We Tried, But It Didn't Work

[Wolfiesmom]

Wolfie has a problem with this little dog that lives on our street. The owner and the dog walker were taking this little male dog in front of my house and letting it do it's business there. The dog is a Maltese mix. It was driving Wolfie nuts, seeing this dog do it's business in front of our house. It made him bark and hackles up, while he was looking out the window. He even had to go right out front and mark his territory again after the dog left. Both Wolfie and the little dog are intact males. The little dog also barks at Wolfie. I asked the dog walker and the owner to please take the dog up the street a bit and not stop directly in front of our house. It helps somewhat, but he still goes nuts when he sees the dog go by. The dog walker and I got together and introduced the dogs in hopes that it would calm the situation down. Wolfie was all for it, trying to play with the little dog, but little dog was so afraid of Wolfie that he kept trying to run away. That kicked in Wolfie's prey drive, and it turned into a case of a terrified little dog being chased by a big GSD. We tried it again another day, and the same thing happened. As soon as Wolfie bent his head down to sniff, the little dog screamed and tried to run. I am not trying to get all friendly with these people, so it really doesn't matter to me if the dogs get along or not. The goal was just to calm the barking situation. So now I am working on making Wolfie sit and not bark when the dog goes by the house. I put him in a sit, and hold his collar, telling him no barking every time he starts. So far, it seems to be calming him a little, but you should hear all the "talking" and complaining that goes on instead of the barking. Any other ideas how to calm the situation would be welcome.

[GatorDog]

Any time that I try and hold my dog back, the situation escalates. In protection training, we sometimes hold him back to sort of amp him up for bite work. Is Wolfie food or toy motivated? I would try using one of those things as a reward for good behavior every time that dog walks by. Just do some basic obedience commands with his favorite yummy treat or favorite toy to refocus him as the dog walks past your property. Maybe his owner could possibly help you practice a few times each day.

I have also had a lot of success using the "look" command. When I know a distracting person or dog is possibly going to get Aiden going, I can either have him "look" at me while we heel past them, or have him sit and "look" at me when in the house, store, or anywhere else where I would rather have his attention on me than another dog.

If worse comes to worse, you could always try a squirt bottle with water. My dog hates it and if he's too far gone into prey drive, a nice squirt to the face can always break him out of it. =p

[MaggieRoseLee]

I think you may be muddying the waters with the 'doing his business in my yard' and the 'both dogs are intact' and the 'little dog' stuff.

Cause I don't care if it's a cat or a dog or a deer or a dog pooping in my yard IF what I am saying the issue is is 'My dog won't stop barking'.............

then the issue is

MY DOG WON'T STOP BARKING

Which truthfully, once I remove all the contributing crap I'm using as an excuse for the barking (small dog, barking dog, eliminating on my yard, both dogs intact) is a very very very simple issue. And the problem is 100% my dog/my problem my training.

Quiet means quiet. Period. I don't care if my dogs bark initially to alert/alarm me. But once I check out the issue and say it's ok. It is. Not my dogs 'job' to think they continue to bark and get into a hysterical mindset cause they can IGNORE ME.

This really is just a 'quiet' command that a dog has learn has no meaning. Or a dog that has learned to ignore their owner.

Just really upping the dogs general exercise to help with the easiness to get into the Land of Hysteria will be a huge help. Then general training classes to regain the leadership role in the house. Cause if you can't call your dog of the barking hysteria there are MANY commands that are being ignored by your dog. A 'come' would stop the barking (if the dog came) a 'Quiet' would stop (if the dog quieted) a 'sit' should slow/stop the barking (if the dog sat) a 'down' would slow/stop the barking (if the dog went 'down').

Once our dogs have gone crazy, there is no training going on. We need to learn to train our dogs with distractions before it's over the top. Starting with distance and setting our dogs up to succeed and learn our leadership role in their lives.

I know I go to dog classes for as long as I have to go to dog classes. And they are NOT about the perfect sit for me, though I will get that perfect sit. It's about the LEARNING that goes on, the teaching, giving me the skills I need in a new and challenging environment full of other dogs and people but more controlled. So my dog learns to look to me for guidance in class, then I go home and do the 'homework' and my dog also learn to get guidance in the real world and that includes my house.

[Wolfiesmom]

Good suggestions, I like the Look command. Wolfie LOVES the squirt bottle or the hose or anything that squirts him.

[MaggieRoseLee]

Surprise Party - Clicker Training: helping the reactive dog - YouTube

Surprise Party - Clicker Training: helping the reactive dog - YouTube

[Wolfiesmom]

I never did the quiet command. I want him to bark to alert me, or to ward off potential intruders. We have had a lot of crime in the area in the past year. I was hesitant to quiet him because I wanted the barking and didn't want to confuse him. I realize that maybe I was wrong, and he can be selective in not barking at other dogs. We are working on it. I will try teaching the quiet command. We have been through beginner and intermediate obedience and passed both. He does come when called,he sits when we say sit, and down also, but is still barks while he's following his commands.

[GatorDog]

I had a problem with Aiden in Schutzhund where I would bring him in for protection and he would begin to screech uncontrollaby. I used to use a prong collar, but a correction on that type of collar only elicited another serious of screeches. I switched to a dominant dog collar from for protection and, with direction from my trainer, applied steady upward pressure on the collar by pulling slowly and straight up with my leash, accompanied by the "quiet" command. Then the very second that he was quiet, he was rewarded. Then we just gradually increaaed the length of time that he had to stay quiet for. He picked up on it incredibly quick. He's not longer called the "leaky dog" at club =p

[Packen]

Originally Posted by MaggieRoseLee

I think you may be muddying the waters with the 'doing his business in my yard' and the 'both dogs are intact' and the 'little dog' stuff.

Cause I don't care if it's a cat or a dog or a deer or a dog pooping in my yard IF what I am saying the issue is is 'My dog won't stop barking'.............

then the issue is

MY DOG WON'T STOP BARKING

Which truthfully, once I remove all the contributing crap I'm using as an excuse for the barking (small dog, barking dog, eliminating on my yard, both dogs intact) is a very very very simple issue. And the problem is 100% my dog/my problem my training.

Quiet means quiet. Period. I don't care if my dogs bark initially to alert/alarm me. But once I check out the issue and say it's ok. It is. Not my dogs 'job' to think they continue to bark and get into a hysterical mindset cause they can IGNORE ME.

This really is just a 'quiet' command that a dog has learn has no meaning. Or a dog that has learned to ignore their owner.

Just really upping the dogs general exercise to help with the easiness to get into the Land of Hysteria will be a huge help. Then general training classes to regain the leadership role in the house. Cause if you can't call your dog of the barking hysteria there are MANY commands that are being ignored by your dog. A 'come' would stop the barking (if the dog came) a 'Quiet' would stop (if the dog quieted) a 'sit' should slow/stop the barking (if the dog sat) a 'down' would slow/stop the barking (if the dog went 'down').

Once our dogs have gone crazy, there is no training going on. We need to learn to train our dogs with distractions before it's over the top. Starting with distance and setting our dogs up to succeed and learn our leadership role in their lives.

I know I go to dog classes for as long as I have to go to dog classes. And they are NOT about the perfect sit for me, though I will get that perfect sit. It's about the LEARNING that goes on, the teaching, giving me the skills I need in a new and challenging environment full of other dogs and people but more controlled. So my dog learns to look to me for guidance in class, then I go home and do the 'homework' and my dog also learn to get guidance in the real world and that includes my house.

Excellent post. Like someone once told me "If you take care of the big picture the little things fix themselves" or conversely if you chase the little things all the time the big picture does not change, until you figure it out.

In your case you need control. It is an extremely common issue but problem is that everyone starts working the small picture and ignores the big picture!