HOW TO STOP YOUR DOG BARKING FREE E-BOOK C SubThreshold Training 2017 Page 1 of 17
Table of Contents DIFFERENT TYPES OF BARKING 3 Watchdog/Alarm Barking 3 Demand Barking 3 Spooky Barking 3 Boredom Barking 3 Anxious Home Alone Barking 3 SOLUTIONS FOR BARKING 5 Watchdog/Alarm Barking 5 Demand Barking 7 Boredom Barking 8 Spooky Barking 9 Anxious Home Alone Barking 10 HOW DO YOU KNOW WHICH TYPE OF BARKING IT IS? 12 Barking Due To Separation Anxiety 12 THE GREAT MYTH OF LETTING HIM BARK IT OUT 13 Dogs Do What Works 13 Anxiety Increases Resilience 15 Panic Changes The Brain 16 So What Can You Do Instead? 16 C SubThreshold Training 2017 Page 2 of 17
TYPES OF BARKING Different Types of Barking Dogs bark for a variety of reasons. These include. WATCHDOG/ALARM BARKING An alarm barker is letting you know of a threat to your survival outside, such as the UPS guy! It doesn t make sense to us, but to your dog it s high crisis. The watchdog alarm bark also tells the potential threat the dog has spotted it. DEMAND BARKING Demand barking is your dog s way of letting you know he wants something. And he wants it now.. Typical requests are open the door NOW, pay attention to me NOW, let me out of here NOW, I wan to see that dog NOW etc. SPOOKY BARKING Spooky barking happens when your dog is uncomfortable about something in the environment. Your dog barks to let the scary think know: I m dangerous! Don t come any closer! BOREDOM BARKING Boredom barking can happen if your dog s daily needs for exercise and social stimulation are not met. Your dog is going mad from boredom. And barking helps. ANXIOUS HOME ALONE BARKING Dogs with separation anxiety can bark intensely when they are on their own. This results from fear or panic of being alone. C SubThreshold Training 2017 Page 3 of 17
TYPES OF BARKING If your dog is barking at home alone all day it s important to know what s causing it. C SubThreshold Training 2017 Page 4 of 17
SOLUTIONS FOR BARKING Solutions for Barking WATCHDOG/ALARM BARKING Teach the dog to do something he can t do at the same time as bark. Good choices are: getting him to fetch a toy or asking him for a down-stay on a mat for yummy snacks. You ll need to practice these without the doorbell or scary intruder first. Once he gets good at it, you can add those in. Don t worry if he doesn t get it first time, every time. It s okay to coax and cajole, especially when there lots of things going on. And you might want to get some help. See if you can get a friend or family member to play at being the life-threatening delivery person. This is an easy way to get lots of repetitions in. Use time outs Time outs can be effective for letting a dog know he needs to do less of something. And watchdog barking responds well to the signal a time out sends. Here s what you need to do. After a few barks, ask your dog to be quiet ( quiet please ). Don t shout or yell -keep it bright. You re not trying to scare him into stopping. If he doesn t stop, the you need to mark the behaviour you didn t want. Again keeping it light, say Oh! Too bad! or You lose. Remove your dog to the penalty area. This should be a room that s away from the action. You could also use a crate, if your dog is crate trained. Your dog will connect the behaviour it was doing when you chirped Too bad! with the time out penalty. Losing access to you, or to something interesting, is a big deal. And so your dog will start to choose not to bark. C SubThreshold Training 2017 Page 5 of 17
SOLUTIONS FOR BARKING You can make this even more powerful by rewarding him if he stops after the quiet please. Remember to have those treats handy! Watchdog Barking responds well to the signal a time out sends. C SubThreshold Training 2017 Page 6 of 17
SOLUTIONS FOR BARKING DEMAND BARKING Dogs can be determined when they want something. They will try out different behaviours to see if any of them work. They quickly learn barking works. And the more it works, they more they use it. You need to be as determined as your dog is. Stop rewarding unwanted barking with attention. Cancel door-opening services. Let him know coming out of the crate is only allowed when he s quite. Hold the line.. If you crack, he gets rewarded. And he ll come back even more determined. You may have been rewarding his barking for a while. We ve all been there! If so, expect his barking to get worse before it goes away. You ve changed the rules and the dog will be frustrated. Whatever you do, don t give in and reward WORSE barking! Instead, start noticing all the good stuff he s doing. Show him chilling out and being a quite dog get rewarded. C SubThreshold Training 2017 Page 7 of 17
SOLUTIONS FOR BARKING BOREDOM BARKING In a natural environment, your dog s would spend a lot of energy looking for food. Even if it seems like he already gets a lot of exercise, see if you can add a some more. Take slow walks. These give your dog opportunity to catch up on the neighbourhood smells- think of it as a sniffari! Play games with your dog. Most dogs can learn to love games, even if they re not tug or fetch maniacs.. Hide & seek is a great game for scent driven dogs., Get him off-leash with other dogs. Make him work for his food - no more boring bowls! Stuff a Kong and hide it in the house before you leave for work, Scatter his kibble in the grass in the backyard Use his kibble for training treats (training tuckers pooches out) Stock up on his favourite chew toys Teach him to find a toy that you ve hidden and then celebrate his find with tug of war or fetch. Teach him his toys by name. Ask him to bring you one when you come home. For more ideas, read our blog on play. C SubThreshold Training 2017 Page 8 of 17
SOLUTIONS FOR BARKING SPOOKY BARKING With spooky barking it s important to get at the underlying fear. You want to change how the dog feels about whatever is scaring him. Whatever it is that your dog is spooky about must now become associated with food. Whenever the dog sees or hears something he s scared of, be ready with the best treat ever chicken, beef, cheese, liver, hamburger, whatever he loves. You want him to start to associating the scary thing with Best Food Ever. Let him see whatever is spooking him, then have a chicken or beef party. Don t get too close to the scary thing, though. You risk making him worse if you. You can tell you ve got too close when he either won t take a treat, or chomps your fingers off when he does. Try to avoid this if you can. C SubThreshold Training 2017 Page 9 of 17
SOLUTIONS FOR BARKING ANXIOUS HOME ALONE BARKING This is very distinct from the barking above. It s not the dog being strategic and trying to achieve something with the bark i.e. watchdog barking to sound the alarm. It s not a choice by the dog but a reflex that only goes away when the anxiety stops. The dog can t help it. Dogs are a social species. They don t cope well with being on their own for long periods of time. That s all dogs. Not just anxious dogs. Consider daycare or a dogwalker at lunchtime if you work all day. A dog who barks to the point of panic needs training that gradually teaches him being on his own isn t scary. Panic barking doesn t respond to the training methods outlined in the previous sections. That s why it s important to know which type of barking it is. Anxious, panic barking needs to be treated differently to other types of barking. C SubThreshold Training 2017 Page 10 of 17
STOPPING PANIC BARKING The first thing you need to do is limit your dog s fear.. See if there s anyway you can leave him less than you currently. The ideal is not to leave him at all. Once the panic stops you can start treatment. So reducing or eliminating absences will set him on the quickest road to recovery. The way we help a dog who can t handle being on his own is to gradually expose him to you being gone. But we take tiny steps. And we leave him for very short periods. These have to be so short that he doesn t panic. Over time, he ll start to learn that being on his own isn t scary. It s a gradual, steady process. It s not quick. But if done properly it s a process that can fix most dogs. Over time, he ll start to learn that being on his own isn t scary. C SubThreshold Training 2017 Page 11 of 17
WHICH IS IT? How Do You Know Which Type of Barking It Is? BARKING DUE TO SEPARATION ANXIETY If your dog has separation anxiety you may see these signs: Barking that is prolonged, excessive, intense, and that doesn t easily stop. Chewing and destroying, that isn t helped by chew toys and food puzzles. Escape attempts Destruction around entry doors or around windows Soiling while you re out, especially if your dog doesn t do that at any other time Your dog being overly-excited when you return, and not able to calm down Salivating, panting, drooling Pacing No interest in food If you re not sure whether it s separation anxiety, the first thing you need to do is video your dog while you re out. Then, get some help. Separation anxiety is a complex condition and can be hard to treat on your own. Speak to your vet or book a free consultation with us. Separation anxiety is a complex condition and can be hard to treat on your own. C SubThreshold Training 2017 Page 12 of 17
BARKING MYTHS The Great Myth Of Letting Him Bark It Out You may have been told that the best think to do is let your dog bark it out. But you need to be careful that you don t make things worse.. If you re new to separation anxiety, or still finding your way, you re going to hear this advice a lot. If your dog isn t a barker, you can substitute leave him to get over it. The advice says you don t need to do anything your dog s separation anxiety will fix itself. This infers that to fix the problem, you must stop coddling your dog; stop pandering to him, and leave him to get over it. Let me tell you right now, this is incorrect. It s not difference-of-opinion incorrect, it s scientifically and factually incorrect. Let s explore why: DOGS DO WHAT WORKS In a way, your well-meaning advisors aren t wrong. There is a time and a place for letting your dog bark, pester, or whine it out. For example, if your dog pesters you at the dinner table, ignoring him is your best strategy (as hard as it might be). If you ignore his whimpering, two things happen: Your dog learns pestering doesn t work. Your dog s pestering isn t reinforced by you rewarding him for the behaviour. Dogs are brilliant behavioural economists. They excel at calculating how much effort to put into getting an outcome. If you ignore your pestering dog, he learns he is wasting precious energy. He gives up and saves his effort for something with better odds. If the dog could talk we might hear him say This is dumb. I m not getting anywhere! Letting your dog get on with the unwanted behaviour can sometimes be a good strategy. The fancy trainer term is putting the behaviour on extinction. It works like this: your dog attempts the behaviour and it doesn t work. He tries again. After seeing it doesn t work a few times, he gives up eventually. C SubThreshold Training 2017 Page 13 of 17
BARKING MYTHS Although we can use extinction to our advantage, we have to make sure our tactic doesn t backfire. If we re not careful we can make the behaviour stronger. How? Well, let s look at an example. If you ve ever tried ignoring your dog at the dinner table, you ll have noticed a couple of things. First, if you re eating sizzling steak, it takes a lot longer for your dog to give up than if you re eating bland breakfast cereal. Then, if you ve ever -even once given in, you may have seen renewed vigour in your dog. Your dog may take longer to give up the next time. The behaviour paid off so he tried again; even though the odds weren t brilliant. C SubThreshold Training 2017 Page 14 of 17
BARKING MYTHS You might recognize this because it s how gambling works. If the outcome is unpredictable, but good outcomes do pop up, there can be a strong motivation to keep trying. Gamblers get addicted to the thrill of the unpredictable reward and dogs do too. ANXIETY INCREASES RESILIENCE The thing is, when dogs are anxious, they put more effort into a futile task than they when they are calm. They don t give up. They are not thinking straight. So if you leave your dog to it, hoping he will give up, chances are he won t. Meanwhile, he gets more and more upset because no matter how much he barks or scratches or chews, you don t come back. If your dog thought being alone was terrifying before, he thinks it s even scarier now. Your panicking dog may bark, chew and destroy the whole time you re out. Then, you arrive home. There s a good chance your dog will think: Ah, so if I bark and bark and bark, she comes back. I know that s not why you came back. Your dog doesn t. Dogs learn by association and consequences. Your dog barked and you came back, so to him, barking makes you come back. And the crying or chewing could be his coping strategy. He might find the chewing soothing. We know dogs do what works. So, guess what? The next time you re out, your dog will use the same tactic that got results last time. He will yelp sooner and for longer, because it might bring you back. Or chew earlier and with more intent, because the chewing feels good. C SubThreshold Training 2017 Page 15 of 17
BARKING MYTHS PANIC CHANGES THE BRAIN Studies show panic causes a dog s brain chemistry to change for the worse. It s as if panic leaves fear written on the dog s brain with a thick, black permanent marker. The more your dog panics, the more fearful he becomes, and he s likely to become even more fearful in the future. The longer the panic goes on, the more dismal things can get. If you decide to gamble on the let them get over it strategy, you take your chances with your dog s brain chemistry. Fear is easy to get but hard to lose. SO WHAT CAN YOU DO INSTEAD? Whether your dog panics or parties when you re out, don t let unwanted behaviour run unchecked. You re not helping the cause. If your bored dog thinks he s missing out by staying home, give him something to do. Puzzle feeders are ideal here. And if your dog gets into a panic when you go out, you need to stop the panic. That means no more scary, long absences. I know that seems impossible. But if you want to stop your dog s anxiety getting worse, you have to keep your dog below his anxiety threshold. When I started working with my dog s anxiety, I felt like a roaring failure. I couldn t handle the altered reality of never leaving him. But I knew every time we left, we poisoned the recovery process and intensified his misery. It wasn t that I didn t know this. I was leaving him despite knowing this. If you re struggling with this too, why not explore simple goal setting? Could you leave your dog for 20% less than you currently do and test that for a week? Then, could you shift to 50% less for a week? Small steps might propel you into taking the plunge of no absences if 100% of the time seems impossible. C SubThreshold Training 2017 Page 16 of 17
BARKING MYTHS There are some creative ways to handle not leaving your dog. See if you can give it a try for a week. Remember whether he s anxious or bored, if you don t nip things in the bud, you risk making things worse. Once you stop the anxiety from getting worse, you can start training your dog to be happier on his own. The sooner you start training him, the sooner you can cure him. Contact me for a free consultation to learn about separation anxiety training for your dog. C SubThreshold Training 2017 Page 17 of 17