# Stop Barking



## HavTastic (Jan 9, 2016)

My 6 month old puppy loves to bark when I take her out for a walk. As soon as she sees someone approaching us she barks. I have tried to stop her from doing this by saying quiet and give treat when she is quiet. She will be quiet but after eating treat she barks again. Any tips on how to stop her from barking so much?


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## Laurmann2000 (Sep 12, 2015)

Following this. I'm a bit noise-sensitive so I'm really hoping for a dog that doesn't bark a lot but would love to hear solutions to this in case I run into the same problem.


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## krandall (Jun 11, 2009)

It sounds like she has trained YOu to give her a treat when she stops barking.  teaching a dog to "not" do something is MUCH harder than to teach them to DO something. I think this is a case where working with a local positive trainer a time or two could help you get your timing down, and learn some management strategies around WHEN she barks and WHAT she barks at, that are just impossible for us to really help you with effectively long distance.


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## mekdean (Nov 27, 2015)

Six months was a very barky age for Maisy, but she is doing SO much better now that she is eight months old. We had an interesting discussion about this a couple weeks ago:

http://www.havaneseforum.com/7-training-tips-advice/105545-warning-barks.html


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## Suzi (Oct 27, 2010)

My Zoey still will bark and she is 5 years old. My friend who has a lot of Havanese says she is protecting me. I've tried and tried . What is sad is people don't want to approach a barking dog and she has missed out on having people admire the sweet nice Havanese she really is. I stopped at a young age about 1 1/2 bringing her out much because I started working full time. I think the more you expose your puppy to strangers the better. If I have someone new in my life I asked them to get down to her level and take the time for her to get comfortable.She stops barking with in the first half a min or so. I say no bark and get her attention. I then have the new person put a hand out for her to sniff. I just say good girl and that's about it. I'm not sure if she is guarding me or just shy .
When she was a puppy I showed her and was around so many people and other dogs. She never did really like it and maybe was to shy to be involved with all that. 
A six mo old pup is turning into a adolescent and they tend to be a bit more aggressive and testier. I could never afford a personal trainer and I'm sure it would have helped. Try just a no bark and if it gets to much a bit of time out.


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## davetgabby (Dec 29, 2007)

Without knowing a little more of the history of your dog, it all depends on the reason for the barking. If she is barking because approaching people may concern her, it’s better that you give her a little more space from people, stand aside, and feed one treat after another while puppy sees the person. This teaches puppy that approaching people means yummies! And will also help her to learn more appropriate greeting behaviour too. However, if the barking behaviour is due to excitement and wanting to approach and interact it’s important that vital greeting skills be put in place now. Teaching her to sit quietly to greet and training human greeters will also be important. At this age, it may very likely be a bit of worry though so it’s important to get cracking on that work. May also be a good idea to get some help from a good dog trainer who can help prevent this behaviour from developing into more reactivity as she becomes more of an adolescent.


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## Zoe093014 (Jan 27, 2015)

Hmm, 
I never had that problem on walks, but I'm thinking that getting even negative attention, followed by a treat may make her think that she's doing her job by alerting you that there are people coming. Maybe don't give her any attention and just say a pleasant "hello" to the people, maybe chat, and keep on walking. With repetition it might resolve itself. It might just be excitement but eventually she may be desensitized to people passing. Just an idea.


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## HavTastic (Jan 9, 2016)

My puppy is a rescue from a hoarder. So don't know what she went through the first 5 months of her life. Her barking is more out of fear. When people approach her she barks and backs away. Once she get the courage to approach someone she will stop barking and let the person pet her. I think the idea of giving treats as people pass by is a good one. Hopefully this will treat her that passers by means yummies and she will stop.


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## davetgabby (Dec 29, 2007)

timing of the treats is important. or you will be rewarding the barking. If you find you are not making progress , I would recommend getting a trainer. If she doesn't take the treats she's over stressed and you need to increase her space. This really takes a professional in a lot of cases.


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## PaulineMi (Feb 5, 2016)

HavTastic said:


> My puppy is a rescue from a hoarder. So don't know what she went through the first 5 months of her life. Her barking is more out of fear. When people approach her she barks and backs away. Once she get the courage to approach someone she will stop barking and let the person pet her. I think the idea of giving treats as people pass by is a good one. Hopefully this will treat her that passers by means yummies and she will stop.


What a sad beginning your puppy had. Hopefully she can learn to trust. It's great that you're trying to help her.

As a youngster my Dobe was showing the beginnings of a fear period. It was barely noticeable but I could sense it. When I'd see a few people standing and talking I'd ask them if they'd continue as if we (dog and I ) weren't there. I'd walk around and in between them so my dog could see no one would bother him. We just stayed matter of fact at it. No coddling or reassuring...just passing through. The happy act occurred when we made it through each pass.

Another thing I did was stand in front of a Petco armed with tons of treats. (Petco people usually accepted a Doberman as non-life threatening.) I'd ask folks that were going in and out of the store to offer my dog some of the treats I had. We never got turned down. People would smile and talk, generally reinforcing the positive experience for my boy.

Best of luck with teaching your puppy that there is good in the new life you're giving him. Hopefully you can use your version of what worked for my guy.


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## TamaraCamera (Dec 27, 2015)

davetgabby said:


> timing of the treats is important. or you will be rewarding the barking. If you find you are not making progress , I would recommend getting a trainer. If she doesn't take the treats she's over stressed and you need to increase her space. This really takes a professional in a lot of cases.


Can you highlight again *when* is the right time to treat in this situation, to not reinforce the barking or *warning* behaviors? Having some similar things popping up now that Lincoln is 5.5 months - have an email in to our puppy class trainer (we finished class, but still keep in touch with him). But in the meantime, I want to make sure I am not accidentally reinforcing. Thanks!


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## krandall (Jun 11, 2009)

TamaraCamera said:


> Can you highlight again *when* is the right time to treat in this situation, to not reinforce the barking or *warning* behaviors? Having some similar things popping up now that Lincoln is 5.5 months - have an email in to our puppy class trainer (we finished class, but still keep in touch with him). But in the meantime, I want to make sure I am not accidentally reinforcing. Thanks!


Pixel went through a period of being very fearful of bigger dogs, after being charged by a Pit Bull. What we did was take her someplace where she could see other dogs FAR away from her. We would say, "Look at that!" and direct her attention toward the dog. When she looked we would immediately click and treat. As Dave said, you need to play around with distances a bit, because it's VERY important that when you start, you are far enough away that she can accept treats and not react negatively to the dog. With Pixel, we even did it in the evening to any dogs that came on the TV.

She'll probably never be totally blasé about bigger dogs the way Kodi is, but she now tolerates my son's Tree Walker Coonhound in the kitchen with her, and will eat treats sitting side by side with him.

This kind of desensitization is a long, slow process, though, and hurrying it can cause worse problems. As Dave said, it can really help to have a trainer or good behaviorist help you figure out your dog's comfort zone, an teach you how to progress without pushing the dog over threshhold.


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## davetgabby (Dec 29, 2007)

yes I would recommend a trainer too. you generally click and treat when your dog sees the trigger. and you can rapid treat while the dog takes tihe treats. If they don't take the treats , your too close and your dog is still stressed. Like we've mentioned this takes a professional quite often . If you decide to get help let me know and I can help find someone maybe.


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## TamaraCamera (Dec 27, 2015)

davetgabby said:


> yes I would recommend a trainer too. you generally click and treat when your dog sees the trigger. and you can rapid treat while the dog takes tihe treats. If they don't take the treats , your too close and your dog is still stressed. Like we've mentioned this takes a professional quite often . If you decide to get help let me know and I can help find someone maybe.


I did reach out to our puppy class teacher, who is a positive dog trainer and does teach about dog behavior, so am hoping he will come work with us in real-time.

After reading a few of your posts/responses on the topic on the forum here, I took Lincoln out for a walk. I realized I was jumping too far ahead to quickly, and also remembered something that happened about a month ago.

A month ago while walking, a larger, foster herding dog (on a leash) tried to step on Lincoln and then batted him in the face. While he didn't seem too phased by it and still seemed okay meeting other bigger dogs afterwards, I do wonder if that has some relevance, in addition to him hitting adolescence now and possibly another fear period.

Fast forward to today, after reading your information (and awaiting response from our teacher), I realized that while Lincoln sort of understood "quiet", he wasn't going to respond to that in the midst of a barking fit. So, armed with a bunch of treats, we went out for a walk. As we came up to something new (sound, person, dog, etc), I began treating him, as your info reminded me that I needed to help him have a positive association with new things again (much like I did when he first came home). We kept our distance initially, and while treating and saying "calm" or "it's ok", we got progressively closer. As we got closer and it seemed like he realized, I asked him to "look" (which he knows) before treating him, and then when he did that and I gave him the treat, I said "good quiet" and "it's okay." After we visit with any person or dog, I started giving him tons of petting and saying "Good visiting!" I also try to say "neighbors" when we see people we know.

I am sure the extra words aren't necessary, but just trying to say familiar terms to help him learn.

I'd be curious who in my area you'd recommend, so I may PM you, too. Thanks!


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## krandall (Jun 11, 2009)

Yeah, the extra words are not helpful... especially if he's having a hard time already... His mind just won't be able to take them in.


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## TamaraCamera (Dec 27, 2015)

krandall said:


> Yeah, the extra words are not helpful... especially if he's having a hard time already... His mind just won't be able to take them in.


I want him to learn to chill out when he realizes it's something he knows, or that I am aware of the situation. Should I just be using "quiet" as an all over command for stopping barking and chill out basically?


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## krandall (Jun 11, 2009)

TamaraCamera said:


> I want him to learn to chill out when he realizes it's something he knows, or that I am aware of the situation. Should I just be using "quiet" as an all over command for stopping barking and chill out basically?


The problem is that the type of barking you have described is beyond the dog's capacity to control. He is reacting to his fear/anxiety/over excitement he feels in these situations. NO command or cue is going to get him to stop once he is over threshold. You need to change his feelings about the encounter.


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## TamaraCamera (Dec 27, 2015)

krandall said:


> The problem is that the type of barking you have described is beyond the dog's capacity to control. He is reacting to his fear/anxiety/over excitement he feels in these situations. NO command or cue is going to get him to stop once he is over threshold. You need to change his feelings about the encounter.


Ok, so then it sounds like what I worked on with him today was right - treating him (to re-establish a positive association) and using a "look" command when approaching a situation that recently made him bark. The rewarding him for that and "quiet."

I took him out for a 2nd walk today, and again, no barking! Not at new dogs/people, the lawnmower, motorcycle, etc. As we would approach a new situation, he'd start to look at me before I even asked him to look. I always get give him a good pet and "good job!" after we visit with people/dogs, too.


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## boomana (Jul 9, 2015)

My older dog has always struggled with being protective and anxious, and was a barking machine on walks with people and other dogs, also teaching Lola that this was how to behave. Treating helped, but teaching him the "touch" command where he touches my hand when he starts getting stressed has been the biggest help. He's actually started doing it on his own on neighborhood walks. At the dog park, he gets very anxious when Lola wants to pay attention to another dog or the reverse, and had been going into hyper mode, barking at the other dog and/or humping her. I taught him to go for his frisbee instead, which often works. He'll still bark, but now ask for his frisbee rather than humping or becoming aggressive.


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## krandall (Jun 11, 2009)

TamaraCamera said:


> Ok, so then it sounds like what I worked on with him today was right - treating him (to re-establish a positive association) and using a "look" command when approaching a situation that recently made him bark. The rewarding him for that and "quiet."
> 
> I took him out for a 2nd walk today, and again, no barking! Not at new dogs/people, the lawnmower, motorcycle, etc. As we would approach a new situation, he'd start to look at me before I even asked him to look. I always get give him a good pet and "good job!" after we visit with people/dogs, too.


That was my point. Once he is no longer worried, tou won't NEED a "quiet" commNd. If you NEED a "quiet" command, he isn't ready to respond to it!


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