Fear barking?

[Zumie05]

I know I have posted a similar thread about this before, but now I have more to add!

When I take Gary (6.5 months) out into the front yard to do his business he barks at things when they seem out of the norm. He barks if someone is out walking around, if a car drives up, etc. and has done so ever since he was 3 months I think. It doesn't happen very often, I would say he only has somoething to bark about once a week or less.

Today he was out going potty and the neighbor kids next door were pulling down their garbage cans from the top of their driveway and Gary (while still peeinig) barked at them (LOL). I told him "Quiet" and he stopped, then let out one more bark, I said quiet again...and this repeated for about 4 - 5 barks. He isn't barking over and over all at once, there was about 3 - 5 seconds of silence in between each one as he was observing ever so closely what was going on.

Eventualy I think I scared him even more because he got to the point where after he barked at the kids/noise, he tucked in his tail and ran away from me a few feet as if he knew he wasn't supposed to be barking but couldn't help it? Was I wrong to continue telling him no in this case? I don't see how else I am supposed to get him not to bark. I tried leave it and making him sit, but he just seemed really uncomfortable. After the kids went inside I walked him over to where the noise came from to show him there was nothing to be afraid of.

I also don't know if this is a good thing or not, but I don't want him to bark when people come to the door. The reason being we have a busy house and people are in and out all the time and I don't want Gary to become a nuisance barker. Right now what he does is just one bark when he hears someone coming in and he seems scared at first (tail is tucked), then when the person comes in it is all tails wags and happy to see you. I am afraid that this will turn into more though (I really can't stand barking, it is one of my pet peeves, and I don't want him to ever be afraid of people who come to visit), and I also don't think he is doing alert barks. I think they are fear barks.

What can I do to get him to not bark at things he is afraid of?

[rubyhunz]

hmmmm, im not an expert..but Ruby does the same thing when she is in the front yard....like if someones getting into their car..or the garbage truck is going by... I probably shouldnt ..but I just let her bark...I think she is just gaurding her territory by showing how loud her bark is..I try to just call her name and rear her attention towards me and run around for her to chase me..

[rubyhunz]

..oh yeah..she doesnt bark when people come to the door because she can sense that I am okay wand welcoming them into the house..if its someone I dont know walking on the sidewalk..she can sense I am not comfortable with them and will bark..kwim?

[jlhnokc]

Hey Zumie, I would continue to use "leave it", but instead of making him sit, I would take him out of the situation, get him focused on something else. If he's barking at something, his attention is on whatever he is barking at, not you. So, you use "leave it" and walk off in the opposite direction of what he is barking at in a heel so he's not trying to look back. Or if he knows a "watch me" or "attention" command that will get him focused on you, use that. This has worked well with Jaycee as she was doing the same thing, if the neighbor was walking around or anything like that, she felt the need to bark and let everyone know someone else was out there. I use leave it and get her doing something else and it has worked out well.

[princessmom]

Barking is one of my pet peeves as well. I don't know why it gets on my nerves like it does but it really does. I have a little pekingese that fear barks quite a bit. I got him when he was 1 and 1/2 and have only had him 4 months now. When he first got here he barked at EVERYTHING and there was nothing that would make him stop. Now he will stop if I get up close, touch him with my finger, maintain eye contact and just say shhh, kind of sharply. He will sometimes do the bark wait a while and bark, but it is without conviction once I have his attention. Nothing else I did worked but this really has for me. It's more about getting his attention than anything else I think. Maybe something like this can work for you? Good luck.

[alice's mommy]

Arthur is at my store with me all day and there was a time there when he'd bark when someone would open the door to come in. As you can expect, it didn't always make the customer eager to get inside! Okay, sometimes it did! :) lol

Anyways, what I started doing was interrupting him BEFORE the customer would touch the door. When I'd see someone about to come up to the door, I'd say, "Arthur, be quiet now" and start to get a treat out. As the person is opening the door, when Arthur would normally have barked once, he now is in the process of coming towards me to get his treat. The person coming in is secondary.

Maybe try this with someone coming to your door? a friend or family member? for practice sessions.

[brunie's mom]

Originally Posted by rubyhunz

hmmmm, im not an expert..but Ruby does the same thing when she is in the front yard....like if someones getting into their car..or the garbage truck is going by... I probably shouldnt ..but I just let her bark...I think she is just gaurding her territory by showing how loud her bark is..I try to just call her name and rear her attention towards me and run around for her to chase me..

A 5 month old dog that is barking at things is not guarding she is fearful. Not a good thing . Puppies can be afraid of things.....but if they have good nerves...they get over it very quickly.

Please try to discourage her from barking....it's not guarding and it's not cute.

The best thing you can do is to go investigate...what she/he is barking at....tell them in a matter of fact voice...."you silly dog.....it's just the garbage can",etc. and go over to it and throw a treat beside it. Puppy will have to go near it to get the treat.

Gina

[Ayoka]

Originally Posted by alice's mommy

Arthur is at my store with me all day and there was a time there when he'd bark when someone would open the door to come in. As you can expect, it didn't always make the customer eager to get inside! Okay, sometimes it did! :) lol

Anyways, what I started doing was interrupting him BEFORE the customer would touch the door. When I'd see someone about to come up to the door, I'd say, "Arthur, be quiet now" and start to get a treat out. As the person is opening the door, when Arthur would normally have barked once, he now is in the process of coming towards me to get his treat. The person coming in is secondary.

Maybe try this with someone coming to your door? a friend or family member? for practice sessions.

This does work quite well, I know that when a friend of mine takes her dogs to her work she does the same thing with the one dog that tends to get anxious about people coming in. Since this is a pet supply store it's incredibly useful when unknown dogs come in too.

[princessmom]

Originally Posted by brunie's mom

The best thing you can do is to go investigate...what she/he is barking at....tell them in a matter of fact voice...."you silly dog.....it's just the garbage can",etc. and go over to it and throw a treat beside it. Puppy will have to go near it to get the treat.

Gina

I tried this with my peke but it didn't work. I could talk to him all I wanted and he would ignore me and any treat. He is "fearful-aggressive" and very hard to get through to. Good thing he's not a rottweiler! This is a good technique if it works for your particular dog.

[Shelby427]

Shelby and Hudson will both let out a warning bark - we go check it out whatever it may be and if it's nothing, we say "enough" and they stop. Hudson is still working getting that, but with Shelby listening, it helps. I don't allow them to bark annoyingly at trucks, cars or whatever since it's annoying! And there's nothing to worry about! We do like that they warn us if something isn't right, but if alls good, then we put a stop to the barking.

And I think it sends a bad impression when out on walks and a rottie is barking like crazy at a car or truck. I don't allow it.

[stale]

somehow i get the impression i'm the only person working in the other direction - i've been trying to teach Ozzy TO bark.

nothing at all will get him to bark. including having friends come by, making a racket on the porch and letting themselves in.. all Oz does it look at them, and maybe rumble. (it's not a growl.. it's an odd sound - kind of a wookie type noise.)

so, unfortunately, i've no advice on how to curb the "fear barking" aside from maybe having the pup explore (insofar as it's possible) anything that is causing said barking....

good luck, eh?

stale

[themaster]

You definately need to find some way of stopping the barking and there are several good suggestions here. The only way you will really get him to not bark at things he's afraid of is to get him used to the fact that these things are nothing to fear, it's just part of "socialising" be it people, dogs, noises etc, the less he's afraid of the less fear barking...

rubyhunz... she may be "just guarding her territory" but she shouldn't really do that when someone is just passing by, so you should try to stop that now, and only allow one or 2 barks as a warning when someone is stepping onto YOUR territory. Be aware that if she really feels the need at her age to be guarding YOUR territory then she probably feels she needs to protect you and is therefore thinking she is "alpha" sice that would be the "pack leaders" job. With your posts elsewhere about her dominant nature I would be very wary of this and make sure you get it under control now before you have bigger problems in the future.

Stale... you shouldn't need to teach Ozzy to bark, I'm sure he will do it when the need arises, I bet he knows it's your friends on the porch and he's already ok with them, get someone he hasn't met to do it I bet it's a different story. Zakk will sometimes bark when a stranger comes to the door but for people he has been introduced to he sits there waiting to say hello.

Having said that we have just started to teach Zakk to "speak" on command in class so that we can get him to bark when we want him to (and hopefully not to bark when we don't want him to)

[shybird]

The more you say quiet, the more they seem to bark as they think you are barking with them. Try going over to her, say "thank you" once, then immediately re-direct her to something else. You may want to leave a leash on her so you can take her away to do the something else. You have interrupted the unwanted behavior and replaced it with something better. All in a calm quiet way.

[Zumie05]

Gary really doesn't have as big of an issue with people coming into the house as he does with weird things going on outside. Like I have said before, our house is busy and people are coming in and out all the time. He is friendly with strangers too and loves attention. So if someone knocks on the door to come in, that is what he will bark at because it is weird (our door is always open during the day and people come in without knocking and are always unannounced lol) But if something seems out of the ordinary, I swear he gets afraid and thats what makes him bark. He doesn't do an alert bark, it is an "I'm afraid, keep that away from me, BARK!" And I can tell because he tucks his tail, and doesn't stand his ground, ears are back, and he looks away and back at the object. A confident alert bark would be where the dog stands his ground and usually tail and head up high with ears forward, maintaining eye contact. *Sigh* I think Gary is a weak nerved dog.

Anyways, when he was afraid of the garbage can I did walk him over to the area the noise came from and let him investigate it. My concern though is when I was tryirng to get him to stop barking that I made him even more fearful - he was barking, I was mad that he was barking, so he got more afraid and barked more.

I usually don't bring treats out with me when he is out to potty - as he gets a treat for coming back inside after doing his business. If I started to, that I could be prepared if I see something occuring that could potentially make him bark...but really those things only happen less than once a week.

Lately I have been working more on leave-it by teaching Gary that after I have said leave it he is to ignore the object and come to me and make eye contact. He is good at it now when I am practicing with home made distractions, but the other night I was out walking him practicing heeling and the neighbors drove up to their house and were unloading groceries, and of course he started doing his little grunts and was afraid of what was going on. No matter how many times I told him leave it and watch me, he just wouldn't do it. I had to stand infront of him to get him to look at me, and after he did for a second he went around me to stare at them again.

ARRGG

[Zumie05]

Originally Posted by shybird

The more you say quiet, the more they seem to bark as they think you are barking with them. Try going over to her, say "thank you" once, then immediately re-direct her to something else. You may want to leave a leash on her so you can take her away to do the something else. You have interrupted the unwanted behavior and replaced it with something better. All in a calm quiet way.

You're right, because the more I told Gary the one time out in the yard to stop barking, he got more fearful and it did NOT stop his barking. I think next time that maybe I will encourage him to come to me instead of getting mad at him