Anticipation barking

[AnnGartner]

I've got a 5 year old foxhound mix that is very barky when he's anticipating something.  The main triggers are feeding time and going out - either for a walk or to the barn at night to check the horses.  I've been trying not to reinforce his behavior but have had no success.  For feeding time we usually put him out in the yard while preparing his food so at least it's not as loud and annoying.  We have 3 other dogs and one of them also tends to howl at feeding time so they cheer each other on.  When he comes in he will generally sit quietly while I put his food down.  When walking he will bark for the first couple hundred yards just out of sheer exuberance.  He gets a lot of exercise but he's very needy.  Sometimes when he wants something he will do what we call "Darth Dog" where he sits and breathes heavily - it's almost a whine but not quite.  I feel like I can't break the cycle consistently enough to establish a new behavior.

[Adrienne Farricelli]

Hello and welcome to the forums!

Dog behaviors are in most cases driven by reinforcement (operant conditioning) and associations between stimuli/ events (classical conditioning). In the case of dogs who bark for their food, it's their belief that it works since the meal preparation process takes place and they are eventually fed. 

It sounds like you are on the right track with tackling this kind of barking by putting him in the yard, and then calling him when his meal is ready and asking him to sit quietly before you put the food down.

However, what is he doing in the yard when you are engaging in meal preparation? If he's actively barking, then he's not learning much really, although he's showing progress at least in the last portion of your meal preparation, that is, the food delivery provided contingent upon him quietly sitting.

To tackle this issue, I would keep him inside and let him learn in a clear way how barking slows you down or even stops you in the meal preparation process, while quiet speeds you up. This can take a few trials to master, but it's well worth the effort (as long as you can cope with some temporary barking).

So here's an example of what I do. I will walk to the meal preparation area. If the dog barks as I am walking there, I will freeze in spot ad wait for several seconds of quiet. If he persists in barking, I will take two steps back or even leave if it's persistent ad go sit on a chair.  Then, when he's quiet, I will progress and walk to the area again and continue  meal preparation. I will therefore start grabbing the bag and filling the bowl,  but if he barks again, I'll put the  bowl away and I'll be leaving the area again if he persists. Then, I try again. If he is quiet, and I am able to pour the food in the bowl, I may next walk towards the dog, but if he barks, I will turn around, and even think about walking away if he persists. Once he is quiet again, I will try again to walk towards him.  When he finally manages to stay quiet until the very end, I will put the bowl down (I like to ask for a sit and then release with an "ok!" once the bowl is on the ground)

Now, I will admit, your first meal preparations may seem to take forever the initial days, but most dogs catch on quickly if you are very clear in communicating that quiet gets you to advance in meal preparation, while barking slows you down. The goal is therefore to teach your dog that calm behaviors unleash all the rewards, when barking and acting impatient does not.

You will have to train this with your other "cheering dog" out of the way so not to influence his training. You can then do the same training with your other barky dog, until you receive reliable results by both dogs, at which point, you can then have them both together in the room. 

With walking, you may want to start reinforcing calm behavior even before heading out of the door. Train a polite sit for when you attach the leash to the collar and then another nice sit when you are about to open the door, this training is covered here:

https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/members/brain-training/college/open-sesame/

Then, once on the walk, you may find it helpful toning down his excitement a notch by asking him to perform some behaviors, so he's focused on you. For instance, I would suggest training indoors a reliable response to the smacking sound as outlined here: 

https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/the-airplane-game/the-smacking-sound/

and then once your dog learns to make eye contact, you will add movement. You can do this indoors walking along a hallway.  In other words, you'll be making your smacking sound and walk as your dog walks next to you looking up at you for several steps. Start with just a few steps, and gradually increase more, and then practice this in the yard, in front of the home and then on walks, using high-value treats. You are basically aiming for some lovely attention-heeling as outlined here:

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

To make the training more enticing, rather than hand feeding the treats on the walk, toss them on the ground so he must search for them. With his brain focused on heeling, his nose busy on searching and his mouth busy in eating, it would be difficult to bark at the same time. This little exercise may help burn off some steam and built-up anticipation, although I feel that most dogs benefit from engaging in a variety of brain games and training before going on walks so they blow off some steam and are not full of that explosive energy, which also makes them more likely to pull. 

You may also find this exercise helpful as well when taking him out to check the barn at horses at night. If he's barking at certain triggers though (like wild animals at a distance), it may not be  easy to distract him. It may therefore help to initially keep him on leash and just toss some treats on the ground rather than asking for a formal heel since many dogs struggle to stay focused when there are overly stimulated. Then, only once he's in a calmer state,  you can progress and start trying to ask for behaviors. 

I hope this helps, 

Let me know if you have any other questions or need some elucidations on the training process.

Happy training!

Adrienne 

[AnnGartner]

Thanks, Adrienne.  We'll give that a try.  It's odd because we have a lot of wild animals here and for the most part he isn't too interested in them.  When we go to the barn at night he is always on the lookout for the rats and mice but if he sees one he doesn't bark.  His barkyness is almost exclusively when he's interacting with us (and mostly me).  He is a rescue and spent at least 3 months in the shelter.  When we first got him I thought his vocal cords had been clipped because he only had a small, raspy bark.  I think that was because he had barked himself hoarse at the shelter.  It's his go-to behavior when he wants something.  

With both feeding time and walking he'll start barking as early as 30-40 mins before it's time.  Any suggestions on how to distract him during that time period?  Needless to say the switch from daylight savings time is not good.

[Adrienne Farricelli]

It sounds like he's very routine-oriented, and likely his stomach juices are getting ready for the meal and he's much anticipating that. I used to have a horse who would strategically start scratching the floor in protest if I was just a couple of minutes late. It was as if his stomach worked like a clock!

If the barking starts as early as 30 to 40 minutes before it's time, a good approach would be  to preempt the barking from occurring in the first place. This can help on several levels.

1) It helps prevent rehearsal of the behavior.  The more a dog rehearses a behavior, the mores established it becomes, so if you can prevent it from happening in the first place, that would be great. This is is a good approach for behaviors that take place in a predictable pattern when it's feasible. 

2) It helps establish a new routine. With the dog busy in some other activity, the chances for barking can be significantly reduced and being distracted, his stomach juices may not start activating. 

So it would be great if you could have a helper like a family member or friend who can walk him *before* he starts the barking behavior and until it's time for his meal. This way, in the meanwhile you can start preparing his meal in his absence and when he comes from the walk you can work on the exercise described above. 

Another option is keeping him indoors. Keeping him out in the yard may be exacerbating the barking, compounding it with him not liking to being left out of family activities, and possibly thinking you are preparing his meal when you are not. Being indoors, he may better see what you are doing and how his barking affects you. If he barks, he should be given no attention, no trips to the kitchen or nearby his food so he doesn't think his barking is working. Just play it boring, watching TV or reading a book and use earplugs if necessary.

Something to be aware of is a phenomenon known as an extinction burst. In other words, the barking behavior increasing in intensity. This may seem like what you are doing is not working, when it actually really is, only that it goes through a worsening stage before getting better. This is more likely to occur if you have been reinforcing his barking by feeding him in the past. Ignore the extinction burst, and things should get better afterwards as long as you stick to the plan. 

With time, he should get bored of barking with nothing happening. Then, as mealtime arrives, wait that he's quiet for at least half a minute before you get up and start the meal preparation process as described in the exercise in the previous post. 

[AnnGartner]

Thanks for the advice!  I'm pretty sure we're seeing some extinction bursts.  There's also been some improvement on the immediate activity whether it's feeding or walking.  He seems to be catching onto the fact that if he's barking he's not getting what he wants so hopefully we can extend that thought to the time prior to the activity.  

[Adrienne Farricelli]

Thanks for the update! A few extinction bursts are normal and quite expected, take them as a sign that whatever you are doing is working and stick to your plan. The worst mistake is progressing in meal preparation/ feeding when the dog is actively barking. 

For sake of an example, imagine kids who when they don't get candy at the store, they start whining.  And when they see that whining doesn't work, they'll escalate to crying and screaming and putting up a tantrum (extinction burst). If we stick to our plan and don't give them candy despite all the drama, they'll learn to stop pushing it and the behavior will eventually extinguish, but if we give in though and buy it-even just that one time-, they'll always try to ask for candy because by buying the candy we have reinforced persistence. 

Dogs who are barky and impatient, benefit from learning more impulse control and frustration tolerance: 

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

Keep us posted on how things go moving forward, 

Happy training!

Adrienne