Trouble with severe barking !!!!!!!!!

[Sidney's Mama]

Sidney is now 14 months old and she has just started this barking................. We will be sitting on the couch watching t.v. and she stand right in front of us and begins barking non-stop ! She will do it for no reason. What can we do to make her stop, I have tried it all and nothing works......I put pennies in a can and shook it at her, slapped a newspaper off my hands loudly, yelled no at her, made her sit in her kennel........ HELP ! I don't know what else to do, please help us........ Sincerly, Amy

 

[malinda]

Sounds like those teen years, not sure though. When Megan starts barking like that, not that she does it often, I hold her mouth shut and say enough. Not sure if that is an answer for you but, it worked for us. Now I say enough and she is done.

 

[Sidney's Mama]

holding mouth shut to stop barking ????????

I tried to hold Sidney's mouth shut and she still barks out the sides of her cheeks ! Ha ha ha I guess I won't win this battle ................

 

[Krikkit]

Hi Amy, it just may be that some of the things you are doing are getting Sidney more hyped. You could try to calm her down using your body language. There is a great little booklet available called 'Calming Signals' by Turid Rugass which may help you. You can purchase the book on it's own, or get the book and video set. We got our copy from Dogwise http://www.dogwise.com but I think it is available from most online bookstores.

Putting her in a drop stay may help as well, or getting her to do other things like sits, stands etc, even some tricks, will give her the attention whe wants but on your terms, not hers. She is probably quite a headstrong young miss so this website may help you deal with her through the teenage terrors http://www.sonic.net/~cdlcruz/GPCC/library/alpha.htm

She may also need a bit more exercise

 

[Brutus and Amaya's Mom]

My mother in law had a very barky schnauzer. The dog would bark the first 10 minutes people were at the house. We convinced her to get a squirt bottle. Once the dog let out a short alarm she would squirt the dog and say quiet, quiet, until she stopped. Soon the dog will obey only the command quiet. My trainer also uses this on dogs in class that bark incessently---you can't teach over barking.

 

[Tararifik]

I agree with Malinda. I hold Angel's mouth shut and tell her to STOP! The same with biting. I will remember the water squirt thing. Sounds like it is worth a try. I have also heard to throw something down in front of them and not to let them know that the object comes from you. Keep repeating this and it seems to work. Good Luck.

 

[Krikkit]

If you do decide to use a squirt bottle or the shake can, remember to praise the moment your dog is quiet. Praise like mad and maybe give a treat so she learns that the being quiet is good thing for her, and barking is a bad thing. Teaching a barking dog to 'speak' works very effectively in some cases. We have a very noisey cattle dog in our Agility class at the moment but since learing speak she is great. Her owner lets her 'speak' as a reward now.

 

[Gail Lyons]

Tonight in out training class, one of the other owners's, (they have 2 schnauzers) asked about constant barking. The trainer said that one method to use when all else has failed is to get some bitter apple and put a very small amount on a paper towel and touch their tongue with it, and as soon as they are quiet, praise them.

I have no idea if this works, be my luck Joey would like the bitter apple...

 

[Brutus and Amaya's Mom]

FYI- My trainer does use bitter apple in class with dogs that fail to stop using the squirt bottle method.

 

[Crystina]

Squirt Bottle

We used the squirt bottle trick on our Norwegian Elkhound. After a few times all I had to do was turn my head to look at the bottle on the windowsill and the dog would stop barking.