Barking

Lately my 7, soon to be, 8 month old corgi, Ace, has been barking at the sight of people who walk by our house, cars driving by, or any little noise he hears, or he thinks he hears. He only does this when he is inside the house, but it still gets very irritating. I do not want him to be barking at every little thing, and I do not want to put a bark collar on him. We tell him no, or sushh, or be quiet, any thing to make him stop, but it doesn't seem to help. I also have a spray bottle that I spray him with and tell him NO!

If anyone has any suggestions for me that would be great! Maybe this is just a stage he is going through? Who knows!

Thanks!

Kayla

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Permalink Reply by Beth on June 3, 2013 at 3:02pm

You can work on teaching him "enough" or "quiet", but honestly this is pretty typical of many Corgis. They feel it is their job to alert you to anything they hear, and your job to check it out and see if it's dangerous. Jack will frequently not stop unless I look out the window and tell him it's ok. People walking, dogs going by (even ones he knows and is friendly with), loud cars, loud music, the wind blowing the gutters.... Maddie is usually only triggered by other dogs barking.

Remember, farm dogs were selected to alert to anything "different", or any changes in the environment. Yesterday, Jack was barking furiosly at a balloon tied to our neighbor's mailbox.

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Permalink Reply by Bev Levy on June 3, 2013 at 3:35pm

If you consistently call him to you everytime he barks at something outside he may eventually get the idea that you do not need to hear about everything. This really quieted our doberman but it took some time. We did not get her until she was 5 so was set in her ways.

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Permalink Reply by Anna Morelli on June 3, 2013 at 7:24pm

This is exactly what I did with our Corgi, who we adopted at 10 months and barked at every squirrel and bird he spotted. I would first say his name and "quiet". If he persisted I would call him ( or go get him if necessary ), give him a treat and bring him inside. As Bev wrote you have to be consistent, which means zero tolerance. Now, he barks when he wants in, which suits me just fine!

For the house, I used a different method because he was scared of everything and it was more complicated. For your pup, if the first quiet does not work, put a leash on him and do not let him back off until he has really settled. Don't keep changing your words, just use "quiet". Don't think of it as a correction, just as helping him learn the proper behavior you desire.

It's OK and even desirable for him to alert you to something unusual or someone coming to the door, but you have to be able to turn it off.

I worried when we traveled with our three dogs and went to hotels as, at first, they would want to bark if they heard anyone in the corridor, but they all know I mean business when I say "quiet" and they quickly learned that people walking in the corridor was normal under those circumstances and they have great memory for similar situations, so now I don't have to correct them any more. I was truly proud of them!