- Do you have a dog that barks all of the time,
driving you nuts? (dogs barking)
In today's video, we're going to talk
about the three most common types of problem barking,
'cause not all barking is the same.
I'm Instructor Carol.
Welcome back to McCann Dogs.
(gentle music) (dog barking)
Here at McCann Dogs, we train almost 1,500 dogs a week,
helping dog owners deal with their training challenges
with their own dog.
One of the most common problems we see is barking.
So what are our three types of barkers?
We have our bored barkers, (dogs barking)
our buddy barkers, (dogs barking)
and our back-off barkers. (dogs barking)
Could you tell the difference in all those barks,
and did you see your dog in there?
In order to change this behavior,
we need to understand why the dogs are barking
and apply the right tactics.
However, you need to be prepared, 'cause it may be
that you're accidentally causing your dog to bark.
I want to talk about what I call a bored barker.
With our bored barkers, the body language is very relaxed.
He's going to be happy, excited.
His tail's going.
They're in the house.
Nothing's really going on.
A car goes by. There's a flash of motion.
Or a door bangs, a dog barks, a squirrel goes by.
They bark. It's natural.
And you know what? It's fun.
Barking is self-rewarding.
In some cases, you kind of liked it.
It's not bad that your dog's letting you know
somebody's there, but maybe that barking's getting worse.
(dog barking)
Now, they're barking at a leaf going by.
They're barking at the slightest little noise.
With our bored barker, the first step is to communicate
to the dogs we don't want that barking.
What? (dog barking)
You say you've done that.
Well, what have you done?
Quiet, quiet, quiet!
But is this what your dog's actually hearing?
Yay, good work, keep it up!
Dogs learn by association, so if I keep yelling quiet
every time they bark, they associate the two,
so now, I'm not telling them to be quiet.
I'm actually telling them to bark more.
My problem's getting worse.
I finally decide yelling at my dog
from the other room isn't going to work, so I get a treat.
I distract my dog from the window.
Barking stops. Great.
But the problem is, it's happening more and more often
because I'm inadvertently rewarding that behavior.
Now my dog says not only are they telling me to bark,
but they're now giving me a cookie or a treat
or a pat and praise for that barking.
Now you're frustrated.
The barking's happening all the time.
I feel your pain.
It's so frustrating.
Now you might think, if I correct my dog for barking,
of course they're going to stop.
But sometimes, the dogs learn you're coming,
so now they're taking off.
It's turned into a game of chase,
so my bored pup just found a whole new outlet.
I bark, and now it turns into a game.
It also may be that I've let the barking go on long enough
now that it's not just that happy bark anymore,
that my dog's actually a little aroused and can't stop.
And by adding all that energy coming in, raising my voice,
I'm probably making the situation far worse.
Or maybe I cause some stress.
My dog, I never told him through all of this
that he wasn't supposed to bark.
In fact, I may have been rewarding that barking.
Yay, good work, keep it up!
And now suddenly I'm mad at him, so that can cause stress.
But unfortunately, barking relieves stress,
so I may have just made my problem worse.
So if those aren't the solutions,
what are we going to do to stop your bored barker?
First, calm.
Remember, my dog may be a little aroused at that window.
I don't need to add energy.
I need to communicate they're wrong. Not very fair.
I've let him bark for this amount of time
without giving him that information.
So I'm calmly telling him that's wrong.
I'm not going to allow it.
I'm going to move him away.
I don't need to be loud or frantic.
I want to be calm, but very leader-like
and very clearly say that that's not acceptable,
so I'm physically moving my dog away from the window.
That we'll do with a firm, but calm voice.
And then I'm going to give him something to do,
tell him to lie down.
Now, if your dog's not ready for that and needs to keep go,
doesn't stop barking, or keeps going back,
then he's not ready for the freedom of that window
and I'm going to move him to another room
and then only have him out when I can work this.
I need to provide structure.
All of us want to know what's expected of us
in those situations, dogs especially.
So I'm going to move him away, tell him that was wrong,
but I'm also telling him what is right,
and I'm setting up an environment
where he can be successful.
Good leaders are great communicators.
Our dogs don't speak English.
Timing is essential.
Dogs can only learn by association
and only when things happen almost simultaneously,
within that second, so I need to be saying quiet,
taking action within that second, not five minutes later.
Is the barking you're seeing more intense than that,
maybe a little sharper, rapid-fire?
(dog barking)
Maybe the body language is a little stiffer.
The barking's really sharp and quite intense.
It may be that you've got a back-off barker.
(dog growling)
(dog barking)
Our back-off dogs bark to alert us
there's a change in the environment
or that there's a perceived threat,
especially those guarding dogs.
That's exactly what they do.
They alert to that change in the environment.
It may in fact be that your dog isn't just alerting,
but they actually are a little bit afraid
of what's out there.
Like our bored barkers, the problem escalates
and sometimes even faster.
Think about the scenario.
Your dog is a little bit nervous.
They alarm, they alert to let you know
that something's out there.
They're barking, and the person's coming along the street.
They bark.
The person had no intention of coming to your place.
They pass on by.
The dog says, "Aha! That worked.
There was a threat and my barking solved that problem."
So they're going to do it again.
They just got rewarded for it.
Remember, our bored barker's quite relaxed,
pretty happy, tail wagging.
Our back-off dog is quite intense.
You know, if that window wasn't there,
it looks like they want to go get it, to go fast towards it.
It's important we know which we have because our solution
with our back-off dogs is going to be different
than it was with my bored barker.
Now, look at that dog that alerts
because there's a potential threat out there,
and what are we doing?
Am I sitting in the other room ignoring it?
Am I going, quiet, quiet?
So now my dog says,
"My leader is not taking care of the situation.
I need to address it."
So the problem is going to escalate.
You already know that the solution is not
to be yelling, quiet, quiet, from the other room.
It's also not to go get a treat and distract my dog away,
'cause then I'm rewarding it.
You may have recognized
that fear is part of the equation here,
that your dog appears nervous by this or downright afraid,
in which case sometimes people are tempted to,
it's okay, it's okay.
It's okay, it's all safe.
But what is your dog hearing?
Yay, keep it up!
What about correcting in this case?
Would it be appropriate?
Absolutely not in this case.
Think about you're in a dark alley.
Someone's approaching you, really big, looks suspicious.
You're afraid.
Is correcting you going to change that emotion?
Absolutely not.
If I go in and correct my dog that's afraid,
I'm not going to reduce the fear.
I'm going to add a lot of stress,
just make the situation worse for future,
and I'm destroying my relationship with my dog.
So how are we going to deal with our back-off barkers?
It's a little bit different.
I'm actually going to let my back-off dog know
that alerting me was good.
Maybe they're over the top.
That's fine. I'm going to deal with that.
But I'm going to respond.
My back-off dog barks at somebody
approaching the house or going by.
I'm going to be a leader. I'm going to come.
I'm going to say good work, very calmly.
Then, what I'm going to do is I'm going to take the lead.
I'm going to go look.
What are they barking at?
I'm going to check that out.
So they see me as a leader taking control.
I look. I'm calm.
Everything is fine.
Now, for some of those dogs, the second you do that,
they're just going to completely relax.
They've alerted. I'm a big, strong leader.
I've made sure the situation's safe.
That may be all I need to do.
Then I'm going to tell my dog, you know, go lie down.
Those guarding breeds,
those dogs that feel the need to alert,
are often great workers.
Give them a job.
Tell them what you expect of them.
You know, go lie down, go to your place.
So I'm going to let them do that.
If those dogs have practiced it for some time
and they're now quite aroused or emotional or fearful,
they may not be able to relax enough, in which case,
just like my bored barker if they weren't able to handle it,
I'm going to remove them from that situation.
So it might be a crate.
It might be in another room.
With our back-off dogs,
I hope some of you do get that silver bullet
and this immediately stops it,
but if those dogs are quite aroused
and they've been rehearsing it for some time, you know what?
It's going to take some time to change that behavior,
many, many good repetitions, you being diligent,
making sure you're taking control,
showing your dog a leader.
Then, your dogs are going to learn that over time,
they do not need to react that way.
Now, if you have a buddy barker,
you may be thinking, she hasn't helped me at all.
I haven't seen my dog.
The reason? They're not barking out the window.
You may be in your living room,
but they're barking at you, not outside.
(dogs barking)
Buddy barkers are what's called demand barkers.
They bark at us.
Now, what we hear is bark, bark, bark
(dog barking)
or sometimes just bark.
But what they're saying is, "Play with me!
Pet me! Tug with me!
Give me a treat! Feed me!
Touch me! Talk to me!
Give me attention."
Sometimes we fall into a trap.
Our young dogs start doing that bark, bark, bark.
Sometimes, we don't even realize it.
We're talking to someone and maybe we're petting them.
You know, we don't even realize sort of that they're barking.
Just subconsciously, we're petting them to keep them quiet.
Or maybe I remember, oh,
I haven't been doing anything with you.
You've been lying there quietly, I've ignored you,
but now, oh, yeah, I should do something,
so I throw the ball, or I think,
I'm going to throw the ball to tire him out a little bit.
But what am I doing?
I'm rewarding that "Hey, you!
Do something for me."
Of course they're going to keep barking, 'cause it's working.
With our buddy barkers, again,
the answer's just a little bit different
to stop that barking.
We know we don't want to reward it with food.
We don't want to inadvertently be rewarding that behavior,
and really, that's the thing.
With our demand barking, our buddy barkers often start
by just eliciting attention, coming over,
sticking their nose into us for a pet
or just gently placing their nose.
It may escalate to bringing a toy
or even, if it's left unchecked,
you can see this last clip where the dog,
after the demand barking doesn't work, starts to nip.
I'm not going to reward it.
I'm not going to acknowledge it.
Now, if my dog persists,
if I have to keep saying quiet or keep placing them,
I'm giving them what they want.
Again, sometimes bad attention is good attention.
Even though I'm not throwing that ball,
just talking to them may be enough reward
that it keeps going.
So I may need to escort my dog out of the room,
again to say, look, if you're going to be with me,
that behavior's not acceptable.
If you've got a really young dog or puppy,
sometimes we set them up to be wrong.
Maybe I go to meet a friend for coffee
and my dog's just not capable of lying there calmly,
not getting, you know, stimulated and bothering me.
So maybe I help them be right.
I use a little dog bed or I take a chew bone for them,
give them something to do
so that they're not rehearsing that behavior I don't want.
I never want to set my dog up to be wrong.
I'm the leader.
It's my job to make sure he's set up to make good choices
and I'm providing structure.
So with those young dogs, a crate is often the answer,
some place where they learn how to calm down,
aren't getting rewarded for those wrong behaviors.
Again, don't just stuff your dog in a crate.
Make sure you introduce it as a very pleasant environment
and something they're going to love.
I've talked a few times about having my dog
go lie down on their bed.
If this is new to you, it can be so, so valuable.
Check out this video here.
Any of the tactics we've discussed in this video
are only going to be successful if your dog sees you
as a leader, not just in those few moments, but overall.
If you'd like to learn
how to become a better leader for your dog
from one of our McCann professional dog trainers,
check out the life skills program in the link below.
On that note, I'm Carol. Happy training.