Correct way to stop barking

[Jane, Rooney & Stuart]

Stuart has just turned 9 months and is a little barky.  Not constant but when he sees people walking or biking down the sidewalk that swings out behind the pond behind our house.  The back of our house is all glass so there is no way that I can block his view.  I want him to be a good watch dog but this is over the line.  I have no idea how to address this issue - can someone please lend a hand with some basic instructions?

 

[Sharon & Levi]

I am having the same problem with barking.  Any suggestions would be helpful.  I have an 11 mo old goldendoodle

[Jay, Lola and Colonel Esau]

Lola is also a barker.   I did everything I could to socialize her to every kind of animal and object I could when she was very young - and for the most part she doesn't have problems.  But now she's about 7 1/2 months and is going through her second fear period (I always forget what the technical term is - but you know what I mean).  Her newest thing is barking at bicycles, skateboards and rollerblades. I suppose I didn't think of those because it was too cold out before.  I think we got a handle on the bicycle thing today.  Basically what I did was take her down to the lakefront and I found various dog-friendly strangers with bikes.  I would take each of their bikes and ride around on it for a while while Lola followed me.  Then I would put it down, let her sniff and check it out.  Then they would get on the bikes are ride around.  It took most of the afternoon, but by the end of the day groups of teenagers were riding by on bikes, and Lola was totally fine with it.  Haven't determined whether she will generalize that to rollerblades and skateboards yet.  I hope so because I really don't want to have to ask a bunch of strangers to put on their rollerblades.

One thing I really don't thinks is a good idea is to hold or baby a dog that is barking.  To much chance they will interpret that as a reward and it will reinforce the behavior you are trying to eliminate.  

Sometimes she barks at her own reflection at night, thinking it's another dog.  When that happens I turn her around so that she thinks the other dog no longer threatening.  That usually works.

If she's barking at the door or window I will sometimes go over and look, just to humor her.  After all, she's just trying to do her job by warning me of a possible danger.  If I check it out and don't seem bothered often that is good enough for her. 

[Gwyndolyn Morasko]

I've tried a few similar things with Kona.  He is 6 months old and was a bit late to find his voice.  I was feeling lucky.  Not so much any more!  He started barking at about 5 months, and it got worse a few weeks ago.  I try the calming approach by going to the window and tell him "Oh!  Interesting, Thank you for telling me, but it's OK.  Nothing to worry about". Then I sit there and pet him for a bit and he calms down.  Same with when he sees his reflection in the mirror or window.  That's a tough one, so I have to distract him.  But I really need some sure fire training tips to get him to stop when he is on a roll.  I never know what it's going to be because he's not consistent.  Last night he met some friends of mine with 2 young girls, and he was all smiles and bouncing around playing for over an hour with them, and not a single bark.  Yet 2 days agao, he met another friend and he went wild with his barking.  If it were more consistent, I could focus the training a bit better!

[Jay, Lola and Colonel Esau]

Another thing I do sometimes is to gentle touch her vocal cords.   Also I try to get to it before it starts, when you hear that little grumble noise coming...

[Jay, Lola and Colonel Esau]

Sounds similar to where we live.  We are in the West Loop (just west of downtown, as the name implies).

Mostly a residential neighborhood, with retail on the ground floor of many building.  A few brownstones and walkups, but mostly elevator buildings perhaps 4 to 15 floors.  A lot of converted lofts.  Most units have a balcony.  Almost everyone has at least one dog.  In fact there is a dog park that has become the center of the neighborhood for a lot of us.

BTW, I see you are in Fairfax, VA.  I went to law school at Georgetown and am familiar with that area.  I think I know the type of apartment complex you are talking about.

One added challenge as far as barking is that at night all the dogs bark to each other from their respective balconies.  I mentioned in a post the other day, it is kind of like that scene where the muppets are all going to sleep in their lockers.

For what it's worth, I made a conscious decision to socialize Lola as much as I could early on, even while she was still getting her shots - against what a vet would probably advise.  As you say, it's a trade-off - but I knew she was going to be a city dog and I wanted her immune system to be strong, naturally, and for her to have as many interactions as possible.  In the interest of full disclosure, she did get Giardia, and we had a scare where she got into what I thought was asbestos-containing insulation and had to be rushed to the emergency vet at midnight on a Sunday.  But it was all fine in the end, and the bottom line is that at 7 months she is now much more confident, friendly and better-socialized than any other dog around.  People comment all the time about how "good" she is for her age.  So what I am saying is probably somewhat controversial, but I'm confident that it was right choice for us under the circumstances and that we wouldn't be where we are today if I had waited until she was 4 months.  Of course, if you are going to do that kind of thing it means you have to pay attention, get to know people and their dogs, go to the park at strange hours and in nasty weather, when it's not crowded, etc.  I suspect the reason the reason vets traditionally advise people the way they do is at least in part because the vet doesn't want to be responsible for their bad judgment.

PS:  Again, you have to use your good judgment, but a healthy pup is a lot more durable than you might think.  I remember Lola running into walls and getting stepped on and all sorts of stuff that made me scared but she just shook it off and kept going.  As far as squirming around, I'm not sure exactly how old he is but you really don't want to allow that for too long because it's going to be a lot harder to fix when he gets bigger.  Maybe instead of picking him up, that would be a good time to practice having him sit.  That way you start a foundation of looking to you for instructions when he gets excited.

[BettyAnn, Holmes & Lucy]

Read an article that was referenced on this site in old discussions about barking. Here's the link:

http://www.dogskool.com/web/news/summer2002/page3.html

And on that note, I'm not doing this method but I did try it a few times. I don't think I did it correctly though and felt like I was rewarding for 'Speak' even when I was actually trying to reward for 'Quiet' ! LOL  Rather than trying again though, I'm just trying to ignore Holmes when he barks or quietly 'Hush' him or put him in his kennel if he's really not listening. Seems like he's catching on.

I've read it and tried it a couple times. Probably would work if i really worked on it.