Barking For Attention

[Rhi]

We've started obeidence training, 4 weeks ago. At home we now make him earn every bit of attention he gets ie. 'sit' before we come out the door, 'wait' for dinner etc.

The increasing problem that we are having is his demanding of attention... it started out as whinging by the backdoor and has now progressed into barking, barking, barking some more. He barks along our fence lines when theres nothing there, coming back to the house proud as punch. If we are ignoring him or he can't see us he'll repeat the process over and over again.

His barking is strictly attention seeking, he knows when it's breakfast/walk/games/heater time. I've tried mixing his routine up a little but it's been hard. Besides pandering to his barking and/or ignoring him are there any other techniques people could suggest.

Thanks in advance

Rhi (going out of my mind)

Edited August 17, 2007 by Rhi

[Mushaka]

OMG...r u living in MY houseDo u own MY dog...lmao.. Sage has worked this little thing out too! She is perfectly behaved as long as things r going her way!Her and MY biggest problem is that she is WAY to intelligent for me!! I will be watching this thread with much interest ! Hopefully I can learn a thing or two

[Anissa]

Hi Rhi,

this is usually a quite difficult problem to solve since your dogs' behaviour is definately self rewarding for him (he seems to enjoy it ).

You have to ignoring it since every attention from your side will further reinforce the behaviour.

In which way have you trained your dog up to now? Positive reinforcement?

Cheers, Anissa

Edited July 10, 2007 by Anissa

[GotAnyBlacker]

My new foster boy does this occasionally. He is not a real barker at all but he loves to be loved and occasionally at night time (middle of the night) he barks for us to come and pay him attention. Sometimes I got up to see what he wanted, other times I ignored him and that seemed to work. I just moved him from his own bedroom to the lounge room and havent heard a peep out of him since.

[Rhi]

In which way have you trained your dog up to now? Positive reinforcement?

We have only had him for a few months and hadn't taken him to any classes until now but I definately say I was using positive reinforcement training, without even knowing it!

[SkySoaringMagpie]

We've started obeidence training, 4 weeks ago. At home we now make him earn every bit of attention he gets ie. 'sit' before we come out the door, 'wait' for dinner etc.

The increasing problem that we are having is his demanding of attention... it started out as whinging by the backdoor and has now progressed into barking, barking, barking some more. He barks along our fence lines when theres nothing there, coming back to the house proud as punch. If we are ignoring him or he can't see us he'll repeat the process over and over again.

His barking is strictly attention seeking, he knows when it's breakfast/walk/games/heater time. I've tried mixing his routine up a little but it's been hard. Besides pandering to his barking and/or ignoring him are there any other techniques people could suggest.

There is a bit of debate over whether it's good for dogs to have a routine, or whether it's good to mix it up a bit. I have a dog that does the "Yo bitch! Pay attention to me! Now!!" thing, and with her I mix up her routine because of that. The key message I want to give her is that I decide what happens, and there are no "entitlements".

With your dog, I bet he's not thinking "OK, those are the rules" he's thinking "alright, how do I get more of what I want?" That's not a bad thing, it's just how smart dogs think and act - you just need to be smarter

I have another dog who is much more biddable and inclined to be a bit insecure. With him, as he does not "Yo! Bitch!" me, I do give him a reliable routine.

It sounds from what you've written that your dog is usually an outside dog. Is this so? That will affect the kind of advice people give you - for example, we have a fence runner and if he barks, he is called inside immediately. He doesn't get attention, instead it's a negative because he doesn't get the fun of sassing the bull arab over the fence. If a dog is an outside dog and fence running at nothing, the treatment will be different.

[Rhi]

It sounds from what you've written that your dog is usually an outside dog. Is this so?

It is true that he is an outside dog but inside at night after walk/dinner/play time.

Dose anyone else have any tips that I could put in place, at the moment I am trying to mix up his routine and trying to randomise his rewards.

[leopuppy04]

My dogs will occasionally charge down the yard to fence pace and bark at our neighbours dog. The BEST thing I have found I can do (thankfully - they only do this when we are home) is to

1) recall them randomly when they are in the yard but being good - they get HEAPS of treats for coming the instant they are called. This helps me coz if they do charge off I can call them back and reward that.

2) if I do as above and they turn around to go back to what they were doing (thanks for the treat mum!).... I put them in their crates for 'time out' - not really as a 'punisher' but more as a 'settle down and stop being so ridiculous'!

I don't know if there is any background to this but it seems to work really well ;)

ETA:

does he have enough to do in the yard? I sometimes find that once training starts dogs can come a tad 'obnoxious' as their brain has been 'livened up' and they are now looking for things to do.....

What do you do when he behaves in this way (barking and such?!)

Edited July 10, 2007 by leopuppy04

[Rhi]

What do you do when he behaves in this way (barking and such?!)

I normally just try and wait it out but sometimes when he is really demanding I'll walk past the window but completely ignore him and wait for him to settle.

When he won't settled down I'll recall him, make him sit and make eye contact for 10 secs before praising him. This does seem to work but that means he got what he wanted... my attention.

It's a toughy, I know...

[Anissa]

Hi Rhi,

the problem is that your dog enjoys the barking itself so you can't remove the reinforcer in this case which makes it REALLY difficult.

What you can try is to for example give a kong for play filled with yummy stuff, so you can leave hin outside for maybe 10 mins and he will be busy with his kong. You will have to carefully watch him and just return before he is finished and reward him for being quiet.

Additionally you can start to train the "stay" so that your dog learns to be "left behind".

Edited July 11, 2007 by Anissa

[Hoochie Mama]

I myself would ignore him, if you go to him everytime he barks, he will know that whenever he wants your attention all he has to do is bark and you will come running. They're not dumb

Same thing goes for people who own cockatoos that squawk

[Rhi]

Hi Rhi,

the problem is that your dog enjoys the barking itself so you can't remove the reinforcer in this case which makes it REALLY difficult.

What you can try is to for example give a kong for play filled with yummy stuff, so you can leave hin outside for maybe 10 mins and he will be busy with his kong. You will have to carefully watch him and just return before he is finished and reward him for being quiet.

Additionally you can start to train the "stay" so that your dog learns to be "left behind".

Thanks, If i could bark I'd probably think it's fun too. I'll give your suggestion a go, learning to 'stay' is going to be taught at his later obedience classes... Peanut butter kongs, he's going to get fat

[Anissa]

Thanks, If i could bark I'd probably think it's fun too. I'll give your suggestion a go, learning to 'stay' is going to be taught at his later obedience classes... Peanut butter kongs, he's going to get fat :p

You just need an opportunity to reward him, so maybe a good distraction will work.

[leopuppy04]

Hi Rhi,

the problem is that your dog enjoys the barking itself so you can't remove the reinforcer in this case which makes it REALLY difficult.

What you can try is to for example give a kong for play filled with yummy stuff, so you can leave hin outside for maybe 10 mins and he will be busy with his kong. You will have to carefully watch him and just return before he is finished and reward him for being quiet.

Additionally you can start to train the "stay" so that your dog learns to be "left behind".

Thanks, If i could bark I'd probably think it's fun too. I'll give your suggestion a go, learning to 'stay' is going to be taught at his later obedience classes... Peanut butter kongs, he's going to get fat

I'll just further add to this - when he is inside with you - do you give him time alone? Perhaps set up a crate and do the same thing - reward the quiet non-attention seeking behaviour.

If you find the Kong and other interactive toys are working, then you can also build on this too - stick him out for 10 mins (of quietness) and then produce the Kong only to leave him out an extra 10mins after the kong is finished and reward still for being quiet. Never let him in/ go to him if he is making a racket! Of course -

Anissa's steps need to be done first mine is just something you could build on

[Rhi]

Anissa's method is starting to work slowly but surely. (reward when quiet ignore when noisey, change up rotine)

but the neighbours have complained about his barking when we are not home...

What do people think... would a DAP or ultrasonic collar also aid my training in this situation?

ETA: I think he is to intelligent for a citronella collar, he'd quickly learn to trun his head.

Edited July 19, 2007 by Rhi

[Steve K9Pro]

What do people think... would a DAP or ultrasonic collar also aid my training in this situation?

ETA: I think he is to intelligent for a citronella collar, he'd quickly learn to trun his head.

K9: In my experience Ultra Sonic collars have a very low success rate, under 10%. DAPs are not for barking for attention problems.

Citronella is a poison so I would steer far from that but you can look here, we hire these also..

[miccar96]

I myself would ignore him, if you go to him everytime he barks, he will know that whenever he wants your attention all he has to do is bark and you will come running. They're not dumb

Same thing goes for people who own cockatoos that squawk

Same thing goes for people who own cockatoos that squawk

Ha Ha yes that so funny.....

My inlaws are feeding a few wild cockatoos that come to their garden.

The cockatoos have got them well trained.

If they are not fast enough with their food the cockatoos will start eating on the wooden window frame, squawk, knock on the window with their beeks.

My inlaws will even get up from the dinner table to feed them......

[Rhi]

While I thought my techniques of NILIF and ignoring him was starting to work. He just won't give up! I refused to let him inside last night so he barked for 3 hours and 1 hour this morning before work... obviously this is not a good thing. So much so that we got our Council complaint in the mail today.

The neighbours have spoken to us before but the situation hasn't changed much and can understand their complaint. He barks all day and ALOT when we are home.

So I've got two weeks to shut him up before the council takes it's next level of action.

I've contacted Bark Busters and they are willing to come at the drop of a hat (providing I pay the absorbent fee). I've been reading other peoples posts on ecollars, I think that this might be the way to go. He is too intelligent for Ultrasonic and I don't want to use Citronella.

I just need help...

[Erny]

Rhi - I can't help but recommend a behaviourist come out to you if only to assess the situation to ensure that the cause of your dog's barking is only attention seeking and not something that is based in anxiety.

I don't know of anyone in Adelaide that I could recommend, but if you PM K9Force, he might know of someone he could recommend. He'd also be able to talk to you about anti-bark collars.

In the meantime, can you keep the dog inside, at least at night time and very early morning, for the neighbour's sake?

Let the Council know that you are sorting out getting a behaviourist to see you and taking steps to address your dog's barking issues.

Also let them know once you have sourced a behaviourist and when the appointment is for.

This will help you in reducing some of the pressure you feel from the Council.

If your relationship with the neighbours is amicable, let them know too .... as well as any intermediatary steps you are taking to try to reduce the annoyance (eg keeping him indoors through the night).

[poodlefan]

OK, standard question here.

How much mental and physical stimulation does your dog get each day? For how long is he trained and exercised outside your yard?