Barking - Moving to an Apt and need them to quite down
So I’m in a bit of a pickle. I will be moving to an apartment soon and can’t have raving barking monsters in it… I assume. I have a almost 2 year old Pembroke (soon to be his birthday on May 12th) and a female 2.5 year old Cardigan (December 15th for those curious).
Kit & Cleo's problems regarding barking are:
When at home and there is a noise outside or someone at the door – I can see this becoming a huge problem due to living in an apartment and people walking by my door. Both will start off barking, Cleo will quite down on my command, Kit on the other hand thinks he knows better.
TV Stimulation – If there is a dog, knock, or doorbell on TV/Movie, Kit will start up barking and run up to the screen and keep barking like a mad dog. Cleo will just lay there and not pay any attention.
When people come over – Kit will bark out of excitement but does quite down after a minute. Cleo on the other hand becomes nervous/shy around new comers and will keep on barking until I sit next to her and sooth/tell her to shut it.
Other dogs outside when Kit & Cleo are on leash – Kit will start pulling and barking towards any other dogs out and about. I believe this is just his way of showing that he wants to play with them, because when he does finally approach them, he always starts to sniff and play. Cleo on the other hand will keep her distance and just bark and bark and bark, she seems nervous/shy of other dogs that are strangers to her. She will also bark at strangers outside… which is technically everyone.
Finding a place to live in Chicago that will accept two dogs will be difficult… even more so difficult if they ever find out how barky they are… so I’m trying to nip this problem in the tailless and tailed butts before moving.
As a side note, Kit is VERY food motivated… I can not stress this enough, he doesn’t care much about praise though.
Cleo on the other hand is an exact opposite of Kit, she loves being praised and shown attention and doesn’t really care for treats (during our Sit exercise, she almost walks away from the treat when I try to push gently on her butt for her to sit).
Please help. I’m not sure how exactly I’m supposed to stop their bad behavior traits.
Cleo on the left, Kit on the right. Monsters!
Thank's for all your future help.
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Yuki & Ellie on
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Yikes! Good luck on the apartment search! Depending on how long you have before you move, you could always take lessons with a trainer to work on the behavior. Or, if you like to DIY, there are lots of free resources around.
If you plan on training them both at the same time, then clicker training might be effective. You could load the clicker to mean "treat" to one and "praise" to the other. Then you could click when they perform the required behavior (in this case, quieting or calming down) and take your time dishing out the treats and praise.
Youtube has tons of videos on how to clicker train, including this guy. He, in my opinion, has a good camera presence and explains the process really well.
If you don't want to clicker train, you could try a verbal cue (ex: "Good!") followed by the appropriate reward (treat or further praise). Again, if you search Youtube or the internet in general you can find lots of resources on how to stop barking (or other unwanted behaviors). Here's one for barking at the door.
I tend to favor the ones that don't use those awful shock collars, though.
::Edit:: - It just dawned on me that I didn't give any real training advice there. To get the desired behavior (quiet) you could redirect with a noise, like pennies in a metal can, or a command and reward the second they quiet down.
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Permalink Reply by Marius on
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Thank you for the videos and additional Edit, i'll try all of the above. I want to stay away from shock collars and citrus collars. I would also like to make everything vocal cued so that i don't have to have the clicker embedded into my body.
Thanks again.
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Permalink Reply by Jane on
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I don't really have any advice since my two can be monsters as well, but may I ask who you got Cleo from? She is so cute!
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I got Cleo (Sterling at the time) from Connie at http://www.davenitchcardigans.webs.com/ from the young adult section. I found her website through the breeder list at Cardigan Welsh Corgi Club of America ( http://cardigancorgis.com/BreederDirectory.asp ). She recently turned 2 when I got her back in January 2011 and was a perfect addition. She is healthy and super sweet (to people she accepts and trusts... but all barky towards strangers) and recently received her spay... which reminds me that I should send Connie the evidence that she had the surgery. So thanks for that :)
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