Communicating OR Barking?

[Sessa]

I'm hoping I can present this in such a way as to spark a lively discussion!!
(pun intended! LOL!) and, I'm hoping everyone will chime in with their experiences and tolerance levels regarding barking---keeping in mind, that this is certainly a VERY subjective topic with no right or wrong answers. ;)

Here we go:

When is barking communicating?
and, vice versa,
When is barking just barking?

Or...put in another way,

When is it OKAY for your doodle to bark?
and vice versa,
When is NOT OKAY for your doodle to bark?
____________________________________

I'll go first:

Barking is something that I believe is worked on EVERY day, just like the basic building blocks of training, such as sit, down, stay, etc....

Barking is a major form of communication that I would not want to stifle in my dog,
although, training limitations of the when, why, and how much is very necessary.

I recognize that I have a doodle that is particularly vocal--by nature...thus, I've had to work hard on training with her because in the big picture of things, I would never want to "mute" her.

For example, I like the fact that my doodle alerts me to things/occurrences that I may otherwise miss or those things that she is more finely attuned to---i.e. hearing something, smelling something, alerting me of something, etc...
I also like the fact that I can recognize that my dog has MANY different types of barks--play barks, fear barks, excited barks, cooing growls, and so on....

HOWEVER, yes big HOWEVER,
I do not tolerate being barked AT (no way, no where, by no dog--I turn my back and walk away every time),
I do not tolerate barking coupled with escalating energy levels (this moves them further away from paying attention to ME!),
I do not tolerate barking AT other people (most of the time ;) ),
I do not tolerate unbridled barking in the backyard or at the fence line (one, at most, two barks, to acknowledge someone on the other side of the fence is fine but no more than that!).

Because I have limitations, I have had to really focus on the "bark" on command versus "quiet" and "hushhhhh" (with a finger over my lips)....it is possible to distinguish between these two, it just takes time and patience..I have not had to as of yet, nor do I plan on in the future, resort to remote collars...
..
..did I mention that I work on this every day?!?!!!!! LOL! ;) ;)

THANKS to those, in advance, who decide to share!

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

If someone rings the doorbell, she doesn't bark?

[Tamara & Giada]

NO..........only a couple times has she ever (but, I think she gets her ques from our older dog, who just isn't much of a barker either especially as she's gotten older). She will run to the door or window and do her kangaroo jump!!

[Sessa]

How old is she?
She may not have discovered her voice yet or perhaps hasn't "taken it for a test drive" yet! ;)

and, NO--nothing is wrong with her.
Lucky you, ended up with a telepathic doodle!
LOL!

[Tamara & Giada]

lol! She is 1 1/2 yrs. old. She will once in a great while do a little bark at our older dog if she wants to play.

[HANNAH 8/2/07 & HONEY 7/2/08]

No I don't think so, some dogs are barkers and others are not...we live in a very very quiet area, only time my dogs will bark is if they hear other dogs barking, Hannah never barked when I first got her till she was about 10 months old and we pet sat for a barker...lol.... When someone is trying to break into your home dogs can sense the threat, they know if someone is going to try and harm you. My two Rotties didn't do a thing when my apartment was broken into, I was not home....if my son would get loud around them, they would come lay by me or position themselves between us. It was funny with them, they would protect me..but not our home. My shar-pei was just the opposite, you could come in...but you didn't leave cause she would put you in a corner if I was not at home, Wrinkles was very protective.

[Nancy, Ned, Clancy, and Charlie]

I hate barking for any reason, at any time. It is just me. I don't think my dog needs to bark to alert me to anything. Whine, jump, race, silent bark, hit a tail on something to make a noise - just fine. I never had a dog that barked until Simon, my 11 year old lab mix. He used to bark as people went by but I guess he barks more ( I started a discussion today). He has become protective of his "pack" with his bark. We have tried to stifle his bark for his entire life but were never skilled enough to do so. He has "taught" Ned to bark and I am NOT happy. I will be successful with curbing Ned's bark as I have more help (thank you doodlekisses).

[GBK]

I love when they bark at each other in play :) It is a different type of bark and makes me think they really are commumicating with each other, it make me smile. I don't mind that they bark at the front door or out in the back yard as long as they obey me when I call. I can't stand when Kona barks at people because they are wearing hats or backpacks or at small children. I will not tolerate this, thus the citronella collar. She is 99.9 percent better know and I am very proud of her. She is extremely smart, and understands what I want from her. I never had dogs that bark when others in the neighborhood bark and it has been challenging, but hey are learning :)

[Adina P]

I think MOST barking is communication, but still drives me bonkers as it does Nancy above. I don't have dogs for an alarm system and I don't need to know every time someone dares walk on the sidewalk across the street... Honestly, for me it's not the 2nd or 3rd bark...but the 1st that is most frustrating because it always startles me and makes me jump....they can be SOOO loud and the rush with which they hightail it to the door or window...the heightened energy level of it all is very disturbing and annoying. There I am watching TV or surfing the web or reading a book when suddenly 2-3 ear drum blasting blasts go off as claws scrape the floor in a rush to see...um...a car slowed down to make a left turn. Or a kid on a skateboard...or...well...nothing.

Early in my pregnancy I was VERY close to buying 2 electronic bark collars to save my sanity and prevent that 1st startling caucophany. But as the grumpy hormones faded, I got cheap :) I can call Rosco off a bark (Thule takes a bit more work) ...but I want the NO bark alert dog...not the one that sends me flying from ear drum shock :)

I haven't heard a single method to completely prevent the initial alert bark...only ways to teach 'quiet' after the fact. If anyone KNOWS a tried and true method...I'd love to hear it.

That said there are instances when I appreciate a bark:
--Middle of night potty need
--'Timmy's in the well!'
--Daytime potty need (neither potty need bark is ever ear piercing).

So here I am...a bark hater living with THREE dogs. But they are soooo sweet in every other way! :)

[Sessa]

Adina--I haven't heard of a method preventing the initial alert bark either...and I am VERY sympathetic to your case--there have been times when I nearly fell off the couch while clutching my heart from being startled by Mija, only to tell me there is cat on the fence across the street! LOL!

I think that the alert bark is a tough one to nail down as the reaction to stimuli time lapse is next to instant....
plus, the initial alert bark is what stimulates US to react next to instantaneously with a command or correction!
LOL, funny how that works!

[Leslie, Dexter & Kirby]

I get very annoyed by excessive barking :) Dex and Kirby bark at each other while they play and that doesn't bother me too much (because I do think they're communicating w/each other). We have worked a lot to get them to stop barking when we tell them to when they bark at people walking past our house. We have been fairly successful, but if the people are walking a dog is is more difficult to get them to stop (are they trying to communicate w/the dog?? are they trying to tell the dog to get away from their house?? who knows.)

Dexter will give us a single (annoyed sounding) bark if we miss his crying to go potty...we'll listen to that one because it's our bad for missing his signal :)

Kirby will bark at us when he wants to go out back and "hunt" and we work on that one...we try to make him sit quietly before we let him out.

Good post :)

[Sessa]

Hi guys!
THANKS for the reply!

Kirby going out to hunt is like Mija wanting to go out and patrol the yard against invading cats and birds...same thing....LOL....we also work on the quiet sit before opening the door--this is normal training regime anyway....we also work on stepping through the door first, even if we are not actually going to go outside as well...sometimes I have to "escort" Mija to the end of the patio--my mere presence in the backyard WITH her will usually curb her desire to tear off like a bat out of h-e-double hockey sticks!

[Sue, Murphy and Bella ()*o*()]

I'm with Nancy...I just don;t have any use for barking. He will bark AT hubby when they play ruff, and that even seems unnecessary to me and he will quiet right down if I correct him...but that's DH's fault as he knows just what to do to get him going into that state. And it is VERY LOUD and can send you jumping 10' off a couch with the first one. He does bark when he plays with other dogs and that's fine as it's usually outside at a park or the beach. Totally acceptable and expected.
I have taught Murphy to not go to the door when there are knocks or when people leave, more so because I initially didn;t want him bolting out the door when he was younger, and now he just ignores the door altogether when people come.

He sat at the glass door and growled very low at the pool man one day, but that was it. That's ok. Alerting, but not annoying. And it wasn;t an agressive "I'm gonna bite your head off "growl. He'd probably lick him to death before he'd even think of being aggressive....

So NO BARKS for me too. Don't need it, don't want it, find no use for it. Playime and outdoors,so far are okay, and if he instinctively barked out of fear or being threatened I'd have to assess the situation to see how appropriate the behavior was before I corrected him. There maybe sometimes that would work, but we just haven't had any come up yet.