Interesting Email Re: Barking
 

I got an emaill about barking that I thought made total sense if I can work on the things this guy talks about. What are your opinions on this?

Excessive dog barking comes from a very hectic, frantic, and chaotic
part of a dog's brain. The opposite of that mindset is calmness,
structure, and control.
Calmness, structure, and control are all synonymous with obedience
training. What many people term as a barking problem I call a lack
of obedience. Think about it for a quick second:
- Can your dog bark uncontrollably at the door if he is
sitting and staying?
- Can your dog excessively bark and chase after random
noises if he comes to your side when you call him?
- Can your dog bark and lunge at things on your walk if he
is heeling properly?
You can almost always answer 'no' to any of those questions. So if
you've got an excessive barker what you really have is a need for
more obedience. Solve your obedience problem and the barking
problem goes with it.

You know I've thought back about dogs I've seen and said to myself now that's a well trained dog and uncontrolled barking was not something they did. Does it make sense?

Yes, mine can. :p He will obey sit and stay commands while still barking like a nut.

I agree that obedience and barking are linked, but it isn't always the whole answer.

I believe a large part of barking is gentic..it is bred into certain breeds. People say Yorkies are barkers..yes they are..it is part of their makeup just like you have hunting breeds, herding breeds etc.

I think people try to think all dogs react/act alike when in fact many have different genes in them to do the job they were bred for. It just means you have to work harder training your Yorkies..:D

:thumbup::thumbup::thumbup:

I agree with this email, but I guess it also depends on the breed like someone said above.

However, Samy would only ever bark at the door if strangers approach the hallway and if I tell him to stop, he stops, but I sometimes choose not to tell him.. I see he has fun with it also :)

I never hear him bark otherwise.. We taught him not to bark when he wants attention :)

:lol tearsobey sit and stay and bark like a nut. Are you sure that you are not talking about my Daisy. She does everything well except she Barks like a nutt!!! Somedays she just barks to hear herself bark. Her new thing is if she wants a toy she will sit and look at it and bark bc she wants you to get off your butt and give it to her. :eek:I am going insane with this barking, it has gotten worse ever since we got Pixie.
I need a solution before I go insane!!!

Max has gotten worse with our addition too. I think he is trying to impress Teddy with the power of his voice, and Teddy gets annoyed and runs up and barks in Maxman's ear, lol.

This is too cute...

I wish I had could videotape it for YT because it looks like Teddy is bellowing "shut up already" in Max's ear and rolling his eyes. Then Max looks embarrassed. :p

I went to a seminar for the "Reactive Dog". It is based on Brenda Aloff's book called Get Connected With Your Dog. It is based on her theories of front brain behavior (thinking behavior) and hind brain behavior which comes from the instinctive part of your dogs brain. She teaches methods of teaching your dog to "stop and think with their front brain" so that the dog can better control his behavior. It is a very good training book and was a great seminar. Of course, it like all good dog training is not an easy fix and my guys are a work in progress but at least there has been progress. I really recommend the book.

Way tooo cute... it would be great if you could catch it on video :)

I really agree with this, but I also believe that some dogs "think" barking is their job, it's not just reactive, but they actually think they are suppose to warn/alert others of danger. They can't do much about the danger, but their job is just to warn others. Anyway, I think small breeds fit into this category, and so that's why barking can be a bigger problem.

Oooooh, I have several books by her! My favorite is on doggy body language. That one is indispensable. I tried to get started on "Connected", but I found the layout confusing, and there's soooo much material. I've tried "Standby" and "Watch Me", but I couldn't get anywhere close to the times Aloff said you should be at.

How did you like her? I've heard mixed things about her seminars, but I LOVE her books.

Yeah they really do feel the need and the right to bark at the door when someone is approaching, knocking, or even speaking nearby... This is what Samy does.. but I do not hear him bark at any different time other than the time to warn someone is approaching. I allow him and sometimes encourage that he barks when a stranger is near the door. He used to bark for attention but not anymore.

To answer the original question, I think email is sort of off the mark. Dogs bark for these primary reasons:

- Alert barking: to notify the pack of an intruder, and also tell the intruder he has been spotted.

- Attention seeking barking: if you make the mistake of paying attention to your dog when he barks, of course he will bark more to get more attention!

- Frustration / Excitement: A dog may go nuts barking at the dog park because he is so revved up, and wants to get off his leash.

- "Spooky" barking - this is really the only "out of control" barking, where the dog is saying, "Don't come any closer, I'm dangerous!" This is often fear-motivated, and that's why it can be so hard to control.


You can have a dog that's superbly trained in Agility, but barks his head off whenever he sees a cat. Or you could have a dog that doesn't bark, but steals food off the table. I'd consider anti-bark training to be about impulse control, which would also cover "Stay".

Excellent answer!

Uni can do all three of those actually. Before going out the door or crossing the street, she has to sit, and does it, but barks when she does, and I mean she barks until I say ok let's go. Like she's saying, OK I'M DOING IT LET'S GOOOOO!!!!

the 2nd one, I walk her on a retractable leash, so she will run ahead, get to the end, turn around back to me and bark, then run back out. Or if off leash, same thing, if I call her she will come back, but still being a nutjob. and 3rd one is basically the same as the 2nd one, though she has never really heeled "properly" :rolleyes:

Yup! :p

I did not actually see Brenda Aloff, my agility instructor went to her seminar and then presented the seminar to a group of her students. I do believe that some barking is reactive barking, however, for example my guys (I have 6) will sometimes so wound up with their barking when someone comes to the door that they will actually start squabbling with each other. That is not rational thinking and they need to be snapped out of that. I love Brenda Aloff's books, the body language one is a great book.

That sounds like redirected aggression, which is very common, in people as well as dogs.

I think Aloff's model is very helpful. She describes the dog's brain as two modes, fore-brain and hind-brain. Barkfests are hind-brain, ie, purely reactive, and the dog is not receptive to your direction. She describes these modes as some kind of cart... I forget what. :) The kind of cart where the horses (brain modes) don't pull side by side, but one pulls in front of the other. So either your dog is in fore-brain mode (attentive, receptive, able to learn), or hind-brain mode (reactive). He can't be in both states at once.

I've found that Thor can flip back and forth in the blink of an eye. I'm training him with treats to stop barking at other dogs on the street. If I see the dog first, I put Thor in a Sit, give him a treat, and then show him another treat as we go by the other dog (Distract & Reward). This is extremely effective.

However, if I'm not fast enough, you can see his little mind struggling with the conundrum. "Bark for your life! But be quiet and watch the treat! But you must bark! But you must be quiet!" Then he'll Sit, bark, Sit, bark, Sit and generally act the fool.

How far did you get with "Getting Connected"? I was so excited about that one, but I got through the first two exercises of the ten or so required to pass puppy bootcamp, and then I kind of gave up. I do find "Stand By" versus "Go Play" very helpful, though I haven't fully implemented that with Thor. But Watch Me... I think Thor is too submissive a dog to look at my face for more than a few seconds. He finds that one extremely difficult. Also, they're just not as fun as "trick-y" tricks. :)

I think "Canine Body Language" is one of the best books out there. I would recommend it to everyone, no matter what level of trainng they are at with their dog.

We went through everything in the 8 hour seminar, but very quickly, I have worked on everything a little bit at home, but of course, the best of intentions.........when they started talking about 6000 repetitions of each exercise and I have 6 dogs so that's 36,000 reps of each exercise. I hope to get far enough that I can snap my dogs out of the craziness of the hind-brain chaos then I will be happy with that. I do think her books are some of the best training methods I have been exposed to and I try to go to all the seminars or clinics in my area. If you have watched the video that comes with the book, I think we did most of that in our class.

And although the exercises are not as much fun as some, one of the things that they stressed in class was that a half hour of exercise with your dog while he is thinking with his front brain is equivalent to many hours of exercise with no front brain thought. The boy I took to the seminar was exhausted when it was finished and so was I.

I never really researched Yorkies before I got Molly, My Son has her Daddy, Riley. I got pick of the litter when he bred. I did not know Yorkies were barkers because Riley would only bark when someone knocked on the door. My son also has a s**tzu that barks alot. Riley just does not bark. Whenever I would forget him outside he would just be sitting there waiting for me to let him in, same for going outside. Molly mostly barks when she wants to play. Thanks for all your replies.