[yorkietalkjilly]

Here's Tibbe's barking story for what it's worth. My Tibbe didn't bark for the longest time after I got him at age 9 mos. but he was filled with fears of everything and it took a long time of working through each of his fears with positive-reinforcement, behavior association retraining so he'd associate any particular fear with only good things now and slowly win over it. He was scared of walking through door openings, cabinet doors opening, home appliance motors coming on, the TV, phone ringing, all that. Didn't know what grass was so it scared him, too(he'd been crate-only raised outside alone under a shed the first 9 mos. of his life! His breeder turned him and her "breeders", a couple of young litters, over to the breeder I'd gotten my Jilly from, asking her to find homes for them all as she and her husband were divorcing and she'd just gone out of the breeding business. Jilly's breeder said she found out from that former breeder's neighbor that little Tibbe had been kept in a crate outside under a shed alone for his entire life up until then!)

He was petrified of most things he'd never experienced before and me, as he didn't trust people either so he screamed, ran, tried to fear bite. We patiently and in happy, upbeat ways worked through everything he feared and he came to love and actually watch TV with me but hated "Frazier('s)" TV doorbell! Or sometimes any doorbell or electronic sound from TV. He'd just absent himself in his most dignified manner pretty quickly from the room when I watched "Frazier" or movies like Star Wars with its electronic sounds. Tibbe quickly just left the room, would find him curled up, ready to nap in my bedroom down the hall anytime I followed him, in case he were having a panic attack or something. And if he was sick or not feeling well, those electronic sounds would sometimes start a panic attack but only if he was really unwell.

But once we've conquered all his other fears and he came to accept this place as his homebase, felt territorial about it, he began to bark in the house - but not until after my son brought his big American Bulldog over for a visit. Tex barked a good deal while here and I think Tibbe got the message. Dogs can bark in here! After that day, Tibbe began trying out barking some. I readily encouraged it as I wanted a good watchdog and barking is natural to dogs so I enjoyed his joying in his barking ability. And boy did he. But if he kept on barking, as he did after the mailman's visit, I had to train him to bark on command so I could then teach him to stop barking on command after he'd made his point and then some! He'd learned to bark from Tex and now loved it, hahaha. Loved the sound of his own voice and I think he felt kind of important that he could make such a big sound. Cute little mess. But he learned stopping just as well as he learned to bark as I taught him it was a big win for him to stop at my request, but:

Tibbe wouldn't bark outside! Almost ever. Even after Tex did. Once he got older, he occasionally began to bark when outside at strange dogs or cats coming down the alley and the big, loud automated garbage truck. Boy did he love barking at it. But until he got much older, he just didn't bark outside hardly at all and certainly not at neighbor dogs. Those he loved and he never could bring himself to bark at his buddies though they'd bark at him kind of like saying "hey" when they first saw one another and he'd just wiggle back lovingly and fold his ears back. But when he got older, say 11-ish, he began to bark quite a bit outside, too, not just at the garbage truck, still though never at his buddy dogs around.

Now he'd always barked a little bit and chased cats that got in the yard but stopped short if they stood their ground. I think he really felt a strong terrier prey drive to chase, run them down but never to attack or hurt them, think he just wanted to check them out, maybe make friends. But once they saw he stopped, they then would turn and leave.

So, make what you will of Tibbe's story but barking doesn't seem to come all that naturally to some dogs.