Barking & Calming Down
My corgi just turned a year old and he's still quite misbehaved. He constantly lunges at other dogs on walks, pulls his leash and then barks at the dog as we're passing them (seems to be a playful bark).
With humans he also goes crazy. It's been impossible to teach him not to jump because people insist on allowing him to. He's been going to obedience school and is constantly distracted by the other dogs. Do they eventually just calm down and stop being so obsessed with other dogs and people?
At my apartment, he's also starting to get more and more agitated when he hears people in the hallways. He will aggressively growl and sometimes bark. I have completely ignored it so far. Should I correct this behavior and tell him no?
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Bev Levy on
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Try looking at some positive training methods on youtube such as Zak George etc. For my puppy that barks at other dogs I have had success with using small treats to distract him when we encounter another dog. He is beginning to look at me when he sees another dog. I started with teaching the Watch me command( hold a treat up by your face and as soon as he looks at you give a treat with the other hand) .Then while on a walk when you see another dog say watch and as soon as he looks give a treat and continue until you are past the other dog. It takes some practice to get the attention before he becomes totally focused on the other dog but if you are consistent he will learn. There are ideas on using distracting techniques for some of your other problems too.
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Permalink Reply by Oktavian Putra Agusta on
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The question is did you already start training him from puppy age? I started leash walk my 4 months old corgi since she was 2 months old inside the house. Now every time she gets distracted by people or dogs during outside walk or start sniffing the ground I will leash-correct her and tug her into our walking direction. I also reward her with treat every 5 minutes if she walk calmly right behind me.
Basically I am teaching her to ignore other things and just focus on a walk. But of course it can be difficult to ignore some people especially the old ones who want to touch her but what I usually do is just smile at them and make some excuses and keep on walking.
I never allow her to jump on me, NEVER but it is difficult to enforce that rule with my sister and mom because, well, you know GIRLS!
Growling and barking should not be ignored as it will just intensify as time goes, it has to be corrected! How do you do with discipline? How do you treat your dog? Do you ever see yourself as an authoritative figure and leader or you just let him run all over you? Do you behave in calm and assertive manner (Like Cesar Millan always teaches)? The calm and assertive energy is a great concept in order to calm your dog down (If you are not sure watch Dog Whisperer episodes). Corgi can be very stubborn and bossy dog that is why you need to be very firm (Not physical) with discipline. And I do not give a treat for a discipline inside the house because I expect her to behave.
That is what I do at least.
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Permalink Reply by Linda on
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Beth is right about teaching the "watch me" command. It's one of the first things I teach all my dogs from puppies to rescued adults. It can be used in so many situations from walks to vet trips to anytime you want their attention focused on you. I use it for Max's acupuncture appointments, he focuses on me instead of what the vet is doing. The first time I used it the vet was impressed and said all dogs should be taught that.
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Permalink Reply by Beth on
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Does he get sufficient play time with other dogs, and lots and lots of chances to visit new people? Sometimes they have so much pent-up socialization need that they just lose control when they get the chance to say hello. It is always better to work on new social skills when pup is a tiny bit tired (not so exhausted he's cranky). On walks, work on these skills on the second half of the walk, not the first.
Bev's advice to teach a "watch me" command is very useful.
Rather than just telling people not to let him jump, it is better to ask them to tell him to DO something. That way they are being helpful, and people like to be helpful! Dogs and people are alike in that it is so much easier to replace a bad behavior with an incompatible good behavior, rather than just trying to stop the bad behavior. So rather than think of having him "not jump", you can (very nicely) explain to people "I'm trying to teach him to sit to be petted so he doesn't knock over little kids or get people covered in mud. Would you mind asking him to sit first?" Then the sit gets rewarded with lots of petting. And since it's the people he's focused on (rather than you) who tell him to sit, he gets reinforcement that being polite gets him what he wants. It helps if you crouch down near him to control the space a little better.
Finally, an observation: I live by a big park and so see dozens to hundreds of different dogs each year. Of all the ADULT dogs we know (meaning over 2), there are incredibly few who are still leaping fools around every person they meet (mostly Goldens for some reason), but there are many, many dogs who are shy or suspicious of new people and new dogs. It is so important to balance manners training with adequate socialization. I see lots of dogs who have perfect leash manners, never pull, never sniff, never look at anyone without their person's ok, but who also back away from any hand that goes near them and are afraid of (or want to fight) any dog that gets within their personal space.
Always keep in mind that your goal is to have a happy, confident, well-adjusted adult dog who thinks people and other dogs are potential friends. It is possible to have a mannerly yet confident dog, but it is honestly difficult to manage that line between socialization and always listening to you. Personally, I'd rather have a dog that sometimes pulls or wants to go say hi to every stranger than the "perfect" dog who is also shy. Shy dogs can become fear biters. If you correct your dog for barking in excitement at other dogs, he may think you are correcting his desire to approach rather than his barking. So yes, you want to help him learn better self-control than he has now. But do it by demonstrating to him that manners get his reward of being able to socialize, rather than just correcting his enthusiasm.
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Permalink Reply by Vicky Hay on
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THAT is a brilliant idea.
You could do it, too, with children who come up and ask if they can pet your dog. If you carried a pocketful of treats, you could ask the little kidlet to tell the dog to "Sit" and let the kid give a treat. This would tickle the kid and also help reinforce the idea of "sit to be petted."
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"Watch me," "sit," and "leave it!" are the crucial first commands to learn, IMHO, followed shortly by "stay."
But you've got a bit of a problem if you can't get your friends and relatives to cooperate in discouraging Pup from jumping up, because this creates a set of contradictions. Dogs are capable of recognizing inconsistencies and adapt handily to them. For example, he learns he can't jump up on you but he can pounce Aunt Tilly, and by the way strangers are fair game.
About the growling and barking: that can develop into a nuisance, especially if you live in close quarters with your neighbors. Ruby started to sound the alarm at every stray sound (some of which I couldn't hear), but I found that reassuring her calmly and consistently that "it's all right" has caused that tendency to settle down, at least for the nonce. I use a single phrase: "it's all right" -- rather than hollering "shut up" or "STOP that" or some such...the trick seems to involve remaining as calm and collected as you can, by way of persuading the dog that nothing out of the ordinary is going on. "Quiet!" (uttered calmly) followed by "Gooooood quiet!" the instant the dog is distracted from carrying on seems to help, too.
Is Pup getting plenty of exercise? Regular dog walks and chasing balls (even up and down a hallway, for a smaller dog) can run off nervous energy.
One thing you could do is leash the Pup (maybe even keep him on a leash most of the time while indoors -- this addresses a variety of headaches). Then when a neighbor comes bouncing up the hallway and elicits a barking/growling frenzy, open the door and let him see the cause of the noise, all the while making soothing and upbeat noises. Maybe even walk up and down the hall (on the leash!) so he can see nothing untoward is out there.
Here, too, in my experience dogs can discriminate among certain sets of circumstances. I live near a pretty dodgy central-city neighborhood, and we HAVE had our moments of high drama. If one of the dogs sounds the alarm and I think it's something real, then I will pick up a knife or a pistol and the phone, tell them -- always calmly -- "Quiet! Stay with me!" and have them follow me around the house while I check the doors and windows. They seem to recognize this...evidently in the dog mind there's a difference between barking to hear your brains rattle and actually working. It's something I learned to do with the last German shepherd, and it seems to help with the corgi, too.
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Permalink Reply by Holly on
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I have been working with my dog for more than a year to break the habit of jumping up on people. It is not so much a dog issue as a people issue in my case, but we have had to address the problem as it occurs. When Sully jumps upon people and they proclaim "It's okay." I try to stay the course and tell the human it is NOT okay. Since the random reinforcement of allowing a behavior on rare occasions has the strongest impact, I really have to be the meanie. I use "SIT" as a redirecting command, and I give praise and treats for "Sitting" so Sully gets the message that it is better to meet others while sitting, not when jumping on them. It is almost without exception that humans are behind most of my pup's missteps so I have to be firm with well-meaning humans.
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