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Originally Posted by LILBIT1  does your mom like the pup? Dogs can sense if people dont like them and they will act all standoffish. Please dont yell at her or let anyone, it wont help. When Waffles would bark at people Id turn the other way so she couldnt see the person. Shed stop and Id tell her good girl. Positive reinforcement works better than negative reinforcement. Maybe just a we dont bark, and when she stops a good girl we dont bark! and a lil treat would work. Good luck. Im sure more people will chime in. |
Agree!
I first teach my dogs to bark on voice/hand command & treat them each time they bark on command. They learn that very quickly! LOL. Then I teach him "Quiet" when barking.
I say "bark", give him the hand signal & when he does, I stand up suddenly, making the "director's cut" slash motion across the neck as I stand up, keeping eye contact with his eyes &, out of surprise, he stops barking since I did something different. The moment he stops barking, I say "Good Quiet" and give him an instant high-value treat. Then I ask him to bark again, say "quiet" & give the quiet hand signal as I stand up, keeping eye contact with him & again, he stops barking, at which time he gets the treat instantly.
After a while, you no longer need to stand up but just say "Quiet" and treat when they stop barking. Keep the sessions very short, frequent, & stay upbeat, positive & loving with a smile on your face when your baby does good! Once they've got the "Quiet" response down and is nicely responding, move on to your mom-related training.
Could you maybe set Khloe up to succeed? Make her see your mom touching your things as something that gets her a lovely, high-value treat? Associate mom's touching your stuff with nothing but good things happening to her?
You could do that with this method:
You stand beside her, leashed, in the room with your mom, have your mom touch something of yours and if she barks, tell her "Quiet" and when she goes silent, give her a savory piece of boiled chicken instantly. If she barks, say "uh oh" or "no" matter-of-factly and turn, remove her from the room. You are *training her, not disciplining her at this point, so use a non-emotional and NON-firm voice during training - keep your voice at a trainer's tone - matter-of-fact, upbeat - you are just training her what to do and what not to do. THIS IS CRITICAL: At this point, when you take her to the other room, make it boring. Have her sit or lie down beside you & you stand stock still, looking ahead & not at her. Stand there a good two minutes or longer - boring her. She won't like being taken from the room and bored stiff! After a bit, try it again, showing her the hand with the savory treat in it as you position her beside you in a sit, have Mom touch something of yours, tell Khloe "quiet" and make your quiet signal(with the wonderful treat in that hand) as you say it, and give her that treat right away if she does stay quiet and follows that hand with the treat with her attention rather than what your mom is doing. In time, her dog instincts should cause her to focus on the food and how to get it rather than what your mom is touching across the room. Keep working on it until she is remaining quiet while your mom touches your things & is treated or removing her to the other room with no treat, boring her silly if she does react inappropriately. In time she'll learn which she likes best & work to get it!
Next, give your mom the boiled chicken treats and as she touches something of yours, have her simultaneously offer the treat to Khloe if she doesn't bark when she reaches out, touches. Have her do this several times in a session. Soon she will begin to see your mom touching something of yours as something highly desirable - something that gets her a wonderful treat if she stays quiet and "allows" it. She will start to work hard to watch the treat coming her way as the touching takes place! Should she regress during this training(and naturally, they do at times!), bark or growl, say "uh-oh" or "no", have your mom withdraw the treat and she is removed from the room. In time, she will learn which is better - allowing the touching and getting a treat from your mom vs. no treat and being unceremoniously removed from the room, sitting bored with you in the other room. She'll go for the food!
She should be run through this type of lesson a couple of times a day for a couple of weeks until she's got it down pat and resumed for another two weeks if she should lapse back into barking at your mom's touching your things. Good luck!
(*Training voice is matter-of-fact during this positive-association/retraining period. A firm voice is better for
discipline - when you have to show them they are misbehaving - that is the best time for a firm voice. But during a training session, I like to stay positive, upbeat and matter-of-fact as I train them to react how I want. Later, when they are trained under these pleasant circumstances and know better, but fail to behave, then I use a firm voice in when saying "No!")