BARKING

[aschlemm]

Help!

I love my 8 year old male Border Collie. He has three Rally Obedience titles and two Obedience titles. He is a great dog to work with. VERY high drive and loves to work! He is quiet around the house but when he is working and he is happy and excited (most of the time) he barks. Over the years I've tried many things from turning my back on him, putting him in a crate for time out, telling him quiet to recently trying a citronella collar (maybe a little better.) I've been told by trainers to simply show under judges that won't take points off for barking or to keep repeating the excercise until he quits barking (which would be simultaneous with dropping from heat exhaustion.) What do other people do? I feel guilty correcting him when he does it due to a love of working but that YAP YAP YAP!!! drives me nuts!

[highway61]

I have a 10 yr old heeler mix that can't play with my BC or any other dog without barking for some reason. And he has a real power bark so its not anything anyone wants to hear. I noticed that if I fold a newspaper or magazine and slap it hard in my palm making a loud pop it shuts down the barking but not the play. He doesn't like it so I guess it gives him a taste of his own medicine

[Sekah]

At 8 years old it might be difficult to change. I own a barker too, though thankfully the barking only rears its head during agility/flyball and not obedience. I've been told that silence needs to be part of your criteria from the beginning. So, go back to the very basics and re-train a heel, etc with this additional criterion. Consistency is key. Don't expect any results overnight. My guess is that it will take a great deal of time to re-train something like this, especially since barking is so inherently self-reinforcing.

[Root Beer]

So, go back to the very basics and re-train a heel, etc with this additional criterion. Consistency is key. Don't expect any results overnight. My guess is that it will take a great deal of time to re-train something like this, especially since barking is so inherently self-reinforcing.

 

A little "cheat" that could help you get a start with this could be to give him a bit of peanut butter before re-working these behaviors. It's tough for a dog to bark with a mouth gummed up with peanut butter.

 

I've used this "trick" a few times with dogs who are barky during my classes. It gives the handlers a chance to actually work with their dogs in class and get the idea that it is possible to work without barking. Obviously, you would have to build the "quiet" criteria beyond that, but it could give you a start.

 

It's quick and dirty, but it can work like a dream.

[aschlemm]

Update on my crazy barking BC. I am so grateful for the helpful ideas! The peanut butter worked somewhat but he'd still do a muffled bark, even while trying to unstick his mouth. What I ended up doing is hiding a rolled up newspaper, and the second he barks, whack it on my leg and yell "NO BARK!" The I'd stop him from finishing the exercise and restart. I noticed a difference immediately. He quickly went from 14-16 barks for a Utility run through to one. After making progress I gave him a week off. Last night I did a run through and one bark. I corrected him for that one bark and then he does the directed jumping without any barks. Wow! Lots of praise for that!!!!!

Now, I haven't had him at any show-n-gos and I'm sure I'll have to do a correction there but even if I get down to one bark when I take him to a trial I'll be thrilled!!!!!!!!

I guess all along I wasn't making it clear to him what was required. Now that he knows that "no bark" is part of the requirement of the exercise he is still a happy, working dog, just a much quieter one.

[CMP]

Awesome