First Tip On How To Stop A Barking Dog
Some owners want completely quite dogs. No barking at all. May be not at all but only if there is a burglar at the door trying to pry the window open. But dogs have a different point of view on the subject. Your dog uses his voice to communicate to you, her best friend.
Dogs Are Master Manipulators
There are times when barking isn’t only warranted, it’s downright undesirable. Some dogs can use their voices as a means of manipulation. Take this situation as an example:
You’re lying on the couch enjoying your favorite book and your beloved pooch decides that it is time for a play. She picks up her ball, comes over, and drops it in your lap. You ignore her and keep on reading. After a second of puzzling it out, she nudges your hand with her nose and barks once, loudly. You look over at her – she assumes the ‘play-bow’ position (elbows near the floor, bottom in the air, tail waving) and pants enticingly at you. You return to your book. She barks again, loudly – and, when no response is elicited, barks again. And this time, she keeps it up. If you are like many parents who give into children, after a minute or so of this, mentally throw up your hands, get up, pick up the ball, and take her outside for a game of fetch. She stops barking!
Your dog knows that respect is important and has trained you well to respect her wishes. Now it is your turn to establish mutual respect. This has nothing to do with equality, cruelty or lack of love, it is about you being the leader of the pack and responsible for the welfare of the whole pack. A dog is happier if the pack hierarchy of the pack is established and observed. Once they acknowledge you as the leader, they will respect you, they will be happier, well-adjusted, and well-behaved.
To prevent or stop your dog from using barking as a manipulative behavior you must prove to her that you’re not the kind of person that can be pushed around so easily. It’s simple to do this: ignore her. I’m not talking about passive activity, where you pay her no attention and simply continue with whatever it was you were doing – you need to take more of an active role.
The best and most effective way is for you to do in this case is to give her the cold shoulder. When she starts trying to ‘bark you’ into doing something for her, turn your back on her straight away. Get up, avert your eyes and face, and turn around so your back is towards her. Don’t look at her, and don’t talk to her – not even a “no”. You can feel bad inside all you want but keep a cool uncaring attitude on the outside.
She’ll probably be confused by this, and will likely bark harder and nudge her nose at you. This is particularly true if you’ve given in to her bully-barking in the past – the more times you’ve reinforced the behavior, the more persistent she’s going to be. In fact, the barking more than likely get a lot worse before it gets better – after all, it’s worked for her the past, so it’s understandable that she’ll expect it to work again and dogs are patient so you need to be even more patient.
As in all aspects of dog training, consistency is very important. You must ensure that you don’t change your mind halfway through and give in to what she wants – because by doing so, you’re teaching her to be really, really persistent (“OK, so I just need to bark for ten minutes instead of five to get a walk,” is the message she’ll get).
And don’t let your dog recruit your friends to her cause. She may try to bark your friend into following her wishes. You need to let your friends know what the deal is and how to behave as well.
Recommended reading
SitStayFetch – A complete, A-Z manual for the responsible dog owner, and deals with recognizing, preventing, and dealing with just about every problem dog behavior under the sun.