Barking

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nicola_g

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My JRT puppy is now nearly 6 months old and is in general well behaved both in the house and out walking.

However we now have a BIG problem in that whenever he is outside at home (alone or accompanied) he barks at anyone or anything that happens to be in the immediately sorrounding neighbourhood.

They are building a couple of houses by the entrance to our drive and the builders get barked at on a regular basis which I presume is just him guarding his territary and is not too much of an issue as he will eventaully come back when called in this type of situation.

The real problem is with my neighbours dog. He continually runs over and barks at the poor thing who is fenced in and doing nothing at all to prevoke him. He has enticed this dog to jump his fence a couple of times but when the other comes near him he screams blue murder. The poor lab just stands there looking really confused and I have even heard him whimpering whilst being barked at from the other side of the fence.

I can call him back or tell him 'No' (for barking) till I'm blue in the face and he won't pay a dammed bit of attention. If I try and go near to catch him he just runs around avoiding me and barking even more. It took me half an hour to get him back last night and I'm sure my neighbours are as sick of his carry-on as I am.

It's getting to the stage where I dread letting him out to pee.
 
If you can, try whenever you catch him barking to distract him with toys/ a game or even a treat if he comes to you when you call. Although he's a puppy, start working on getting him to come to call (use a long line to keep a hold of him if you need to at first) and give him a treat each time he does. If he learns that coming over to you means a game/treat etc it might stop him barking.
He probably thinks its all a game just now, which is frustrating for you.
 
As above, I was always told get the dog at close quarters, in a crate or box, and then to reward for NOT barking and ignore when she was - sounds like he is getting a rise out of you.

Water and clashing pots and pans did bugger all for us.

When using your voice - with us, Mum is quite highly strung and shrill, so when she told the dog not to bark, she was nagging and perpetuating the behaviour, it sounded like she and the dog were having a shouting match.

When I tell the dog to be quiet, it is low, firm, growly and more like a 'if you don't be quiet, you're for it!' kind of voice.
 
He is crate trained but the problem is he only barks when outside & in particular at the dog next door.

His stance while barking is very territorial and not fearsome. However he is terrified of the dog next door and runs home screaming on the odd occassions when he gets out and tries to play with him. In fact he is terrified of big black dogs in general and screams blue murder whenever he sees one - very embarassing in public places
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His recall is generally good but when he goes into these barking freenzies nothing seems gets through to him. We have been whistle training him too but he will even ignore the whislte when he goes off into barking at the dog next door mode.

Suppose the only solution is not to let him out in the garden off the lead at the moment and really reinforce his recall with positive experiences i.e, cheese which he looooves.

Hacking-Hack I totally agree that he is probably getting a rise out of me. Going to try the growly voice too as he seems to respond better to my OH when he is in one of his barking frenzies.

Incidently my OH works away and just left on Monday which is when the problem really seemed to esculate. My OH was at home for the first two months when we got him at 8 weeks and he was a bit disobedient for about a week after my OH went away last time too.

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^^^ There you go. Our female is a horror when I am away, totally plays my Mum up with barking, but when I am here I only have to shout once.

It's a bit of a good cop/bad cop thing and they see me as the disciplinarian.

Ours our outside too, which makes it harder, is there anyway you can construct a run or something so that he isn't nose-to-nose with the other dog?
 
my jack used to do this (she is now a year old) she did grow out of it. the darting off when trying to grab them is probably the most irritating thing.
i would stick him on a long lead, don't hold onto the end just let it trail. when he starts the barking, without making any eye contact or saying anything, grab the lead and pull him away into the house. then repeat. hopefully he'll get bored of it. pay lots of attention to him if he is out there and quiet
 
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