appropriate responses to barking

[Jaegergirl]

this may be a stupid question but i've always wanted to ask it so here it goes...

maverick is a very quiet dog. he doesn't bark at every little sound he hears, he doesn't bark when someone knocks at the door most of the time and doesn't bark when he needs to go outside. for that, i've very grateful (except for the going outside part:))!! when we are camping with my sister and her JRT, samson, who barks at EVERYTHING and EVERYONE, maverick will try to follow suit by making a low, "humf" kind of sound. of course, i'll tell him to either knock it off or "no bark". luckily he hasn't picked up samson's bad habit. that constant barking would drive me nuts.

today, i had the front door open. the storm door is floor to ceiling glass and someone just happened to be walking by and maverick barked once (it was a very low bark). i told him no bark because he doesn't need to be barking at everyone who's simply walking by.

what would be nice, tho, if maverick DID bark when it was necessary or if someone suspicious was hanging around our property. not necessarily a constant barking, but one or two to let us know something is going on. is that something that can be learned? should i not tell him not to bark if he see's someone out front or if he hears a noise? one night the windows were all open. maverick was laying on the kitchen floor and let out one of his low barks. when i went upstairs to see what was going on, maverick was standing back by the screen door looking outside. instead of telling him "no bark", i turned the back light on to see what was up. of course there was nothing outside so i pat maverick on the head and said everything was ok.

so i guess what i want to know: are there appropriate responses to barking? obviously, if he's barking for no reason and barking like my sister's jrt, i'd tell him to knock it off. but what about the other times? what would you suggest, if anything? thanks.

[Rocky's_mom]

My Rottie, has different barks for everything. How old is your Rottie? And, how long have you had him? Rocky has just recently started to bark at strange noises. Like the other day, the ironing board fell over he got upset, but I said "Rocky it is ok" and he calmed down. Same thing with the golf bag. If you have had this rottie for 3 years, I am at a lose for words, but here are my suggestions:

Has anyone you didn't like come around you? Usually dogs can tell you are upset with that person and they will get more protective. I asked my huspand if Rocky was going to get more protective over his house/yard/us. He just said that Rocky hasn't had the chance to get protective over those things. That was before the golf bag and ironing board.

The other day, it was very windy and I left the screen door open and was getting rocky more water. (the door was open too) and the screen door slammed shut. I let out a cry and Rocky went right over and nosed the door open and stuck his head out to see what caused his mom to cry like that.

Hope this helps you!

[Judi W]

Many dogs who raise all kinds of racket when left with the whole responsibility are fairly quiet if not entirely quiet when their masters are present. They are to some degree, deferring to you. You can encourage that, or if you do want a bit of noise, you must encourage the noise when you see it. You need to decide or he will just be confused.

[Jaegergirl]

keli, maverick is 17 months old and i've had him since he was 15 weeks old. as far as people approaching me that i don't like, no, that's never happened. i've never really seen any protective behaviors really, other than the fact that he follows me around more when my husband is home and stays over in the main part of the house where he can "watch" everything (and all the doors) when i'm alone.

judi, so basically what you're saying is that if i want him to bark when he hears something or sees something, then i need to praise him when he does it. and tell him NOT to bark when i don't want him to. that makes sense.. now don't i feel silly:).

[Judi W]

If you want him to alert you, you should run and see when he says something, thank him for letting you know, then assuming all is benign, tell him "enough now". That will reward his alerting and also let him know that you are there now and will make the decisions.

[Jaegergirl]

good advice. thanks.

[Draw6]

Originally posted by Judi W
If you want him to alert you, you should run and see when he says something, thank him for letting you know, then assuming all is benign, tell him "enough now". That will reward his alerting and also let him know that you are there now and will make the decisions.

Yup .. thats what we do. Soon as she barks because of a ring at the door or a noise by the gate, we say "whoisit zeta?" and she runs to the gate or door and growl+snorts but quits right away because it's always followed by a look-yur-self and a "shhhh now". -but wait- it gets better .... now with a quiet whisper "whoisit zeta" .. she imediately jumps, "wooofs" and looks to see if someone's here.

Nice security check -or- (stupid pet tricks).