Bindi Teaching Ch 11

 

CHAPTER 11.

YOU DIDN’T WANT A GUARD DOG?

BARKING UP THE WRONG TREE.

To get your dog to bark ,  here is what you have to do...

What?

You don’t want your dog to bark?  Does your dog bark at a lot of  things? Well, They will do that. Did you not know when you got a dog that most dogs bark? 

Of course we have an expectation our dog will have a voice.  We often just expect a certain amount voice and the ability for pup to control that voice.  Urban life has enough stress from  living close to neighbours without your dog barking too much, at the wrong time of day and too loudly and of course persistently.  Non-stop barking is totally unacceptable behaviour.

There are a few trigger causes for a lot of voice, those can include excitement, fear, uncertainty and territorial protection or all of these.  The solutions, in order, are introduction, company, explanation and exposure.  I will come back to these as there are tools you can use, after you have put some basics in place.

I think the first thing you have to get your dog to understand is that it is barking...

I know you think that will be obvious, the dog knows it is barking.  But honestly, maybe it doesn’t know what barking is but is using a fantastic tool to gain attention or to get the feeling that it is coping with not being happy.  Barking can generate feel good endorphins in pup. 

Please note I am not talking about yipping or yapping while in play with other dogs, that is dog communication and carries more meaning for dogs than we need to know about, that’s dog to dog business.

The bark to action is pup trying to tell us things.  If a bark gets lots of attention from us then pooch will use it to get our lots of attention.  Pup is just getting our attention without knowing it is annoying, it just wants our attention.

Initially, ignoring any low level barking so pup does not get your attention for barking is a nice effective if subtle tool.  But only if pup does not continue and escalate the barking until you respond.  I never said this was going to be easy but if you know your pup’s triggers, best treats, highest desires... You can use people smarts to decide a course of action.  Ignore barking only if it works and you are in a space where continued barking can be ignored without impact on neighbours. 

It should always be in your mind that ignoring a bad behaviour will ensure that particular bad behaviour is not going to generate attention as a reward for pup.  Any owner attention is a pup-reward by the way.  Even bad owner attention is still attention and a pup-reward.

Counter intuitively, the best way to stop a dog barking too much is to teach it to bark on command. 

If you have a dog that barks easily it will be easy for you to sit with it and catch it barking when you have eye-to-eye.

This is a fun game.  When pup barks, give a command like Speak. As soon as it barks, reward and give the command ‘speak’.  The treat will give a mini break from the barking while it munches and swallows. Repeat.

If it barks without the speak command, no reward.  Wait for a pause and give ‘speak’ command, if a bark follows, give reward.

I am sure you can see how this goes.  Your job is to pace the game, introducing a hand signal, maybe a flat vertical, fingers  open hand at the same time as the speak command.  You can work towards only giving the signal and getting pup to bark when the open hand is flashed. Then Reward. Bark without hand signal, no reward, ignore.  Repeat until you are sure pup has got the understanding of the signal and that it means a single bark.

So now you have a dog that obviously will still bark when you don’t want it to, but as well, barks when you want it to. I can hear the neighbours saying, ‘That’s just great , that is’. 

At every stage of this book I have said persistence and patience are key to Urban Dog Training.  Regrettably the above lesson comes with an onerous stage that really can’t be avoided as we really must get the pup to understand what the bark/speak command/signal is, and until you are sure it gets it, we can’t go on to the step you obviously want to do, stop the barking.

I will say that if you practice the bark command for a few days you may well find pup’s other barking reduces... You may also not find that, but, hey ho.  Do not panic. Persist until pup regularly barks when it’s told or signalled to speak.

If you are confident pup understands, then the next day when you are playing the speak game, introduce a new action, like closing the open hand to a fist, folded fingers towards pup. And the word shush, quite, shaddup, or whatever word you like but make it a crisp and short command, that can be used in public. 

Now you can use the practiced open hand action-reward system to get pup to bark, reward, again give the open hand signal and reward.  Now at the quiet time between barks, give the close hand signal and use the quiet word, and while pup stays not barking, reward.  

Repeat the bark, open hand sign, reward, while quiet, give closed hand sign and quiet command, tiny pause, reward if pup stayed quiet.  Try this for say 5 minutes a day, thinking of your neighbours.  Over time increase quiet time and increase reward as appropriate for longer quiets.  Make it fun with praise and nice touch.

Is that clear? I hope I explained it well enough for you but it must be repeated until pup understands the hand signals and words and associates them with the required bark response. 

Remember all these hand signals must be given when pup is looking at you, not when looking at the treat. Get pup to look at you for the bark/speak/open hand, and for the pause/quiet/closed hand.

In the course of a normal day do not fall into the following trap.

BINDI:  Hey Dad! There is a cat outside

DAD:  Shut up,

BINDI:  Its a BAD cat

DAD:  SHUT UP!

BINDI:  Okay, Just saying....

DAD:  FOR SH*T SAKE SHUUTT UPP!!!

BINDI:  OH YEAH!  IT’S A BIG EXCITING CAT

DAD:  SCREAMING ABUSE!!!!

BINDI:  YEAH THIS IS GREAT!! LETS BOTH BARK AT IT MORE!!!

It happens. Things get ugly.

 

Okay let’s go back to why dogs bark and discover some tools to use.. 

In the first place a bark is a communication so we don’t want pup to think it can’t communicate. Which is why I strongly object to things like shock collars. Sometimes if you search google they are called, laughingly, Dog Training collars.  I mean, really?  Aversion or pain training is just wickedly cruel and animals have no clue what is happening to them.  Imagine your enemy or worse, your dumped ex-lover, imagine giving them a remote that blasted you with a debilitating shock to your head, at any time they felt like it.

 

I think we teach pup how to communicate more effectively if we observe what the barking is and when it happens. I said before there were a few common reasons for barking. Excitement, fear, uncertainty and territorial. And a few solutions, introduction, company, explanation and exposure.

 

Every barking incident really as much as possible has to be dealt with from your deepest reservoir of calm space. I know being calm when your pooch is barking is not the natural human response.  A dog bark is a primordial warning to us as humans and our immediate response is attention, adrenalin, and action.  Knowing this, knowing you have a dog that barks, hopefully you will be able to suppress the animal part of your physiology and access quickly the ‘No, I have to be calm’, part of your people smarts.  Keeping that in mind, let us proceed with some tools.

 

Excitement barking is obviously triggered by a stimulus like being kept away from fun things, visitors, a prey target, a doggy mate, a car trip, that sort of thing.  It will be indicated by a wide arc tail wag, head up ears up, high pitched fast barking. Use distraction by treat or toy if you think you can do so to get pup to look at you, break focus on the trigger and be calmer.  If practical it is then best to allow pup to meet the trigger with a calm approach if possible.  Maybe this will be possible at some time after the excitement is past, re-introduce the trigger in a different place where trigger can be approached calmly.  In the worst case, try distraction by throwing a favourite thing in the opposite direction and getting a return.  This should reduce the initial intensity and may be a sufficient distraction for you to get pup attention and redirect onto another command response. Or retreat from the trigger and remove the intensity.

 

Fear barking can be triggered by something beyond pup’s understanding or a previously experienced negative, like firework surprises, sirens, loud street noise.  Ears down, head down, growls and low pitch bark, perhaps a retreat is also in the fear response.  A calm response from you here is the best path forward, comforting tone while gently keeping pup close to you. Calmly move away from the event to a safe place, sharing the experience in retreat without forcing pup to get more exposed.  If you are always consistent in doing this pup should trust you are a safer place to be and you can, over time move pup away from the trigger to a lesser and lesser extent until pup feels just being near you brings enough safety to allow the fear to pass.

 

Uncertainty barking comes from an unknown trigger, noises in the dark, a surprise, a passing dog suddenly reacting, a new sight like a floating balloon or windblown debris.  This can bring guard response, protection response, but all with a fear-like response of hackles up pointed ears, maybe lips up teeth showing, making pup look strong.  The task for you is to identify the trigger and show that is it not harmful again by showing the trigger to be safe.  If you can hold the balloon touch it, or enter the dark place calmly and return to pat pup.  Depending on the situation you can assess if appropriate to guide pup away from the surprise or greet the surprise calmly.  Whatever you can do to show the pup you are happy and calm to be near or with the uncertain thing, no fuss.  

 

Territorial barking is pure guard-protect response, a response saying this is my space, stay away. Full teeth display, high hackles extending down back, loudest bark from a full chest, head high, ears forward as big and brave as it is possible to look.  With this barking, knowing your pooch and having spent time building trust is critical.  If your pup is likely to nip at this time is very important you do not expose yourself to unintended injury.  You do need to defuse and distract focus. Guard barking is the toughest emotional event to break.  Again an unlikely approach often is the best way forward.  Pup is guarding against a threat so if you say, ‘good pup!’  ‘Who’s a clever pup’ ‘good pup’ in a calm gentle tone it will not be the expected result pup thought it would get.   After all if you have a dog that wants to protect its environment that means it is happy in its environment and does not want it invaded.  Warning us that something is not usual is the thing dogs have done for millennia. So. Our pooch barking is the basic act of telling us something is happening near their safe place.  We need to see that as a good thing, 

We just want it to be controlled.  By giving the calm praise, pup should relax a bit and allow you to share what it has seen.  As long as you continue to be calm, and then, if appropriate ignore and walk away, pup may relax and calm down where it is or it may follow you and look to you for guidance.  If so, you can distract or redirect activity with toy play or treat, go find, any fun thing you two do.  

 

Some things that may help with this is having to hand a favourite toy to fetch. Consider blocking the view by standing between pooch and the interesting thing. 

If calm establishes in the short term, then a gentle introduction to the threat may be appropriate when pup has settled. 

If front door guarding is overly enthusiastic, you will need to employ every friend or neighbour you can convince to help you.  Have them, at different times on different days, approach the front door while you teach pup that it is appropriate when you go to the door for pup to sit on a mat or in a place behind you while you open and deal with the door person.  This you just have to be calm and firm with and not embarrassed to be battling pup while your friend stands patiently outside.

Block pup access to the door while you open it, firmly but calmly returning pup to the safe place and a reward for staying there.  As you repeatedly try to open door to the person waiting outside, stop and return calmly to place pups bottom on the safe place. It really does not matter how many times you have to repeat this.  By constant repetition and lots of patient friends over some days, pup will understand the territory of the door is not to be bark protected if you are there.  Eventually by ensuring pup stays on the safe place, people are allowed to come in and pup must stay on mat until released to calmly greet.  A closed hand when appropriate will enforce the no barking, if used when pup is looking of course, and if you feel it will be obeyed. 

Do no repeat any command that is ignored by pup, save it for another time.  I know from experience this training requires the biggest commitment in patience and persistence.  And many willing, patient friends.

 

Once again I want to remind you to acknowledge the dog you have.  Some barking behaviour is breed specific, yipping barks in a terrier to scare out prey, guarding barks from Rotties, Dobermans, Shepherd dogs.  Gentle consistent persistence is always the way forward but breeds will be breeds and the trust between you and pup will grow over time as you move away from unthinking barks towards learned behaviour.

 

I repeat, you yelling at a barking dog is like throwing petrol on a fire.  You cannot yell loud enough to out shout a dog barking.  Like you can’t drown a fire with petrol, shouting just makes for more barking. 

 

As much as it sounds strange, now you know pooch is barking because in some way it is uncomfortable, that provides you with an alternative.  The calm praise your pup likes, the good-pup vocal, and the nice fun of return for treat or touch. 

 

If pup is excited and barking, your calm strong praise and memory of reward can be the key to make a crack in the frenzy.  It is those early bonding lessons if well entrenched in the owner-pup relationship that will be most effective in helping you minimise the barking.  

 

And remember you didn’t get a dog so you could bark yourself.  A dog will bark, for you, at you and with you, but you can control and guide the dog if you observe and persist with calm patience.