Dutch Shepherd Forum

My Sugar has turned into quite the watchdog, and will bark or growl when she sees someone coming up to the house, or walking by on the street, and she is so focused on them that the only way I've found to get her to stop barking is to go in between her and the window and tell her to move away (or when whoever she is barking at goes away). I would like to be able to use a verbal command to get her to stop barking and to relax, but don't know what else to do to get her to shift her focus onto me at these moments, or to let her know, "thanks, you've done your job to let me know someone is here, you can stop barking now".

This started when she was housebound with her broken leg and I thought maybe it was pent up energy, as she wasn't getting physical exercise for over 6 weeks, but she is now getting plenty of exercise and still the barking (although slightly less then before).

So if anyone has some suggestions on a) getting her to understand "quiet", but probably more so, b) getting her to stop being fixated on whatever she is seeing, I would be very appreciative!

Thanks!

How old is Sugar now?

I introduce the command "enough" with my dogs. I acknowledge that I have noticed the source of their barking and tell them "enough" and correct the barking after that word. (by making them focus on me, mostly by means of a leash or a collar grab)

Sugar is 8 months now. Sometimes she will stop when I acknowledge her barking, but sometimes she is so intensely focused that I have to drag her away. During those times, she won't respond to leash corrections, she is so fixated on whatever she sees. I have such a hard time getting her to shift the focus onto me.

I use "enough" as well. or sometimes a "HEY" LOL. Sadie is the same way, When she is outside she barks at everything that moves. She is getting better on her own now that she sees some things arent a threat. In the house i use "enough" and go over and hold her mouth closed, Thalie does the same thing, she will go over to Sadie and put her mouth over Sadies mouth.

I taught Gwen to "be quiet" I would throw food at her when she was standing quietly. After a few hours of just rewarding the behavior I wanted then I added the command. You have to be careful with this one because then Gwen would go to the door and bark a few times and then come lay down and be quiet..... If you have good name attention then breaking the focus shouldn't be so hard. I would practice attention exercises with her also. I have had some issues with Gwen barking when someone new comes in. I used collar pressure slowly increasing until she was quiet and released the pressure. She is learning how to bark when I tell her she can, we are starting protection work and she doesn't get to make the decisions about this kind of stuff anymore.

Sugars Mom wrote:Sugar is 8 months now. Sometimes she will stop when I acknowledge her barking, but sometimes she is so intensely focused that I have to drag her away. During those times, she won't respond to leash corrections, she is so fixated on whatever she sees. I have such a hard time getting her to shift the focus onto me.

If she does not respond to leash corrections, I guess we must assume that the correction is not firm enough.
At that age, there is no way that a dog will ultimately ignore you, but yes, you may have to counter the outside stimulance with some firm demands on your behalf. In other words, there has to be a consequence to her not acknowledging you. Build the wanted behavior under less demanding circumstances, so there is a good understanding of what you are asking. Then, when the outside stimulus overwrites the given command, you can up your bid and enfoce the command, followed by immediate praise, of course, when the dog complies.

Thanks everyone.

I'm leary about using food as a reward to get her to stop barking. When I was teaching her "leave it" I would reward her with food, and I swear she started taking things so she could drop it and get food! Little smartie pants!

With the leash corrections, when she escalates to the fixation stage (which can be in an instant) I will give her a quick tug and I've experimented with how hard I can go, and I can get to a pretty hard tug that I feel it would be abusive if I went harder, so that isn't getting her attention or being effective. I'm telling you, she can be fixated and obsessive! I've tried standing in front of her or putting my hand in front of her eyes to break her focus and she will just try to move her head to try to maintain her eye on whatever has got her attention. It's like I'm not even there. Of course, at this point, asking her to look at me is just setting us up for failure. What kind of consequence do you mean for not acknowledging me? I'll keep on with the backing her away from the window, as that works, and I guess eventually she will get the point and it can become just a verbal command.

I'm continuing to work on the eye contact exercises in general, as obviously the more I can get her to pay attention to me, the less attention she is paying to the stuff I don't want her to, or what's around her. I guess it will just take time and consistency.

I can try holding her mouth closed as well and see what happens.

BTW, sometimes she does this quiet little woof that is REALLY cute and I don't mind it at all...it's kinda like this laid back "hey, there's something out there" woof. Its adorable!

Sugars Mom wrote:Thanks everyone.

I'm leary about using food as a reward to get her to stop barking. When I was teaching her "leave it" I would reward her with food, and I swear she started taking things so she could drop it and get food! Little smartie pants!
I can try holding her mouth closed as well and see what happens.

BTW, sometimes she does this quiet little woof that is REALLY cute and I don't mind it at all...it's kinda like this laid back "hey, there's something out there" woof. Its adorable!

I hear ya about the food rewarding. I did the food reward system for Sadie to "leave it", she would leave it alone, come to me for the reward, go back and touch her nose to it then come back for a reward, like "look ma, i didnt take it" so now when she outs i give her a very excited petting.

they do have cute sounds dont they. What about putting a harness on her for the barking corrections? I had a harness on Sadie for a while early on and it was better than a collar, i could grab the harnes and lift her and get her attention easier

Sugars Mom wrote:What kind of consequence do you mean for not acknowledging me?

If you have a high drive dog, or just a dog bred out of working lines, you will need to be prepared to be in charge. Setting your own mental limits about what is and what is not abusive is going to be counterproductive. I am not suggesting abuse, but if you get no reaction after a correction, then the correction simply was not firm enough.
If you told your kids to go to bed, and they don't, do you think they would -eventually- comply if you just kept asking, without consequences for the denial of the request? Soon, they would do as they liked, and you would have no more arsenal to call the shots. When trying to correct unwanted behavior in dogs, it is not a matter of just rewarding the wanted behavior, but also the willingness to attach consequences to unwanted behavior. Dunno. Maybe take the Iphone away?

vneerland wrote: Dunno. Maybe take the Iphone away?

NOOOOOOO not the IPHONE!!!!!!!!!!!!

Good points. You're right...I'll consider taking the iphone away

Sugars Mom wrote:Good points. You're right...I'll consider taking the iphone away