Demand barking...

[RockyCody]

Since we got back from vegas (about 1 week ago) Rocky has this new thing where he sits in front of us and starts barking. Or if we are in the kitchen (he's not allowed in there) doing something - he barks and barks and barks.

I'm pretty sure this is "demand" barking and he wants our attention, right? My DH has had the worst of it as I am gone until late at night and DH said that Rocky barked and barked and he simply ignored. However, Rocky then proceeded to nip his hand (not bite, just go for I guess- lick/mouth - no skin broken). DH said he got pissed and "put him in his place" - which honestly makes me a bit nervous. I'm not sure what that means....but yea.

What kind of things can I do to help this behavior? He has been doing it a lot today. We are having his birthday party later and I've been in the kitchen cutting up fruit, placing the strawberries on top of his cake to spell out "rocky" with them, etc. It's like he gets SUPER full of energy and does this barking thing - then he crashes. Now he is sleeping.

Any advice or any personal experiences are definitely helpful.

Thanks!

 

[gsmom]

My Boston Terrier did this for a short while. What worked for me was to completely ignore him when he started to bark at me - I didn't say anything to him and didn't look at him when he did this.

If he started to nip at me then I would calmly get up leave the room, go into another room, and shut the door. I would stay in the other room for a couple of minutes and then come out.
Only when he was calm would I call him to me for loving attention.

I only had to do this a couple of times for him to learn that inappropriate behaviour does not get him what he wants. Stick with it..and good luck!

 

[murphman]

Sounds like a dog in need of attention, mainly in the form of long, draining walks! Our dog is best behaved when tired.

 

[samsons]

i get this alot from sam also ! In MY case its def a attention getter, since sam is well trained and knows "quite " ( had to teach that one when the baby was born ) and "leave me " "time out" ( that is to HIS RUG ) and many many other commands, the demand barking & woo wooing was not going to work for me. at first , i would give a dif command , " GO TO computer room " or "time out" ect ... when i was ignored , i would leave him , and close the gate - we have a gate in a hallway , that basically cuts our house in half. very handy to have w/2 pups & a 4 mo grandson ! so i would just leave him on the other side. when THESE things failed ,I resorted to raising my voice - and saying "cut it out & lay ur A** down " well now that worked !! . sam HATES it when i am not happy with him , and he responded ! mind you i am not the yelling type , so this is used as a last resort, most times hand signals or a stern command will do the trick - BUT when it doesn't , i do let him no i am not pleased !

IGNORING sam has never worked for us , so i have had to pair it with other things !

good luck ~ and whatever u try - just stick with it .... and it will work !!

 

[RockyCody]

Update on demand barking

He still does it. Now if he does it we say "do you want to go in a time out?" - we started putting him in my bathroom, door closed - if we tell him QUIET or ENOUGH and he doesn't stop barking.

Last night he was barking at me - i said ENOUGH QUIET and he didn't stop. SO I wetn to grab his collar to bring him in the bathroom and he practically PULLED me in there.

I wonder if he LIKES timeouts? He isn't in there long enough to do anything - I havent' seen any damage or anything.

I think he is JUST starting to know what time out means. I'm hoping I can just verbally threaten him to stop by saying "do you want a time out?" in the future.

Anyway - just kinda silly.