Not 'nuisance' Barking, But Exaggerated 'territory' Ba

[cwm]

Not sure really how to approach this one. Our girl doesn't 'nuisance' bark as such, but when someone comes to the door she goes totally ballistic, and won't stop until they are well gone.

My husband works from home, and gets lots of couriers, so .. he gets a little annoyed by it, but isn't sure the best way to approach it.

Has anyone else had success in quietening down the territorial barker?

The trouble is, our neighbours' dog has taught her this one...

My husband is the 'quick fix' type..and of course wants to go to a collar.. i read that the citronella collars can cause allergies - and the thing is, she doesn't nuisance bark.. I would rather he try and 'train her'...

Maybe I need to a/ train husband, then the dog will be fine?

[leopuppy04]

Definitely try to train her

How about setting up a dummy system to get her used to the doorbell (ie: someone out there ringing the doorbell)

Have the doorbell pre-empt going to lie on a mat/ run into a crate rather than charging to the door instead.

[Erny]

As per the previous poster, training is IMO the way to go, especially assuming you would like her to bark when someone comes that shouldn't be there?

My avatar girl used to bark perpetually on the arrival of (eg) a tradesperson. Admittedly, she was sensitive to the verbal reprimand from me and that did help a lot, as did her obedience training skills which we were working on simultaneously. The higher level her obedience skills became, the more I could expect and the better and easier the 'exercise' became.

This is a summary of what we did :

Kal would bark, alerting me to the arrival of the visitor.

I would attach her lead to her collar (yes ... this meant the 'visitors' awaiting me had to wait a bit longer whilst I prepared my dog - if I knew they were coming and when I was more prepared in advance, but I'd otherwise ask them to hang on a sec whilst I dealt with my dog).

I would say "It's ok. Good girl. Enough."

If Kal barked beyond the word "enough" I would repeat it but more sternly (enough to break through her somewhat loud barking).

If Kal barked beyond the stern "enough!" I would bring her away from the gate/door and command a "drop". (It is more difficult for a dog to bark when in a drop position, although not impossible.) I would be standing on the lead in a way that Kal could not release herself from the drop position. Any barking that continued would receive a verbal reprimand from me.

I usually either called out to the visitor to come on in (or through, if we were outside).

Once the visitor was inside, Kal tended not to continue to bark, so from there it usually wasn't an issue. But she had other issues so I kept her on lead for that added control over the situation. If your dog is likely to continue to bark at this point, I'd recommend you keep her on lead as well.

As time went by, Kal began to understand the word "enough" more and more. And her obedience skills increased to off-lead control, including her drop/stay skill. So it became easier to establish recognition of the word "enough" and if she did not observe it on the first time around, I would call her away and command the drop, which she had to hold until I had allowed the visitor in. By this stage of training, her barking generally wasn't continuing so I was able to release her in progressively shorter periods of time.

Eventually (but not too far down the track) I was able to give the "enough" command and she would observe it, without needing to be commanded or placed to a "drop" position.

Naturally, every dog is an individual and I'm not suggesting the above in its exact format will work for you and you may need to physically correct if the verbal correction is not sufficiently effective to curb your dog's behaviour. But it might give you a bit of an idea for formulating your own 'procedure' that works for you.

If your OH is of the view that dealing with the dog before dealing with the 'visitors' is impossible and/or impractical, then I'd suggest something like the following alternative :

When someone arrives, the first thing is to put your dog into (eg) a crate .... out of the road where any barking can be ignored.

Unless it is likely to be reinforcing her barking behaviour, you can give her a treat for going to the crate.

Make this habitual - EVERY time, with a view that you are looking for her response behaviour to be that someone arrives, she automatically goes to her crate.

There is a trick I have trained that involves a dog automatically going to its mat at the sound of a door mat. But it takes time and consistency and when people are pressured to respond to the visitors who arrive rather than continuing with the training, it can be difficult to maintain to the point of reliability.

If your OH is insisting on using a collar such as an e-collar or spray collar he should understand a couple of things first :

If he's thinking about an anti-bark collar .... it might work (assuming the dog does not attach a negative to people arriving - this being my first and main concern). My second concern on that would be that IF it does work without any such negativity being attached by the dog, your dog may learn to bark at ANYONE, even if you would have preferred to have been alerted.

If he's thinking about a "remote trainer" type collar, it is helpful to the dog if the dog understands first what TO do .... and this harks back to "training". The e-collar could be employed using "negative reinforcement" protocols (which involve low stims). Once again though, it is about 'training' the dog to this, rather than it being an immediate "quick fix".

[cwm]

As per the previous poster, training is IMO the way to go, especially assuming you would like her to bark when someone comes that shouldn't be there?

My avatar girl used to bark perpetually on the arrival of (eg) a tradesperson. Admittedly, she was sensitive to the verbal reprimand from me and that did help a lot, as did her obedience training skills which we were working on simultaneously. The higher level her obedience skills became, the more I could expect and the better and easier the 'exercise' became.

This is a summary of what we did :

Kal would bark, alerting me to the arrival of the visitor.

I would attach her lead to her collar (yes ... this meant the 'visitors' awaiting me had to wait a bit longer whilst I prepared my dog - if I knew they were coming and when I was more prepared in advance, but I'd otherwise ask them to hang on a sec whilst I dealt with my dog).

I would say "It's ok. Good girl. Enough."

If Kal barked beyond the word "enough" I would repeat it but more sternly (enough to break through her somewhat loud barking).

If Kal barked beyond the stern "enough!" I would bring her away from the gate/door and command a "drop". (It is more difficult for a dog to bark when in a drop position, although not impossible.) I would be standing on the lead in a way that Kal could not release herself from the drop position. Any barking that continued would receive a verbal reprimand from me.

I usually either called out to the visitor to come on in (or through, if we were outside).

Once the visitor was inside, Kal tended not to continue to bark, so from there it usually wasn't an issue. But she had other issues so I kept her on lead for that added control over the situation. If your dog is likely to continue to bark at this point, I'd recommend you keep her on lead as well.

As time went by, Kal began to understand the word "enough" more and more. And her obedience skills increased to off-lead control, including her drop/stay skill. So it became easier to establish recognition of the word "enough" and if she did not observe it on the first time around, I would call her away and command the drop, which she had to hold until I had allowed the visitor in. By this stage of training, her barking generally wasn't continuing so I was able to release her in progressively shorter periods of time.

Eventually (but not too far down the track) I was able to give the "enough" command and she would observe it, without needing to be commanded or placed to a "drop" position.

Naturally, every dog is an individual and I'm not suggesting the above in its exact format will work for you and you may need to physically correct if the verbal correction is not sufficiently effective to curb your dog's behaviour. But it might give you a bit of an idea for formulating your own 'procedure' that works for you.

If your OH is of the view that dealing with the dog before dealing with the 'visitors' is impossible and/or impractical, then I'd suggest something like the following alternative :

When someone arrives, the first thing is to put your dog into (eg) a crate .... out of the road where any barking can be ignored.

Unless it is likely to be reinforcing her barking behaviour, you can give her a treat for going to the crate.

Make this habitual - EVERY time, with a view that you are looking for her response behaviour to be that someone arrives, she automatically goes to her crate.

There is a trick I have trained that involves a dog automatically going to its mat at the sound of a door mat. But it takes time and consistency and when people are pressured to respond to the visitors who arrive rather than continuing with the training, it can be difficult to maintain to the point of reliability.

If your OH is insisting on using a collar such as an e-collar or spray collar he should understand a couple of things first :

If he's thinking about an anti-bark collar .... it might work (assuming the dog does not attach a negative to people arriving - this being my first and main concern). My second concern on that would be that IF it does work without any such negativity being attached by the dog, your dog may learn to bark at ANYONE, even if you would have preferred to have been alerted.

If he's thinking about a "remote trainer" type collar, it is helpful to the dog if the dog understands first what TO do .... and this harks back to "training". The e-collar could be employed using "negative reinforcement" protocols (which involve low stims). Once again though, it is about 'training' the dog to this, rather than it being an immediate "quick fix".

Wow. Thankyou so much! This is exactly why I didn't want him to go to a collar... surely she should bark at certain times at strangers coming to her property!

Thanks again, I am going to send this over to him so he can think about it and put it into practice!

I'm looking at Kal and thinking she's ridgeback too??

[Erny]

I'm looking at Kal and thinking she's ridgeback too??

You're right .... she is RR. Bless her cotton socks - she's no longer with me and although it has been a couple of years since she crossed the rainbow bridge, I miss her very much. She was my very special girl.

But I am blessed now with Mandela - also a RR. A male puppy who is now 4 months old but thinks he's an adult .

And he is very much a vocaliser. So I might be coming back in here to remind myself of my own advice at some stage in the future .

Edited October 1, 2008 by Erny

[cwm]

You're right .... she is RR. Bless her cotton socks - she's no longer with me and although it has been a couple of years since she crossed the rainbow bridge, I miss her very much. She was my very special girl.

But I am blessed now with Mandela - also a RR. A male puppy who is now 4 months old but thinks he's an adult .

And he is very much a vocaliser. So I might be coming back in here to remind myself of my own advice at some stage in the future .

You have to love a talkative puppy! Ridgebacks do hold a special place in your heart. They're just so damn gorgeous. Thanks again for your help - makes fantastic sense, and should be easy to follow.

This is my beautiful one...