Barking and how to harness the enthusiasm

 We have a new small dog in the hood...I can hear it in the mornings... and I can also hear the owner yelling at the dog to be quiet, while the dog's bark goes from 'hey everyone, I'm out here in my yard..who else is out here?" bark...to 'machine gun out of his mind' ...backing up my owner's yelling as the owner sure sounds like he means business, so the dog's bark becomes panicked and serious.

I can share that owners embarrassment and frustration...and I wish I could tell them that there are ways to curb their ZEST for barking.  No smushing or yelling involved.  I've learned a LOT through the numerous Dogsmart classes for reactive dogs. You sure learn a lot about behaviour and how to diffuse anxiety in those classes! Turid Regaas "Calming signals" to "Click to Calm", along with all the books, including my new fav...you guess it...Control Unleashed!

You can even practice from the comfort of your own home...until you get the hang of ways to help your pup know that you're NOT hard of hearing, and 1 or a couple barks to let me know what's going on in the hood, is a healthy compromise.

I'm going to work on putting together the steps that helped us out.  Step by step what helped us find a happy medium for George's need to express himself.

The beauty of starting off indoors, is you have control over the "stimulus" ie..other dog. You can use a dvd or tv, or audio. Key is to know a bit about Desensitization, Classical  & Operant Conditioning and calming signals, BEFORE you start.

I worked on George's barking at other dogs from a distance BUT...I forgot all about how you can actually start the work in the quiet of your own home.

There are plenty Youtube video's...with dogs in them  that will normally trigger a reaction from your "chatterbox" :P

Two quotes I love are;
1- Karen Overall said
2-Leslie McDevitt

Here's a video of George having a meltdown when he notices dogs on the Leslie McDevitt DVD while I was watching it.

It was tough for George to hold it together. It's very stressful to him, and really isn't something one should take lightly. I did my best to reward George holding it together and NOT barking at the dog in the video, and also for all the calming signals that George was expressing.