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09-21-2005, 10:06 AM | #1 |
Senior Yorkie Talker Join Date: Mar 2005
Posts: 123
| Barking at Kids Hello, my 10 month old girl has developed a naughty habit of terrorizing young kids!!!! Within the past couple of months everytime she sees a child under 4 ft tall she goes crazy barking and sometimes growling. It's awful and totally embarassing. These poor kids are traumatized!!! No matter how sternly I say NO, Brady doesn't seem to get the message...any ideas? |
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09-21-2005, 10:44 AM | #2 |
YT Addict Join Date: Apr 2005
Posts: 358
| Lucky you asked now! At 10 months a pup is totally retrainable in matters like this, but won't be easily redirected for much longer. I suspect that this is "frustration barking", but could not know for sure without more information about your dog's habits. It sounds like at first your pup loved kids, maybe can see them through a fence or window, but never get to them? Has your pup ever been abused? Try doing an abused dog test to see if some brat didn't kick her...You can search google for ways to test your dog for various kinds of abuse. If your dog seems skittish to abuse triggers, then it may be fear barking...that would require a trip to a behaviorist. Time to refocus the behavior using positive methods. This is going to take a few weeks at best, a few years at worst. Since your pup is young, but in two months will "solidify' her personality, I can't stress to you enough the importance of going into training classes right away and mentioning this issue with a trainer. Go for a class that uses "clicker training" if you haven't already done so. Clicker training has good results for redirected undesirable behavior in toy breeds and converting naughtiness into a pleasent learning experience. "No" should be a rarely used word. From now on, you need to focus on the positive and stop all punishments. The worst punishment for a dog is to be ignored, and that's the extent of my show of displeasure. Read about clicker training and try it out! You need to condition the dog to focus on you when meeting streangers. There are some easy ways to build this up: 1. begin in the home, have somone familiar come over. At the same time, have a bowel-full of steak bits chopped down to the size of raisons. Have the person do funny attention-getting things without calling her by name or command. When they do this, call her name. When she looks at you, give a steak bit. 2. Play the name game 100 times a week. For some delicious morsel, call her name, when she looks at you, give a treat. Never use her name or your commands to call her for a punishment or something sucky. You are upping the value of her name as a positive thing. this is very important for commanding attention and developing a reliable recall (Come) later during emergencies and distractions. 3. After she reliably expects a treat with her name, take it outside and go to a quiet corner of the yard or a nearby park. Go where kids can be heard, but not seen. Practice the name game. Practice other obedience drills. Your class should give you lots to be working on. The point is to keep her eyes on you in a distracting place. For the right treat, you better believe she will do this. Eventually the treat becomes less important...but not at this stage. 4. Gradually work your way closer to children as you do this, have her sit stay while kids play nearby. With a kid next to you, practice the name game. Will she be a growly brat with steak to be had? (keep the high value treats like steak for the most important moments) 5. Eventually have kids come and pet her, while she looks at you. When she allows a child to pet her, give her a "jackpot". Such as the whole bowl of steak bits, or whatever you feel is ok to feed her as a gargantuant treat. Continue training until she greats all children with good manors. This should be reinforced when opportunity arrises. In the park playing? See a kid running up to you? This is a chance to reinforce the lessons. Get out the treat bag and do the name game while she's being pet by the child. Never stop drilling the important skills. At your dogs age, this should go quickly and easily, especially with a training class and a professional trainer involved. |
09-21-2005, 10:58 AM | #3 |
YT 3000 Club Member Join Date: Jun 2005 Location: Rialto CA
Posts: 3,243
| Gus is the same way! When Cherish first came to stay with us,,,,,, or man, all they did was fight. Cherish couldn't even touch any of his toys or he would growl at her. "He still tries to nip at her but she just tells him "No Gus, You know better than that. I'm am going to tell Awntie" That's her new thing. You tell her something and she says Yes I'm am! LOL. When Gus does this I get my sandles and smack them together if I don't he'll run from door to door barking like one mad doggy. I sometimes have to put him in a time out, and even from there he'll hear the kids and look at me and growl softly. or maybe he's just growling in protest,,,,,," All I want to do is play and mommy wont let me! Just wait, no kisses for an hour!" He's ok with the kids if they are sitting and being calm, He'll even go sit next to them and let them pet him but if they are running around and making all kinds of noise,,,,, he starts acking like a fool. I think it's his way of saying I want to play too, but the kids get really scared. It's just a yorkie think I guess.
__________________ Monica, Proud mom of Gus who is forever missed! And new mom to Leiloni Gus's Dogster page |
09-21-2005, 05:26 PM | #4 |
YT 500 Club Member Join Date: Oct 2004 Location: Brooklyn, NY
Posts: 550
| Gucci does the same thing when I have young kids over she is so jealous, she barks at them but she does not snap or anything, she wants to play but I see she wants the attention to herself. She is 15 mts.old. Also when my husband or son raises their voice she goes crazy barking especially if they pretend to be yelling at me. Does any of the other yorkies do this? Gina |
09-22-2005, 04:40 AM | #5 |
Senior Yorkie Talker Join Date: Mar 2005
Posts: 123
| Well, Brady doesn't bark but whenever my husband starts play fighting with me or hugging me Brady starts barking and jumping up at our legs, it's really cute actually. Not so cute at times when we want privacy but what can you do!! Brady is going to get spayed soon and the vet said it's an excellent time to re-train your dog out of bad habits so hopefully we'll get the barking at kids under control. |
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