Two Dogs Won't Stop Barking!

[kkelly]

I have two dogs who seem to bark at random things when they are in the house/yard. It seems that one dog will see/hear something and let out one bark, then the other dog hears him bark and gets excited and also starts to bark. Before you know it the two of them are barking like crazy! They seem to play off one another. By themselves I'm not sure they would bark as much. The dogs are a dachshund and a chihuahua so they are prone to barking anyway. I just want to figure out a way to get them to calm down before it becomes a barkfest.

[Adrienne Farricelli]

Social facilitation is the technical term for behavior that is socially influenced from one dog to another. One dog barks and the other follows. In socially facilitating barking, dogs feed off each others' alertness towards stimuli in the environment. Soon, you have dogs who make of barking at triggers their favorite pastime.

 

Preventing rehearsal of the troublesome behavior is important so to prevent excessive barking to become the norm. Barking at triggers can soon get out of hand because it's reinforcing to the dog/dogs especially when the trigger the dog barks at moves away. This will create persistence in barking as the dogs will bark instistently until a trigger leaves. Reducing this form of barking would entail always monitored time out in the yard and redirection. Yard time should be quality time spent sniffing, exploring and interacting with the owner (playing brain games, playing with a ball, digging in authorized spots, and rewarding desirable behaviors as they unfold) rather than rehearsing problematic behaviors.

 

I would suggest practicing with "look at that" starting first indoors and then moving to practicing this in the yard. You may start training this individually to each dog, starting with the one that is more likely to bark (if you can identify which one). Here is the section on how to train this: https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/members/brain-training/university/look-at-that/

 

In this section, at the bottom, you will find some tips on how to prevent rehearsal of territorial behaviors and tips on how to reduce barking at triggers from inside the home such as using window film: https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/members/behavior-training/barking/other-triggers/

 

If you are able the identify certain souds that occur predictably during the day and set your dogs off, you can also work on "hear that" which is the auditory version of look of that. You can find some info on the "hear that" method here:

https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/members/archive/fear-noises/

 

And of course, keeping the dogs occupied during the day with brain games, obedience and walks will help reduce certain forms of barking because dogs are provided with "outlets" for pent up energy and this helps fullfill their need to have a "job," whereas dogs left in a yard with nothing better to do, may easily fall into the pattern of rehearsing undesirable behaviors such as barking, digging and chewing on stuff.

 

Hope this helps!

Best regards,

Adrienne

Edited August 19, 2018 by Adrienne Farricelli