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Originally Posted by FirstYorkie Okay, this thread has been weighing heavily on my mind and I finally figured out why.  It bothers me to think of punishing a puppy who is already stressed and is telling you about his distress the only way he knows how.
Oh, I've also had pretty good luck with teaching Joey a "quiet" command by reinforcing small, but increasing, increments of quiet behavior with praise and small treats. |
I don't think Pixie is stressed at all. Once she figured out we aren't going to respond, she quickly settles in and plays/chews on whatever toys I put in her pen with her. (Before the barking issue anyway). She's completely quiet during the day while I'm at work. My sister says she never hears her (she lives downstairs with my parents... unless she's lying!
), and will go and check on her at random times throughout the day. Most of the time she's sleeping or playing with her various toys. Her barking is just an attempt to get me to pay attention to her. I can hear her saying in a whiny puppy voice "But Mooooooommmm, I don't wanna be in here. I want to run around and chew on the drapes and chase the cats and knock ornaments of the Christmas tree when you aren't looking."
She rarely ever barks when we are in the room or playing with her. She may bark once or twice when we start playing, and that's it. She doesn't bark at the cats and she doesn't bark at whatever imaginary thing it is that some dogs see. She only barks when she needs to penned and I'm in a different room. So how do I teach/tell her to be quiet if she isn't barking right in front of me? If she starts barking, I walk in the room and tell her quiet, I'm just reinforcing the fact that barking is going to bring me back in the room.
And though I talk in present tense about my barking problem, she's "cured" so to speak. I can put her in her pen and leave for another room for any length of time and she doesn't make a peep.... Although now that I say that, it'll probably be 10 times worse... The ignoring tactic only worked for a couple of weeks too....
There's more than one way to train a dog. You had success with reinforcing quiet times (did your dog bark often bark in front of you?), others have had success with squirt bottles and I've had success with a penny can. Which, to those who think that's extreme... IMO, it's not. Extreme to me is using one of those barking collars - citronella, shocking, or otherwise. (The penny can doesn't bother her, I rattled it in front of her and she just cocked her head at me. She didn't run away with her tail between her legs!... Although she may have at first. I couldn't see her. More or less, it just gets her attention now.)
Jaspermom.... Have you tried anything? What has/hasn't worked for you?
To those of you that have used other methods... What didn't work? What finally quieted your barker?