Puppy barking when starting walks

[KathleenShepard]

I have 2 puppies that are 10 months old. I also have their parents. When I first started walking them around 16 weeks old they were timid but didn't bark on walks. We had a second litter when they were 6 months old and I stopped walking them to avoid bringing any potential viruses into the house with the new litter. They were afraid of the new litter at first but by the time they were 5 weeks old they were all playing together. Now the new litter is all gone and I have started trying to walk them again and the boy barks as soon as I open the door to walk them. He barks for almost the entire walk no matter what I do. If I walk him with his father he is even worse and both of them bark. If I walk him with his mom or sister he still barks but not as bad as with his father. I tried a thunder shirt and that didn't seem to make any difference. I know he lacks socialization outside the house but I thought that having lived with his parents and younger siblings would have helped. I tend to wonder if the Christmas decorations in the neighborhood set him off more than usual cuz he's never seen any before. I really need a starting point with him so I can at least get out the door before he starts barking. We go in and out through the garage so none of the other dogs can slip out the door. They are all beagles and I have 4 of them. I definitely think it's anxiety and not excitement. He's a timid and nervous boy. He doesn't easily let humans pet him and he barks at other dogs out of fear. I have taken him into pet stores and Home Depot to try to socialize him some. He does ok there and lets people pet him most of the time. I tried taking him to the dog park and he was terrified, tail tucked, backing up against me, showing teeth if another dog got too close. I tried bringing him with his sister and just had 2 scared puppies. The rest of their litter is doing great socially. I know they can do well with other dogs because they live with other dogs, I just need to know how to start introducing them to dogs outside our household. I tried having their brother visit but they hadn't seen him in a couple of months and acted scared of him too. So, where do I begin?  How can I get the door open without him barking? How can we start having playdates with his brother? How can I introduce him to the dog park? I feel terrible that he's so scared and horribly embarrassed that I can't walk him without barking like a lunatic.

[Adrienne]

Hi Kathleen, 

Welcome to the forums, 

Issues such as fear, anxiety and reactivity, require more behavior modification than training initially. This is because dogs who are overwhelmed and anxious, are often far from being in a learning state. They are just too nervous to focus. Training therefore can be incorporated as they start calming down on walks. However, in the meanwhile, these dog may benefit from training indoors and mental stimulation (brain games) as positive training methods help dogs get more confident.  So please make sure to provide several training sessions/brain games each day to keep his mind and brain busy. I would also aim to train some impulse control through these exercises:

https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/members/archive/impulse-control-frustration-tolerance/

In a cases like yours, you need to take a very graduated step-by-step approach and invest time in doing lots of remedial socialization. Yes, because although we may have socialized our pups during their critical window of socialization, which closes at 12-16 weeks of age, there is such a thing as de-socialization. Puppies need ongoing socialization to maintain their social skills and keep habituating to their surrounding environments and that includes ongoing exposure to different types of people, dogs, animals and even normal every-day things we take for granted such as cars, trucks, shopping bags, mailboxes, flags etc.  

Even dogs who are super socialized can lose their social skills if they go from walking in the city and then move into a country home or a home in the suburbs. Dog trainer Jean Donaldson calls this 'suburban dog syndrome.'

Remedial socialization therefore requires gradual exposures making sure your pup is not exposed to triggers at a level that he's overwhelmed and anxious. If he's barking and he's a nervous and timid fellow, I would take that as a reliable sign that he's being pushed too far over his comfort level. It's therefore important recognizing the signs he's over threshold and taking steps to prevent him from getting there too often. Here is a read on dog threshold levels:

https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/members/archive/threshold-levels/

Once you recognize signs that he's over threshold, the goal is therefore to keep him under. We can do this through systematic exposures (desensitization). Desensitization involves exposing the dog systematically to his triggers. Here is a read on desensitization: 

https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/members/archive/desensitization/

Desensitization on its own can work for very mild cases, but I like to power it up by combining it with counterconditioning. Counterconditioning involves creating positive associations with the dog's triggers. In order to work well, a good counterconditioning program incorporates things the dog finds very reinforcing provided contingent upon the exposure to the trigger. Here is a read on counterconditioning:

https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/members/archive/counterconditioning/

So let's make an example of behavior modification taking place in a dog whose trigger is getting out of the door. In such a case, before approaching the door, I would start first with some fun training involving looking at things from a window. Please look up the Look at That game (link below) and practice it as your puppy pays attention to things happening out of you windows.  Do several reps of this and aim for a fluent response. 

https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/members/brain-training/university/look-at-that/

Once, you have a nice response, practice this with your door opened, with your puppy on leash but not yet out of the door. Keep him at a distance from the door in a way that he's under threshold. Do the same exercise as before. The moment your pup looks at a anything that arouses your dog’s attention—this could be a man walking a dog, construction workers, joggers, and so on, make your smacking sound and offer him a treat. 

As your pups gets a hang of this game, you can start moving closer to the door gradually and then practice from there. If progress is further made, you can then move on to practicing just by the door, always paying attention that he remains calm or at least alert, but not anxious. If you ever have a setback and he starts barking, take that as a sign that you are progressing too quickly. Take a few steps back and move at a farther distance until he seems fine with that. 

Once you can move past the door, keep on working on keeping him under threshold as possible. Scan the environment. If you know his triggers, keep him at a distance from them and feed him a tasty treat upon spotting them. There are Christmas decoration next door? The moment he looks at them, make your smacking sound and feed him a treat. If possible, do this every time he sees a decoration that you think may concern him. Don't be stingy- use high-value treats your beagle loves and give them only for these outings. If you are worried about calories, consider that you can easily split a treat in dozens of pieces as small as a small blueberry. 

I would suggest walking him alone for now (unless you have a super confident dog that you can walk with him and which can act as a role model and influence him positively) as other dogs can feed off his fears and become easily alarmed as well. Then you're left with two reactive dogs to work on. On top of this, if you bring along another dog with you, you won't be able to diligently work on behavior modification which requires one-on-one attention. 

Thundershirts aren't really designed to work on their own. I know they may look like a quick fix, but they should be used along with some form of behavior modification, although some dogs may get calmer, but usually I have seen it's just with the very mild cases. 

I wouldn't aim for the dog park for now. That can be too overwhelming and often there are too many dogs with little social skills. if he's nervous, this will just prove him more that being around other dogs is unpleasant. Your dog may benefit instead from play dates though, but later on, once he seems calmer around dogs and he has formed positive associations. Before going that route therefore, I would aim to teach him first to be less anxious around dogs, continuing with the 'Look at that" exercises targeted to seeing other dogs. 

In other words, same exercise as with the Christmas decorations: you would keep your dog at a distance from other dogs and feed him treats as soon as he spots one. When the dog is out of sight, no more treats. Open bar/closed bar is a behavior modification method similar to "look at that" but it's more targeted as it makes it clear that good things happen contingent upon the sight of another dog. You can read about this method here:

 https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/members/archive/open-bar-closed-bar/

What to do if a dog is coming your way, but these triggers are too close for comfort and you are afraid they'll send your dog over threshold? The Emergency u-turn may help in such cases:

https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/members/archive/emergency-u-turn/

Here'a a case study with video if you want to see a demo of behavior modification:

https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/members/case-studies/03-homer-homers-reactivity/

Only once he is calmer and able to cognitively function, we can start asking for behaviors, for example, every time he sees a dog we can ask him to do several steps of attention heeling, making eye contact with us. Practice first in the home, then yard and then on walks and then around distractions on walks:

https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/members/brain-training/obedience-101/heeling-attention-heeling/

Once he's much  calmer upon spotting other dogs on walks, I would aim to walk him with some other calm dogs/older puppies. Parallel walking can help a lot dogs who need some remedial socialization. Parallel walks are just walks with other dog owners who have their dogs on leash and walk parallel to each other with the handlers in between to give distance. The dogs aren't allowed to interact. This is beneficial because it takes the pressure off the dog who doesn't have to focus on meeting/greeting/socializing and can focus on other things but the group walk still gives them a sense of group adhesion, and it's still socialization although in a calmer, composed way. 

Please let me know if you need any further elucidations on this. Behavior modification requires a gradual step-by-step approach making sure the dog doesn't rehearse the problematic behavior and keeping the dog as under threshold as possible. This requires close monitoring of body language and constant scanning for triggers. The most common cause for setbacks is progressing too fast and providing too intense exposure. The intervention of a behavior professional may be important for correct behavior modification implementation.

I hope this helps!

Best,

Adrienne