Barking!

[EMMA DUTTON]

Hi,

Benji is just a year old now and his barking seems to be getting worse. Not only is it at home - barking out of the window at anything he can see, but also on walks when he sees other dogs or people, especially young children. It’s not aggressive, just seems to want to play and get attention.

We have tried ignoring it and also praising when he stops, but it goes on for ages when he does it and if on a walk he is also pulling and jumping. Sometimes he isn’t reactive at all, so it’s hard to judge! On walks I’ve tried stopping as soon as I spot someone walking and then keeping him interested with treats, but as he notices people quite far away he ends up getting a lot of treats and not very far on a walk! 
 

Any help would be great ☺️

[Adrienne Farricelli]

Hi Emma, 

Welcome to the forums!

Since you describe Benji as not being aggressive, and possibly wanting to play/get attention, there are chances that you are dealing with what is known as "barrier frustration." 

For barking out of the window, you may find this exercise helpful: https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/members/brain-training/university/look-at-that/

This exercise provides several benefits such as 1) creating positive associations with the trigger -in case a dog is a bit anxious, sometimes dogs who are overly aroused by children/dogs/people are a bit insecure about them, 2) giving the dog an alternate activity to engage in (chasing treats tossed on the ground) 3) preventing rehearsal of the problematic behavior since you'll be working under threshold.

Here is a read to help you familiarize with threshold levels:

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

When you cannot train, you will need to take management steps to prevent rehearsal of the problematic behavior. 

Management basically prevents the dog from rehearsing problematic behaviors. The more dogs rehearse certain problematic behaviors, the more these put roots and establish.

Here's the thing: with barking, there is always some level of self-reinforcement going on either intrinsically (that is, internally such as a dog venting his frustration by barking) or extrinsically (e.g. the barking sending intruders away-as in the case of territorial barking).

This self-reinforcement fuels the barking keeping it alive such as oxygen does to fire. It's therefore important taking measures to prevent rehearsal, especially on those occasions when you cannot supervise your dog. These measures can be temporary as your dog learns alternate behaviors, or more long-term, if you just want to stick to management. Here are some options:

• Keep the dog in rooms with no access to windows
• Use baby gates/ indoor pet fences to keep the dog from accessing areas with windows. You need to make sure these are extra tall as motivated dogs will jump over them.
• Use window film to reduce visibility. Consider that blinds and curtains often don’t work, as dogs may still detect movement and can easily move them aside with their muzzles. 

For barking on walks, consider the possibility of barrier frustration as well. Here is more about this: https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/members/archive/barrier-frustration/

In this case, it would therefore help keeping distance from what evokes the barking (children, dogs, people) so that your dog is under threshold and working on training an alternate behavior to engage in using high-value treats.

You can always use the emergency u-turn if you think another dog is too close or if you are meeting extra triggers that came unexpected and plan on organizing a part of the walk mainly concentrating on reinforcing desired behaviors.

I find that walking the dog rather than stopping makes for a more fluent response and the game more engaging, especially if you toss the treats (rather than hand feeding them) so that your dog has to catch them and keep his mind occupied on something else.  This will also help you cover more ground versus being stationary and since treats are tossed, you'll be feeding less. You can always revert back to hand feeding once he is better under control. You can cut single treats into several pieces if you are worried about calories so that you can use less. 

So I would suggest training him a fluent response to attention heeling, starting by practicing in your hallway without a leash and then progressing to on the porch, and you can use your smacking sound as well here to grab your dog's attention and evoke walking next to you while looking up. 

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

On top of this, consider that dogs who bark out windows and develop barrier frustration are often young, energetic dogs who benefit from learning some coping skills and how to better manage their emotions and behaviors.

These youngsters therefore benefit from learning better impulse control and that patience pays in the long run when they make good choices.

It may therefore help to teach your dog these impulse control games: https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/members/archive/10-impulse-control-games-for-dogs/

A stress reduction program may works also well for young dog who get easily aroused/reactive. A stress reduction program, along with enrichment may therefore help lower a dog's cortisol levels. It may therefore encompass the following:

• Preventing or minimizing exposure to triggers
• Keeping the dog under threshold
• Ensuring the dog gets enough deep sleep
• Randomly rewarding the dog with kibble upon noticing calm and relaxed behaviors (capturing calmness).

Hope this helps,

Happy training! Let me know if you have any further questions and keep us updated on how things go!