Training not to bark at people
Does anyone have experience with training dogs not to bark when new people are around? Sally is actually well-disciplined but has started to bark at people when they come over. She'll go into sit and down, and still bark. I've tried to do what I did when she used to bark at the vacuum cleaner which was just to block her way to it and make her lay down, which worked great... but it doesn't work with people. I'm looking for any advice!
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Beth on
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Is she "I'm thrilled to see you, now play with me! pet me! feed me!" barking? Or is she "You make me nervous, go away go away" barking? Or is she "Hey mom, things are out of place! Newness, newness, did you notice the newness??" barking?
The reason she is barking will impact how you handle the situation. For example, if she is nervous, having new people randomly toss her a treat might help her see new people as fun little Pez dispensers. If she is over-stimulated, than having them add fuel to that fire by giving food would probably not be on the top of your list.
One trick that will work in many situations (as long as the dog is not shut down from fear) is to teach here to look to you when you say her name by treating her every time she responds. She will soon learn to stop whatever she is doing and look at you, and then you can redirect her.
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Permalink Reply by Renee Kovacs on
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Good stuff, Beth - I agree, the correction to the situation depends on the motivation behind it.
I had a tough time here with 'announcement' barking that would escalate into the Corgi-fake-out of "I will eat you alive if you come one step closer!" (which is a total & complete lie, but whatever).
The problem I had - my husband. He would encourage this type of thing, and I would just want to pull my hair out! If the dog barked at a dog on TV, or a person walking down the street, or a deer out back, my husband would say things like "Who's that?!" and (horror) "Get 'em!" Yes, this IS a normally intelligent man but geez ....the dog wasn't the problem, it was my husband.
So, I had to do remedial work ...first, line the husband up with what is FAIR to the dog, then re-train the dog. For that, I took my cues from Ed (the dog), he really gave me the 'tips' on how to fix this. He, like most Corgi's, is highly intuitive ...if a friend comes up the walk, I would say "Oh, LOOK who's coming to see us!" I noticed that those words IMMEDIATELY changed his attitude - so ... if a stranger walked down the street, he'd 'announce' bark and I'd say "Who's coming to see us?" and he would go into 'a friend is here' mode. I just started using that phrase to end the announce-bark. I realize it's not the words - it's my tone of voice & demeaner, I am signalling to him "We're safe, we like this person, oooh this might even be fun."
Particularly difficult was his speed at escalating when a DOG was being walked in front of the house. He didn't want to immediately change his attitude with the "Oh, look who's coming!" If he went from 'announcement' to "I will kill you", I'd say "Be NICE" & accompany that with a 'Ceaser Milan' poke with my fingers. If that didn't work, I made him 'go to bed'. It is simply not allowed.
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Permalink Reply by Roger/Laurie on
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This brings up something I have been wondering about also. My Tenby is the "you make me nervous, why are you here" barker. He was a rescue with many social issue when we got him at 6 months. He is 4 now and basically is "normal" (if a tri could ever be completely normal) After the people have been in the house for 2 or 3 minutes he will stop barking but paces far away from them. (We tell everyone to ignore him don't try to pet or calm him) After about 10 minutes he will lay down in the same room and eventually sometimes comes over for a pet. In the mean time his social butterfly brother Chepstow has greeted the visitors with kisses and hugs and is trying to sit in their laps. I think Tenby eventually comes over because he see's his brother getting all the attention. When people come into the house Chepstow runs to them and Tenby starts barking. Chepstow will leave the people run over to Tenby bark at him and then run back to the people. It is like he is saying "don't act like this, don't be afraid, you are giving Corgi's a bad name". I like the idea that I have at least one dog that won't give away the silver and TV. Is there a way to keep that protector feeling and help calm him when we open the door to people that are suppose to come in?
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Permalink Reply by Sam Tsang on
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Hi Mitzi, when you say " new people are around", do you mean when guest knock or press the door bell? After the guest come in and she bark continuously? or both? Could you walk us through the timeline? What happened, your reaction and her reaction in detail? What type of method have you tried so far? What would you like Sally to do on your command?
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Permalink Reply by Bev Levy on
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I have a barker too. Sparty barks the "I LOVE YOU AND THINK YOU SHOULD PLAY WITH ME" BARK. This was compounded when he was younger because he would dash around finding toys to drop at people's feet. So cute my efforts to stop it were ignored. I feel your pain Renee, my husband frequently demonstrates the worst instincts when it comes to training. Consequently I have a 12 year old corgi that is incorrigible. So far I have "thrown in the towel" and content myself with having everyone stay up on the top of our entry steps (I have 3 dogs, 2 corgis and 1 dobe). At least that way no one gets tripped up. So I will be watching the advice you get although I think my big problem is our sweet family members that unwittingly encourage the behavior. Sparty stops to take a breath and Grandma immediately starts petting him and I say "Mom, not until he calms down" and she says "but I thought he stopped barking" Lol!
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Permalink Reply by Mitzi on
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Hey everybody,
Sorry for not responding back sooner.. thank you all for responding to me!
Barking is actually something new for Sally, she's doing it also when we're outside. It's more of an excited "hey look! over there! There's someone you don't know!" bark. I don't really use treats with Sally, what I've been working on is having her lay down (which she does) and getting between her and the person she's barking at and praising when she's quiet. It's been working about 50% right now. I actually don't mind the initial bark, I just want her to stop when I say "no bark".
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