Getting the Barking to Stop

In the last post on barking, we looked at the following:

• Identifying the situations in which the barking is happening
• Identifying what you would like your dog to do instead
• Considering what the underlying emotion contributing to the barking may be

Once you have your answers, you can make a plan.

Step #1:  Start with the underlying emotion.  

• Fear - if a dog is afraid, you are unlikely to see progress without taking the fear into consideration and first working to desensitize and/or counter conditioning them to what is scaring them.  
• Excitement - if a dog is very excited, the situation will need to be split into small steps that the dog can handle and those steps will need to be practiced gradually working up to the exciting real world situation.  The may also benefit from some exercises to help them manage those feelings of excitement.

• Frustration with us - a big source of frustration for dogs is not understanding what we want, which often happens because we think we've taught the dog something, or that our cues are clear, however that isn't the case from the dog's point of view.  Cleaning up your mechanics (ie. making sure your cues are clear and distinct) and checking for gaps in your training of the cue that are resulting in confusion (i.e. jumping to far ahead, not practicing around distractions) often will fix the problem.
• Frustration with the situation - some dogs want what they want right now, and if they can't get it, they feel frustrated, which can result in barking.  For these dogs, similar to the excited dogs, small steps will be important, along with keeping your expectations and cues clear and consistent.  These dogs may also benefit from some exercises to help them be patient when anticipating something.
• Boredom - The first step if a dog may be bored is re-evaluating their daily routine and adding in stuff so they are content.  Content dogs relax, bored dogs make their own fun.  Tip: It's not just about physical exercise!  Exercising a dog more initially makes them tired, but then it makes them fitter.  Which means it takes even more exercise to tire them out, and the cycle continues.  Yes, you need to make sure the dog's needs for physical exercise and movement are met.  But rather than using that as a stand alone sole strategy, also include some mental exercise such as short training sessions, food dispensing toys, enrichment (i.e. hiding treats for your dog to find, scattering food in the grass, going on a sniffari etc.)  Give that brain something constructive to do.  Then, if you need to, you can work on settling quietly.

​

Step #2: Write down the steps between what your dog does now, and what you want your dog to do in the future.  For example, if you want your puppy to wait quietly while you prepare his food, but currently he is too excited/frustrated at the delay and barks part way through, your steps may look like this:

• Get ready to dish out food, reward puppy for being quiet.  Put one scoop in the bowl, reward puppy for being quiet.  Put second scoop in the bowl, reward puppy for being quiet.  Put third scoop in the bowl, pick up the bowl and feed the quiet puppy.

Once that is going well for a couple of days, you can start to thin it out.

• Get ready to dish out food.  Put one scoop in the bowl, reward puppy for being quiet (BEFORE puppy barks).  Put second scoop in the bowl, reward puppy for being quiet.  Put third scoop in the bowl, pick up the bowl and feed the quiet puppy.
• Get ready to dish out food.  Put one scoop in the bowl.  Put second scoop in the bowl, reward puppy for being quiet.  Put third scoop in the bowl, pick up the bowl and feed the quiet puppy.
• Get ready to dish out food.  Put one scoop in the bowl.  Put second scoop in the bowl.  Put third scoop in the bowl, pick up the bowl and feed the quiet puppy.

But what if puppy still barks?  You'll need to reward quiet often enough to avoid barking.  Once the pattern of quiet has been established, you can reduce the rewards.  So if your puppy is still barking on step one of your plan, you will need to make the step smaller.  Which brings us to the larger step 3.

​Step #3 - Evaluate your plan.  Is it working?  Are you seeing progress?  If not, is it time to make changes?  While you don't want to bounce around changing plans without giving them time to work, if it isn't working, make a change.  In the example of the puppy, continuing to have the puppy bark will not suddenly result in quiet.  It doesn't mean you need to toss out the entire plan, just that you need to adjust the steps.  We need to take into consideration the feedback we get from our dogs.  

A large part of dog training is being able to break the desired end goal into small, achievable steps and build back up to the end goal, including any relevant distractions. (The other big part is listening to the feedback from the dog - what is working, what is not.)  If you find yourself stuck, it's a good idea to reach out to a pro to help you out.