Barking.

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SonnysHumanSlave

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I have a 15week old Westie pup.

She brilliant in almost every way except the random barks.

I dont get it, she gets walked enough. Shes pretty much toilet trained now.
Just every now and then she'll bark, seems like for no particular reason.

She does bark if someones at the door etc.

however like right now kids are in bed its just me sitting here watching tv and shes barked at nothing. Doesnt even last long, just two or three woofs.

Its a little annoying as we live in a flat so would rather neighbours didnt start complaining.

So does anyone know why she might be doing this, and how to stop it?

Thanks,
 
What are you doing, when she is barking?

A good way to counter this is to teach her to bark, using a command like 'speak' then teach a command like 'quit' or 'stop' or 'quiet' so she knows the difference.

Make sure she has something to occupy her like a frozen stuffed Kong or a bone.

Bear in mind 'walks' at this age, are for socialisation, not exercise, tire her brain out, not her baby legs :)
 
Could she be bored, our LH pup will be 8months old later this month and every evening she likes to play, she has done this from her 1st day here. She is very vocal and her bark when she wants to play is different to someone at the door or wanting to go out to spend a penny. I swap her toys around so she always has something new to play with, I dont leave them lying around at other times otherwise they lose their appeal.
 
Oh it could be boredom, I was sitting on laptop, Kids have gone to bed, so theres no one to play with, you're right this probably is what it is.
How silly of me.
As for the training to bark and quiet. Im not sure how to go about starting this off, but plan to take her to some puppy training classes in a few weeks.
She is easy to train. She now does Sit, Down, and Up, and paw.
 
Your trainer should be able to help you, I was able to train it because my dog is very toy orientated, so wound him up with a toy, when he barked, used the command then rewarded with that toy.

The did it backwards again, asked him to be quiet, and rewarded with food when he was quiet and fed more, the more he was quiet.
You have to time it quite well so the dog doesn't learn how to 'work' you - I bark...I be quiet....I get food! BARK! But taught properly it is a useful tool IMO :)
 
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