full on bark... ie "speak louder"...

You can pick whatever cue word you like. But (this does my head in) you only add the cue after the dog has got the hang of this game means bark for treat...

Then - maybe the next day or the next session depending on how easily confused your dog might be...

You can start working on the quiet. ie reward quiet - with out a cue, then add the cue - if the dog is managing to be quiet for short spells (half a second, a second, then a few seconds)... ie long enough for you to say "Yes" and deliver a treat. When you've got three seconds or so, you can start adding the cue of "quiet" then (maybe next session)

add duration ie to get the treat after you say "quiet" you need three and a bit seconds of quiet. Then reward two seconds of quiet, then 1 second then three seconds... and every now and again time how long your dog can be quiet - without losing it, and work on the edge of that time span ie reward shorter and longer and more random.

Start looking for "average or better" performance - reward that. shorter quiets - I would say "nearly" and give the dog a bit of an ear rub.

Just very gradually session by session - change one criteria - more time, or more distractions (excitement) or a different place or in front of dinner.

Actually the stuff I train in front of the dog's dinner have the most solid performance... She gets pretty excited about dinner and if she can do what I ask in front of dinner she can do it most places.

Edited June 24, 2015 by Mrs Rusty Bucket