Help with a barking dog

TheBlackMoth

TheBlackMoth

Well-Known Member
Joined
12 October 2006
Messages
8,116
Location
Regency England
Visit site
As most of you know I have two JRTs - they are brother and sister.

The girl is the 'top dog' and the boy follows her lead.

Just recently she has started to behave differently. I suppose it's mostly since it's been warm enough to have the windows open.

She is barking at the slightest noise and I can't stop her. She has also started really attacking that cats. (We have 8.) She has often chased them - but they normally just turn round at look at her but recently she has started snapping nastily at them. She is also whining a lot for long periods of time.

It's got worse this week as my two daughters are away and I know she is unsettled by them not being here and the change in her routine as a result.

The problem is that every noise she makes her brother joins in and they are driving me insane.

Any ideas of what I can do.
 
4385308477_f1e6d9fc89_z.jpg


Here they are!
 
What age is she, is she neutered?

My female is very barky and I mean, insecure, hysterical barking, we have tried a number of things but those that work, are:

Isolating her from the things that trigger her barking (cats, people moving about the yard)
Using a loud, harsh noise (like banging on a window or me doing my best growly, shouty voice) to combat it.
Praising her in the silent times and ignoring her during the barking.

Anything high pitched and excited, like my mum saying 'stoppit shhh willyoubequiet enough' in an excited, high pitch fashion, just mimicked and mirrored her behaviour and made it worse.

But bear in mind yours is a very 'barky' breed :o

What do you do to reprimand her when she is nasty to the cats?

Personally I would use my voice and my body language and remove her from the area/room for both problems. Get tough! And reward calm behaviour with treats or a play or whatever does it for her.
 
She's 3 and she's not neutered - he is though. When she's nasty with the cats we put her in the hall to calm down for a bit. The trouble is that once she goes for them - he follows and once she starts barking - he does too.

If I catch her when I see her about to go for a cat I can stop her with the tone of my voice. They are not fantastically trained but they have good recall and will generally respond to voice commands. The problem starts on the chasing when I am distracted by reading or watching the tv and don't notice until she the cat starts hissing.

Sometimes we just lock the cats out of the living room and that helps - but they have lived together so well that I hate splitting them up.

The one thing she wont do is stop barking whatever I say or do and I think I am probably making it worse by not being consistent and shouting her name at her.
 
I'd maybe see about getting her neutered. My female is a stressy head and I know I keep saying this but I AM getting her done as soon as I have a few spare quid and I bet you any money she will be a lot happier and settled once there are a few less hormones floating around.

Don't shout her name! It achieves nothing apart from turning her off responding, positive or negative, and will wind her up.
Bella is my dog's name. It is not an admonishment for when she is barking. BELLA! Fine. When I want her? Bell-a! She will not respond because I have used it as an admonishment.

Put it this way, you may have to sacrifice a few days reading or watching telly, in order to keep an eye on her and be firm and consistent with her, likewise, having the concentration on when she is doing good things and behaving calmly, to praise her.
 
how about a skooshy bottle, when she barks, give her a squirt. Stop when she stops. It will quite quickly mean that you will just have to shake it or say 'where's the skoosh' to stop her. or anythime you squirt, say 'enough' and then soon you can lose the skoosher and just give the command.
Shouting is just sort of joining in with her and making her think it's ok to do it, if you can she can. If anything, i would use a low calm voice.
 
I growl :o

Just a thing though, if you have a clampet like mine, the skooshy bottles, banging pots and pans and the like just made her EVEN MORE EXCITED. But worth a try.
So agree, low and calm! :o The window thing is two strikes of the palm against the pane - waiting for the bloody thing to fly out!!!
 
I would herd her off for the barking, so when you hear her walk right in and behing her and walk her into an area that she will remain on her own as a time out, you need her to associate a negative with the barking and when she barks and she hears u coming she will know she is possibly being herded into the naughty area, mine rarely bark but if they start, I literally go to the back door and point to the doggy room, which mean you are going in, obs at one stage I would say "in" and point, now I jsut use a point and they shut up, if I want them to go in for the purpose of me going out say, I will go to the door and say "come on then" in a cheerier manor, or you could try a splash collar which will blast out air at her or some blast out citris, it does not work with all dogs but worth a try, the vet at work used one for her deranged barking terrier, and it worked.
Or as suggested a sharp lous deterrant, rape alarm, bike horn thingey:D obs make sure it at the exact time, again a negative associator.
Obs make sure they get enough exercise time and give her stimulating treats to keep her occupied, incase some of the behaviour is boredom.

The cat situation, well I would not mess about there she would get a smacked backside "leave it" in my angriest voice and would be forcefully removed, again if I have caught the dog tormenting the cat and it's a situation that could easily get out of hand and see your other dog joining in, which is very possibly you really need to show her that there is a consiquence for her action and it comes from you.
I would also keep her safely contained when you are not there, ie, away from the cats or crated, as she gets older she is obs capable of maiming the cat being a terrier, they seldom know when to give up.
Also may be worth having a radio on, as some of the noises she is naturally going to be barking, leave it on when you are out to drwon out some outside noise.
 
I will admit that I have given her a hard smack whenever I have caught her going after the cats.

The dogs are never left alone with access to the cats. They have their own room which has a sofa and a chair and lots of windows for when we are out and they are locked in one of our bedrooms at night.

They have a huge crate as well and are quite happy in it. They used to go in the crate when we went out but I felt they would be happier with more space. We rarely leave them alone for more than four hours. Obviously I am struggling with that whilst the girls are away for two weeks as I work full time. I am working from home as much as I can and some of the girls' friends are coming round and walking them during the day when they can - however, there has been one day where they were left for eight hours and there maybe one more in the next week.

I would love to use a loud noise of some sort as a deterrent but her brother is a complete wimp and tries to climb onto to my face every time something startles him. He is scared of his own shadow - whistles, bells, the go compare advertisement. So I have to tread a careful balance of managing Bunny without terrifying Mumble.

I will try the herding bit (I am a lazy cow and prefer to sit on the sofa) and I am being much more alert and trying a mix of positive reinforcement of good behaviour and shorter sharper responses to bad behaviour.

I have tried water - and stones in a bottle - she just looks at them then at me and then goes on doing what she was doing - she is a cheeky cow!

Thanks for the advice everyone - I will let you know how I get on.
 
I love the names :D What has worked for our gobby JRT bitch is firstly exercise, then more exercise and after that a bit more exercise. By the end of the day she would be too tired to haul herself off her bed for a burgler ;) but on the days she has more energy if she barks I call her to me, thank her for letting me know a sparrow just moved in the garden :rolleyes: and say thats enough now in a quiet calm tone. If she barks after that I say a firm Enough! for the first one and if she barks again she is sent to bed for a time out. I find it pretty effective and she rarely needs a second telling now but I don't want her to stop barking completely, I like a dog that barks if someone comes into the yard.

If I didn't want her to bark at all I would probably try one of those water spray collars (personally I feel the citronella ones are a bit harsh given how sensitive a dog's nose is)
 
That's it exactly. I want her to bark - but I want her to stop when I say so. We have been broken into four times in four years before we got dogs and had so much stolen. We haven't been broken into once since we got the dogs.

I am trying some focused attention - I think she might be a bit bored - particularly now the girls are away.
 
Ah well if she's bored......... have you tried playing hide & seek in the house or before you go out leave toys and treats hidden around the room they stay in, or a kong filled with yummy stuff. You can actually buy puzzles for dogs, never tried one but it may be better than her using the cat as a squeaky toy ;)
 
If you want her to bark then turn it into a game, when she is barking say 'speak' or something similar, then make it clear when you want it to stop, like 'Enough' or 'Stop' or 'Quiet'.
It's something that will need a little time and concentration and you might even want her to stay in the crate while you train it.

Agree, though, if she is tired mentally and physically, there will be much less 'nonsense' barking.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top