he wont stop barking while playing!

teddy has found a new habit that i have been trying to break him of. he will not stop barking when playing with other dogs now. a couple times a week i go to the lake with a few friends so the dogs can play. if it is just him and Sophia he will bark a little if she runs or goes into the water. that dosnt bother me, the problem is when his favorite pal bruiser comes over to play. hes immediately wound up to the point i have to leash him because hes in his face licking him and making these little noises. once hes calm i let him go but as soon as we get a stick to throw into the water, all four dogs go into a barking frenzy. we tried to ignore the barking but the other dogs jump up to get the stick and they have made us fall down a few times. once we throw it teddy does this screaming bark that sounds like hes being murdered until bruiser runs into the water. then all teddy does is BARK BARK BARK.

i have leashed him and walked him in the other direction and as soon as he barks hes gets a correction and we walk off but the problem is he can hear me call his name and me telling him to stop but if i try to get near him he runs off. he will not let me catch him at all. even if i keep him leashed all the time he gets even more frantic because he just wants to play and practically chokes him self on his collar.

is there another way i can get him to stop? i know hes just excited that he gets to play but on base there is a noise policy

also is him ignoring me a sign of another "stage" in his life. such as "i really dont have to listen to u" stage? i read that corgis go through two stubborn streaks in there life so i wasnt sure if that was the first sign of it

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Permalink Reply by Beth on August 17, 2011 at 3:09pm

What I'm saying is that throwing one stick for four dogs to charge after is over-stimulating. I would let them play together with no toys and see how that goes. If you want to throw toys, then you should have one toy per dog and will need multiple handlers. I can manage two dogs most times but if Jack gets too wound up (he'll get so over-excited he makes himself vomit) I need to stop.

Here's what I do: I lightly hold Maddie's collar while showing her I have a second toy. I throw Jack's preferred toy for him first, then wave the second toy in front of Maddie's face and throw it in a slightly different direction. I throw in a few sit/stays for Jack to keep his excitement level to a dull roar. But two dogs need two toys so they can each chase their own. To keep Maddie from chasing Jack instead I sometimes need to vigorously wave the second toy right in front of her nose to get her attention, then when her eyes are tracking the toy I throw it away from him, AFTER he's already run after the first toy.

Needless to say, this is exhausting for me and these play sessions only last about 10 minutes. Since the Corgis run at maximum speed every time a toy is thrown, 10 minutes is plenty; they look like they are ready to collapse after that anyway.

If we don't do it this way, Maddie screams and Jack bullies her out of the way to get what was thrown, and then drops the toy and lays down and barks to get me to throw it again. This way we get some barking, but since both dogs are chasing their own toys excitedly, it's minimized.

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Permalink Reply by Rebecca Marie O'Bryan on August 17, 2011 at 7:43pm

o ok now i see what you are saying. looking back on it yes i do see that the problem is that. i mean when we are about to throw the stick all the dogs are running and getting super excited so the correction at that point is useless because he is so excited to listen to me because he wants to chase the other dogs, not the stick. he could care less about that. its just he gets so worked up because he loves to chase so much, hence the herding breed trait:)

i could imagine that would be very tiring after playing like that for awhile, not mention with all the barking