Stop Sheltie yapping??

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Sheltie.Mama

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So, my little Tarra yaps.. A lot! She yaps when the phone rings, when we turn on the vacuum, when we let the chair foot rest down, ect.
She yaps when she's outside too. I don't know how to get her to stop.. I give her a firm "No" and a "Hush" and she will be quite for about thirty second but then she will start up again. We are moving into a new house so I have to put her outside so she doesn't get in the way and get hurt. I put her outside "Yap Yap Yap Yap......" And every time with the other situations I say "No Hush" but then she does it the next time.. How do I get her to stop??:confused2:
 
Sounds like a typical Sheltie to me:smile2: I am sorry that I am not much of a help. Hollie was more of a yapper like you describe. She would bark at everything And she did it her entire life. We just adapted to it and learned to just expect it and ignore her. Whenever she would "yap" outside we would make her come inside, to her that was punishment enough as she loved being outside.

Shelby is not as much of a yapper but she does have certain things that make her bark (reflections, kids playing ball, going through the car wash just to name a few). Again we have tried to curb this behavior but have not been 100% perfected. If I am going to do something that I know will set her off I put her in a down stay, if she stays quietly she gets a carrot when released. If not she gets nothing. She learned quickly that if she obeys she gets a reward. When barking outside she must come in the house, again that is punishment for her. So now as soon as she hears me open the door she stops and looks at me as if she wasn't doing anything.

We can not for the life of us control the barking at kids playing ball or when in the car wash. It is not from lack of trying so we just try to avoid these situations. We close the curtains so she can't see out the kids out the window and don't let her out if they are playing. I think her instinct to heard the kids and the car wash is stronger than anything else to distract her.

Shelby is now 3 and it has been a long process of consistently rewarding when she is behaving and ignoring when she is not. We work on this every day. She has gotten a lot better as she matures.

I am sure you will get a lot of great suggestions from much more experienced members of this board. And actually I am very interested to see them.
 
I have to apologize as my answer is much like the above from Shelby'sMom. Bentley barks at EVERYTHING. We have not found a way to train him out of it, though I've heard that other people have been successful with their shelties.

We just manage it as best we can. For things I'm planning (vacuum, trash bag, etc.) I put him in a stay. He doesn't bark when he's in a stay, and then he gets rewarded when I'm done. It helps if my husband can monitor them when I vacuum.

We also close the blinds out front, and turn up the TV if people are playing outside.
 
corbinam said:
I have to apologize as my answer is much like the above from Shelby'sMom. Bentley barks at EVERYTHING. We have not found a way to train him out of it, though I've heard that other people have been successful with their shelties.

We just manage it as best we can. For things I'm planning (vacuum, trash bag, etc.) I put him in a stay. He doesn't bark when he's in a stay, and then he gets rewarded when I'm done. It helps if my husband can monitor them when I vacuum.

We also close the blinds out front, and turn up the TV if people are playing outside.
Click to expand...

My dog is the same as Ashley's Bentley. I've tried to train and still try to counter-condition her barking, but at this point, I mostly manage it.

For vacuuming, I give my dog a frozen kong or something that she can chew to occupy her. Sometimes I carry treats with me and she'll quietly follow me around. I'll randomly toss the treats at her for being well-behaved. If I don't manage her with treats or something to chew, she will bark at the vacuum and get in the way. So in this situation who has who trained? :wink2:

The phone and doorbell, I have no advice. They're a little harder to train because you can't predict when someone will ring your bell or call you. I've tried training by calling my cell and treating my dog, but she seems to know the difference from when we are training and when it is the real thing.

For something like the recliner, I'd probably keep treats in my pocket and toss them at my dog as I'm lowering the foot rest.

Good luck!
 
I think I am not going to be much help either. Shelties are both an active and reactive breed. If something catches their attention the first thing they do is let you know about it by barking. Training the predilection to bark out of Sheltie is like trying to train a person not to smile when something strikes them as funny. It can be done, but it's a long process with questionable results.

The type of bark depends on the situation. Our Franklin, the smaller of the pup, has a Napoleon complex. :wink2: If there is another dog around, they get the full baratone bark. A noisy appliance like a can opener or blender gets a yapping treatment for the duration of the noise. If Jackson has the toy he wants or if we close the curtains (yeah, closing the curtains ... still haven't figured that one out yet) we get a little yip or squeak.

My wife for year has (unsuccessfully) tried to get our Schipperke to ease up on the barking. I find that ignoring them works best, at least for my peace of mind. I can get them to stop barking *sometimes* by distracting them with something they like better than whatever got them barking.
 
Sorry, same here. Lexi is our barker. Vacuuming, dusting, noise from the neighbors..... You name it, she'll bark. The good news is Pyper is a very quiet sheltie. I'm surprised she didn't pick up the behavior from Lexi.

When Lexi gets really out of control, I put her on leash. If I hold the leash a few minutes, she'll calm down, then I can drop the leash, leave it on her and she usually falls asleep within minutes.
 
I do not like barking so my dogs understand my wishes:lol:
really some of it management, and some of it training
I do not vacuum with my dogs in the house, and I train them for the door bell and blender, Crate games work well with cover/ uncover crate system
We also live in quiet hood so I can train for outside distraction. Some dogs are just not going to be good candidates to live in noisy busy downtown and there is little one can do.
There is no magic answer I am afraid... The biggest advice for any dog´s behavior will be- if you did not like that behavior first time, make sure dog does not have a chance to repeat it again, makes your life much easier that way. For example if you dog sits in front of the window and barks at anything and everything every time.... like in a good theater performance,rehearsing makes it better and better:biggrin2: Barr the window, close the room, put heavy curtains, whatever it takes but stop the behavior.
Saying No or Hush really does not work, you might benefit from asking for specific task- like down or sit, fetch.
Getting busy with bones or stuffed kong, matching up pup´s energy with level of exercises helps.
Some of it you can minimize, look into Karen Overall relaxation protocol, it does work. Fired up frantic and freaked out book is great source IMHO
http://www.amazon.com/Fired-Up-Frantic-Freaked-Out/dp/0985934921
http://www.clickerdogs.com/crate_games.php
http://ebookbrowsee.net/full-protocol-for-relaxation-karen-overall-pdf-d15936209
 
take4roll10 said:
For vacuuming, I give my dog a frozen kong or something that she can chew to occupy her.
Click to expand...

My dogs are barkers also. For situations that happen infrequently, your moving for example, my strategy is to keep their mouths busy with something that they do not normally get, so that they are really excited about it, and that will hopefully take enough time. Frozen kongs are good. I also keep a supply of 12 inch bully sticks in. They rarely get them, but if I suddenly need a plumber, or whatever, I will use them. They don't last that long, but frequently, by the time they have finished the 12 inch bully stick and/or kong, they have decided that whatever is going on is not such a big deal. I feel that giving them a special treat when workmen are here is also my way of telling them it is OK. They typically take their bully stick and go sit someplace where they can see what is going on, and chew the bully stick, with just an occasional bark.

Good Luck
 
Thanks

Lol, I guess all I can really do is remove her from the situation. Lol.:lol: But thanks for the tips, I'm going to try them!
 
Shelties bark. The odds are you will not get her to stop. As others have suggested, the best bet is avoidance techniques. I have five Shelties and one has been a barker since the day he came home. His name, ironically, is Barkley.

Like yours, he barks at everything. The worst part is that he has taught most of my other Shelties, who did not come to us barkers, to join him. So be prepared...they do not seem to teach each other GOOD habits, but they sure do share the bad ones. :uhoh:

The most annoying to me is the phone. When there are several barking at the phone you can't even hear it ring, much less talk. After trying every solution in the book, I put a small jar of peanut butter by the phone with a rubber baby spoon. When it rings, I give each of them a tiny dab of peanut butter. They love it and can't bark because it's sticky. So now when they see the spoon, they stop (temporarily -- only if the peanut butter is forthcoming!) :rolleyes2:

Good luck!
 
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