Excessive Barking

D

DaveFisher

Forums Regular
Our 9 month old little girl barks excessively and is becoming more aggressive when she barks. She lunges at vehicles, especially trucks, that go by on our walks and this behavior seems to be getting worse. She has not shown aggression towards any person.

She is our 9th Sheltie over 40+ years and she is the most vocal of any one we have had. She also is obsessed with the fence separating our back yard from our neighbors and spends a lot of time just staring at it, looking for something to bark at. An occasional cat or squirrel walks by on the fence and she goes nuts.

Also annoying is her outrageous behavior if we use our blender to make shakes in the morning or turn on our coffee machine. We literally have to keep her on a leash or take her into another room or outside to prevent her from jumping up against the cabinets when we turn these on. I am accustomed to any dog not liking some noises, like a vacuum cleaner, but her excitement at these appliances is out of control.

We are in a puppy training class at PetSmart but we have not covered barking yet in the class. Any suggestions anyone can provide will be most appreciated. I do not like yelling at her or yanking on her leash but I am out of ideas.
Thank you.
 
Some Shelties are easily stimulated to bark. I think the key is to redirect her immediately. Hopefully she is food motivated and you can hold some really yummy treats in your hand. When you see a truck coming get her focused on you and the treat, maybe put her into a sit. Mine will ignore anything for a treat. When she's calm give her the treats a bit at a time until the truck has passed. Same goes with the other machines she doesn't like. Or if she's not food motivated (hard to believe) you could try a favorite squeaky toy or ball, something she likes. Consistency is super important. Hopefully eventually you can fade the treats out.

As frustrating as it is, yelling or physical reprimand really doesn't work, positive reinforcement is key. You may need to reach out to a qualified trainer for some individual help. Good luck, they can be obsessive little dogs.
 
I have found that highly stimulated shelties need calm and positive reinforcement.Rasing your voice and yanking on a leash will usually just amp them up further.
I always have treats on my person to use for positive reinforcement.
I fully agree with Sharon 7 and the strategies that she uses. I hope you find a solution to your barking problem.
 
I agree with the previous posters, each dog has it's own personality and has it own way of dealing with stress. It is important that you remain calm, as hard as that may be, and be positive. Ours go after blenders and coffee grinders, vacuum cleaner etc etc etc. I often shut them into a separate room before I grind coffee and give them a treat when the go in- afterward let them back in and are positive with them but don't reward them. Mine will probably forever bark at the grinder etc so.. being calm, reassuring and letting them know all is OK and we are all safe is important. I hope your puppy trainer is good, this is a complex problem but you remaining unconcerned (i.e feel safe) about what ever is bothering the pup will help reassure her. They are like kids, each wired differently.. Good luck, reward the good behavior.
 
She sounds like an anxious but high drive adolescent sheepdog. This is very much what my Tully was like - I was pulling out my hair with the behaviour. I think Sheep of Blue on here was the one that coined the term 'Border Sheltie' and they do have the energy of a little Border Collie. The good news is that when Tully grew up she had the most beautiful nature - and she was the reason I got into dog training (I specialised in adolescents).

Some dogs go through a very difficult adolescence and dogs also go through fear period at this time, at this age their brains are rewiring so it might seem like she's not picking things up, but she actually is. It's why more dogs are surrendered at this age than any other time. So while she does need training to ensure the behaviour doesn't continue, it needs to be done carefully in case she's in a fear imprint period. The aggression is more likely to be from anxiety - she's opted for the fight rather than flight response. It may not seem like anxiety but this is how it shows up in dogs.

I'll have a longer think over the weekend - I know I've got other posts on here dealing with similar behaviour so I'll have to go through posts. In the meantime, some suggestions.

On walks try a head collar or front clipping harness so you have more control to prevent her pulling away to lunge at things (she will need a bit of training to get used to the head collar). Take a squeak toy on walks with you - a squeak noise cuts through their brain much better than a voice they hear all the time: and stop and have a little play with her on your walks so she learns to focus back on you, and also puts you back into the walk as someone more fun than barking at cars, and always have a few treats with you to keep her focus on the way - but only when she is calm. Before you head out with her do some focus exercises first - 'look at me' or even 'leave it' and other commands you are learning in class. This will switch her brain on before you start walking and have her focusing on you more, and you can stop along the way and do more commands. I recommend everyone with an adolescent or high energy dog switch on their brains before a walk.

With the fence - stop her getting near the fence, put things in her way. At this age you are better off just preventing her rehearsing the behaviour.

Teach her fetch. She sounds really high drive, just like my dear Tully was. Chasing a ball or donut toy (Tully loved her Air Donut rolling along the ground - like chasing prey) is going to tire her out more than you can.

All her meals should be given in puzzle toys. Use that food to tire out her brain and they love working for their food. Cheap options is to toss kibble out in the yard or get a water bottle and cut some kibble sized holes in it (smooth the edges) and leave the lid off. then she has to push it around to get the kibble out - there's probably commercial versions of this but I just made my own. For wet food use Kongs and other things you stuff or cover.

For barking at electrical appliances - such a common Sheltie thing, I'll look for my previous posts on controlled barking.
 
Pico has become bike reactive recently. usually only on partially enclosed bridges. He is on super high alert for them, looking behind him and peeping around corners. Motorized bikes are EVIL.
what seems to help is having him sit (he is very cooperative with sitting on command for this), and if I have enough time/warning, I squat behind him and put my arms partially around his shoulders. I don't wrap him in my arms, but I want him to know I am there. I tell him he is a good boy as the bike zooms by. He is usually really good and doesn't bark or lunge. occasionally he will let out a little bark. He is improving, it is just requiring patience and positive reinforcement.

The hard part is I don't always get enough of a warning to do this :( Bikes rarely alert/ring a bell here. Kids NEVER do and they are often on motorized scooters/bikes and go really fast. Unfortunately, kids use the bridge to get to school over a 30 minute period that I can't avoid, and so do people commuting to work.
 
I live along a country road so this may not work in higher traffic areas but from the get go I taught my dogs to move off the road and sit before a car would get to us and I would talk to them as it passes. This is now ingrained in them and they often move even before I ask them to. It keeps them focused on me and it seems to make them feel OK- I have no pulling or tugging when cars pass-- they do the same for bikes bbbbbuuut in high traffic areas this would defeat the purpose of the walk. I think distracting them. being patient and praise and treat any sign of good behavior. They are nervous and worried and they want to let you know...if you are calm that will help them as well. They don't do it to aggravate you, they can't help it.. Good luck.
 
With multiple dogs, finding a way to keep the barkers quiet is a constant challenge. They aren't all barkers, but they do learn from each other unfortunately. So I can't be much help there but you have some great suggestions here from others.

I do want to caution everyone though with a reactive dog on walks to be sure your dog is very securely restrained. Most harnesses aren't secure, nor are many collars. On two separate occasions recently, Misty has gotten away from me, first backing out from a harness I thought was secure and the second time from a collar. On both occasions she suddenly panicked -- once at a truck going by and the second going into the vet's office. It happened in an instant, so fast I couldn't even react when she ran. They were terrifying experiences and thankfully, I caught her both times after chasing her. Misty is a trained show dog making it even more unexpected. She will spend the rest of her life now when leashed in a martingale type choke collar.

The message here is always be prepared for your dog to react in unexpected ways if they're at all reactive or nervous. I was lucky, but there are a lot of lost dogs I hear about whose owners aren't.
 
Ann what kind of harnesses did you have? The ones I use I feel are really secure but maybe not I use these:
https://www.amazon.com/PHOEPET-Harn...407&sprefix=dog+harnesses,aps,139&sr=8-7&th=1

from Amazon. I know all of them can we wiggled out of but again mine have not really tried except at the very beginning when we started walking. I have seen dogs pull out of Martingales too, especially with lots of fur.. Scary stuff when they pull free because they are in a panic mode and no concern for anything except escape.. I would have been in panic mode too.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top