My Dog Won"t Stop Barking...HELP!

Dogs  bark for all different reasons.  Because they are excited, to let you know that there is a person at the door or to alert you to a strange noise that doesn’t belong there during the middle of the night.

Is this your dog?

This type of barking is not why people call me in desperation.

I get the call because the dog wont STOP barking. They’ve tried EVERYTHING and they don’t know what else to do.   What is rarely easily recognized by owners, myself included, is how we contribute or reward the behavior that we get from our dogs.

If your dog is offering ANY behavior excessively then you are most likely REWARDING and REINFORCING it.

I can see you shaking your head right now that this just isn’t true. Let me ask you this. Do you combat your dog’s barking with a ‘No’, ‘Be Quiet’, or when  your really frustrated with a loud “Shut up”? Then you are unintentionally contributing to the problem and REINFORCING your dog with exactly what they want.

Your Attention.

I know this can be hard to hear and most people want me to give them some miracle cure on how to fix the problem immediately. Unfortunately the problem didn’t happen over night and changing the behavior will take some time.

The upside in all of this is that you have been EXTREMELY successful in training your dog so there is lots of hope!

People don’t like when I tell them that either because no one wants to think that they had any part in training a bad behavior.  But a dog only does what they get reinforced and  rewarded for.

Let me say that again.  Dogs only do what they are being reinforced and rewarded for.

So if your dog is doing something that you don’t like they ARE getting reinforced for that behavior somehow and will continue doing it as long as the reinforcement continues.

This tells me that you are good at both reinforcing and rewarding and that, in many ways, makes my job easier.

When I come into the picture my job is to let people see exactly how they are reinforcing the behavior they don’t want.  I usually get “I do ignore him but he keeps doing it”.  So if we go back to a dog only does what gets reinforced, I then get “I do ignore him but then I just can’t take it anymore and I tell him to stop”.

AHHA! Here we go the truth is out and the person is aware of HOW they are contributing to the problem.  Now we can start working!

If your dog is barking at YOU because they want your attention and you yell “Stop”, are they getting your attention?  The answer, in case you had any doubt, is YES! So you can’t say ignoring doesn’t work because you’ve never really ignored. (That is of course if this applies to you – I really don’t know your specific situation…but If you’re still reading you probably fall into this category somehow.)

What if this isn’t you and you’ve NEVER SAID ANYTHING to your barking dog? Then I have to ask, do you make eye contact to give the “Shut up now before I kill you” angry stare? Yes? I hate to break this to you but you might as well have said “Stop” to your dog.

Eye contact is just another way for you to reward your dog with attention. A barking dog is saying “talk to me, look at me, play with me or give me what I want!” If you are doing any of these you are rewarding the barking.

Are you convinced yet? No, that’s okay. Start paying attention to how you react when your dog is barking. What do you do? Do you look, talk, play or give? Really analyze yourself.  Until you recognize what YOU ARE doing to contribute to the behavior, nothing can change.

When you are convinced come back and find out how you can change your reactions and thus your dogs behaviors.  I’ll be here ready with the information you need.

If you are already convinced – or just desperate enough to try anything – lets begin!

First, start paying attention to what you do when your dog barks. Finding out how you contribute to the problem is the first step.

Do you yell? Stare? Give in and play? Give the dog what they want? What do you do? How long or how loud does your dog bark before you give in and do whatever it takes to get them quiet. It’s important to know exactly so that you can catch yourself doing it and STOP yourself.

Remember you are one REINFORCING and REWARDING the behavior.  It only changes when what you do and how you react changes.

So once you know what you are doing to unintentionally reward the behavior, lets get you rewarding what you want.  QUIETNESS!

Finally I am going to tell you what to do to stop your dogs barking!  YAY.

IGNORE IT!  What?  She didn’t just say that!  Yes I did.  Your answer is to IGNORE what you don’t want and REWARD what you do.

You want a quiet dog, so you need to start REINFORCING the QUIETNESS!

When your dog is barking at you because they want to play fetch (or whatever their favorite game is), in fact they even brought you their toy and dropped it in your lap for you. The only thing, you didn’t throw it yet so they give you a bark that says “Dude, throw!”

Normally you would wait until you couldn’t take the barking anymore and then throw the ball to shut them up. We then repeat, until the dog decides its time to stop.

Now I want you to simply not engage.  Your dog doesn’t get to TELL you when its time to play fetch. You get to tell your dog.  If your dog brings you the ball, bring the ball back to it’s place (maybe the dog’s toy box). Don’t play when your dog wants to.

Your confused dog will not understand but they will get the hint.  That you won’t play with them on command because you are doing something different.

This will take a while for them to understand but it will make a change.

When you do decide to play fetch, only throw when your dog is quiet.  If your dog gets excited and starts barking, game over. Without looking at them, talking to them or touching them bring the ball back in its place and stop engaging.

Are you seeing a pattern yet?  You are deciding when to engage and when not to engage, what to reward and what not to reward.

Let’s talk about barking at dinner time.

Its 6pm and you are getting your dogs food ready. They now it’s dinner time and they are ready to eat but you’re not moving fast enough. So your dog starts telling you how hungry they are.  You get their food ready and put it down for them.  Sound familiar?

To change this start feeding at different times, be sporadic. If your dog sees you getting dinner ready and starts barking at you – stop what your doing and leave the kitchen.  Come back and start over.

Every time your dog barks you are going to stop and leave. Don’t talk to them, look at them or touch them, just leave.   Your dog will learn that if they bark at you, they are not getting dinner!

These may take some time but if you are consistent and only give your dog what they want (food, play, attention (eye contact, conversation, petting) when they are doing what you want things will change and rather quickly.  Your dog wants all of these things from you and will start doing more of whatever will get it from you.

I know this sounds crazy and you think it will NEVER work, in fact YOU’VE already tried ignoring and it DIDN’T work. But did you really?

I will give you an example.  Mattie (my dog) knows that barking won’t get him anything. He doesn’t even bark when he wants to go out – he comes close to me, hovers and stares at me.  This is how I know he REALLY has to go to the  bathroom.

I do pet sitting and most of the dogs I watch bark. I have to teach them that barking in my house doesn’t accomplish their goal.  Yes I want to kill them at times and yes I get frustrated – I’m human!  BUT I work really hard to accomplish this goal because I like my peace and quiet.

I don’t always get it accomplished in the amount of time they are staying with me and my neighbors probably want to kill me, but when they come back for another visit the barking is not as excessive as the last time and we continue building on what has been accomplished so far.

My point – IT WORKS!!  Ignoring what don’t want and rewarding what you do WORKS but it takes time to change the behavior and you need to have the tenacity to go through the growing pains.

It may get worse before it gets better, this is called an extinction burst, but it will get better.  YOU CAN DO THIS!  Just be as determined to train what you want as you have been at training what you don’t want.  I have seen it done numerous times and have faith in you!

If you have any questions or want to simply want to share your frustrations  don’t hesitate to contact me at www.allstarpaws.com/contactus.html.

As Always thank you for reading and I hoped you’ve learned something new and helpful!

About these ads