Quote:The thing with this dog is, she times it. She does it when she KNOWS I don't have the time to apply certain techniques.
Smart little thing. But you are making excuses as to why this behaviour has been allowed to happen and continue. I mean, nobody would think of making excuses about their dog not being housebroken, "because I didn't have time to keep taking her out". We structure our days and our life-styles to ensure that our dogs DO get the training they need in their early stages, whether it be housebreaking, jumping up, or inappropriate barking.
Does Della bark at other things, noises, etc, when you ARE around?
Because if she does, then you can start working on a "quiet" command. Just yelling, as many people have found out, means nothing to them. Giving a specific command with a specific action associated with it does mean something to a dog that has been taught to associate a command with a specific action.
I taught Keeta the "quiet" command by holding her muzzle shut and praising and rewarding like crazy when she was quiet. Of course, at first, they have no choice but to stop barking if their muzzle is being held shut, and it takes a while before they make the association between the barking and the word.
You progress from holding the muzzle shut, say quiet, and reward, to :
Hold muzzle shut, let go for a second, say "quiet" and reward! yeah!
Hold muzzle shut, let go, say quiet, wait THREE seconds, gradually more time, reward with lots of praise, petting, positive attention for being QUIET.
Be ready to drop everything and anything to re-inforce the quiet command, even walking away from phone calls, meal preparation, whatever, and I even got up out of bed at night to re-inforce and reward the "quiet".
After a while, you don't need to hold the muzzle shut, but you still need to be there physically to re-inforce the command and hold the muzzle in case your dog is blowing you off.
This took about two months of constant, concentrated, consistant effort, but I now have a dog that quiets on command, no matter the circumstance or situation. I see it as house-breaking: a lot of work initially to set up positive and reliable behaviours for long-term benefits.
Now, if she ONLY barks when you are out of sight, and stops as soon as she hears you walking towards her, that would be a bit tricky. What if she hears you walking towards her, and she stops, and you start walking away again?
With Keeta, I set up situations where she thought I wouldn't be able to do anything, and surprised her by showing up anyways! Like she learned that she could bark when I was in the shower.
So, I gave myself EXTRA TIME, and pretended that I was taking a shower, ran the shower and everything, waited for her to bark, and lo and behold! Here I am, enforcing a "quiet" command!
If you know that you won't have time to work on teaching and re-inforcing, then get Della to come with you, have her in the bathroom with you, crate her for a sec, and so on.
As I was saying in my examples, it didn't matter what I was doing, where I was in the house, (even in bed!), whether I had time or not, I would rush to her as soon as she started barking at something, and go through the "quiet" routine. I was never angry or punitive in my way of dealing with this, always matter of fact.
Della is still a baby, my focus would be to teach and shape behaviours, not use corrections.
