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One: Not all barking is bad.
If a dog walks past my house, my dogs will bark. Since dogs can't
express themselves any other way, this is what they do. They may be greeting the passing dog. They may
be notifying me (their leader) that a dog is passing by. They may be warning the dog to stay away or they
may be trying to drive the dog away. You can see that not all of these barks reflect negative behavior.
Too often people judge all barking to be bad. However if the barking is too frequent, it may bother my neighbors.
Dogs have rather subtle body language and can threaten other dogs in ways that are difficult to spot. A strange dog can give my dogs the "evil eye" all the while his owner is unaware of what is going on. My dogs certainly have the right to stand up for themselves. But in this case the barking dog gets blamed and often is given a harsh collar correction or shocked with an anti-bark collar. This will teach my dogs that when they see another dog, they are going to be hurt. This often exacerbates the problem because my abused dog will try to drive off the other dog before I spot that sinister, threatening dog. Also read "Misbehavior due to Fear."
Related to this is the fact that my dogs want some space just as I do. My Yorkie particularly wants three feet of space around himself and will bark if another dog crowds him. It is my job to protect my dogs from these sorts of threats.
Two: What should a person do?
I'm no expert on this, however I would like to make a couple points.
"No" seems rather vague to me. Does "no" mean that the dog has done something very bad (a correction)
or does it mean to stop doing something (a command) and if is is a command, then stop doing what? The
answer is more obvious to some dog trainers than it is to me. Taking this a step further, some trainers
make a difference between "no" and "stop." One (don't ask me which) means stop doing what you are doing
and don't ever do it again because it is bad while the other means stop doing what you are doing because
I don't want you to do that right now. In actuality, the fact that you are 100% consistent in prohibiting
a behavior will determine whether or not your dog perceives this to be a totally prohibited behavior.
I would much prefer to take a positive action. I look out the window and thank my dogs for warning me.
This is what my dogs expect me to do. If their barking continues, I tell them to be quiet and I try to distract
them. I give a few commands in rapid succession, "sit," "down," "stand." I will be sure that my dogs know I have
good treats in my hand.
Finally, I chew out my dogs in a calm tone of voice: "You guys know that dog, aren't you ashamed of yourselves
for making such a big fuss?" I believe that yelling at the dogs just makes them think that I am joining in with
them - we want less noise, not more noise!
If the problem is a social problem as described in paragraph two above, I move out of the path of an approaching dog. I look ahead and plan for this. If I am in a confined area, I step between my dogs and the offending dog. I once kicked a dog right in front of his owner and the owner never said a word. Once I picked up a dog by the skin on his back and threw him away. Then I stayed between him and my dogs.
Sometimes dogs bark at well behaved dogs. A program of desensitization can help. Get a friend to walk his dog in a field. You walk your dog along a parallel line and gradually decrease the distance. Associating more with well behaved dogs will work wonders. Best of all is when both dogs can be off leash - in a tennis court, perhaps.
On occasions my Yorkie carries on with barking that is totally uncalled for. On these occasions I often use a "shaker" can. This does work well.
Three: Protective barking.
This is a tough one. Most owners want a watch dog but don't want him to bark at the wrong people. I find that my dogs are not triggered by extraneous noises when they are in the upstairs bedroom with me. This works fine because I enjoy their company.
Four: Conclusion.
Well as I said, I am no expert; sometimes my dogs stop barking and sometimes they don't. But the reason I wrote
this page is that so many people apologize when their dogs are merely saying "Hi." What I am stressing is the
importance of understanding what your dog is saying.
This could be extended to growling also. Dogs growl to threaten, to warn, to say "No," in play, and even
on occassion because they are happy! Two examples of this: Bruno rolls on his back on the grass and growls away
because it feels so good. When Lynn comes home, the dogs get really excited. Jack howls while Bruno cries.
Recently Bruno worked a growl into the middle of his crying!
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