Call it your doorbell or alert system that somebody is walking past your property and don't worry about it. If anything, it will make somebody think twice about trying to break into your house.

 

lol! I might be going that way! Would still like it if someone had any other advice that could help. I live in a little down town area and there are dogs walking by often, I also live next door to my land lord. I think it would be nice to get her barking at others under control before people think its a problem and nuisance to the neighborhood like the other dog.

 

Losing her mind doesn’t sound so good…my family had a bad barker and he was like that. Is she still responsive to you and your commands when she’s barking? If she stops as soon as you give a command/correction/acknowledgement/whatever, I wouldn’t worry about it, but if she’s totally ignoring you, that’s not good. I personally like for my dog to alert bark, but I don’t want her going crazy and ignoring me (which is pretty much what our boy did). We’re still working on it, but mine is getting pretty good about stopping after I say “Okay, thank you” and check out the situation. I’ll be interested to hear what your trainer recommends!

 

Is she still responsive to you and your commands when she’s barking? If she stops as soon as you give a command/correction/acknowledgement/whatever, I wouldn’t worry about it, but if she’s totally ignoring you, that’s not good.

So she sometimes stops, sometimes she doesnt. I like your approach you mentioned of checking out the situation and saying something that would cue her to stop. I will try that tonight! thank you!

 

Colt has the same issue-- it's frustration over not being able to play.

I've learned to watch for triggers recently-- if I see something before he does, I will tell him to "look", and BEFORE he barks, he gets a treat. He is slowly catching on and will look out the window and then run to me for his reward for looking instead of barking. It's called counterconditioning and is about eight months in the works-- it started out by rewarding the barking. It sounds counterproductive, and can be if your timing is off, but pretty soon he was barking once and then looking at us for his treat, then I taught him the "look", etc.

 

I'm going to give you advice that the nicey-nicers won't like.
This is very annoying, unnecessary behavior your dog does because she's bored and she's taught herself a self-fulfilling, predictably rewarding task to occupy her time. She scans for dogs, one shows up on the radar, she barks her face off cuz it's fun, and invariably, the dog goes away, and another one comes by soon enough and starts the whole thing over again.
I'd yell, snatch her up by the collar and drag her inside the second she starts doing this. I'd say NO NO NO NO NO and be very dramatic while I did this. You wanna be super annoying? I got something for that. If she wants to then look out the door or window and bark I'd repeat the whole thing but this time drag her to a bathroom or closet where she can't see out. You must be swift, loud, and very dramatic. Being nice won't get any response at all.

 

I agree with this. She needs to know that this is completely unacceptable. Simply yelling is just joining in with her barking. "How fun is this! Mom, dad, cookie person has joined in!" Stop it while she's still young. Note at no point is the dog being hurt. Just do the dramatics. Never be afraid to tell your dog "no"!

 

Eight months! Oh my lord. Won't anyone tell a dog NO!?

 

haha — at our local obedience club an instructor told the puppy K people to never say no to a dog. I was an intern observer and when we were in the hall and that instructor was in the classroom, a lady asked me why couldn’t they say no to a dog and asked how are they going to know when they are doing something they shouldn’t be doing. I felt trapped between a rock and a hard place, but I told her she would have to ask him because I say no to my dog.

 

You CAN teach her that the barking is not acceptable. We live in a townhouse and so people and dogs (and delivery people and workers, etc) are going by our big main window all the time. When Shala was a pup, she barked at everyone who went by. I didn't want her doing it, especially at neighbours. So when she barked at anyone we knew, she got a no, and I made her turn around and come up the stairs away from the window. And she had to sit and be quiet and not look. By barking, she lost the opportunity to look out the window. Looking out the window was what she liked to do, so she quickly learned that uncontrolled barking at every creature that went by was not cool. Now, I actually didn't mind her alert barking at strangers, so I let her do that. So, delivery people get barked at, neighbours we know do not, the grounds people do not, etc. Every so often she slips up, and she gets told to stop, and if she doesn't, I make her come away from the window. I really hate barking, so it's not negotiable. I feel like you could teach your dog not to bark at other dogs in the same way. You need to be consistent and stop it every single time. It will take some time - you are reversing a behaviour she has learned she can do, but it is doable.

 

My little Cavalier does the barking at animals on television thing. I can’t get her to stop. She does it much less dramatically than she used to. She used to scratch up my cabinets under my television and when we re-painted, I must have gotten more stern/Satan-like with her because she leaves that part off now. I walk up and tell her to get on the couch when she does it now, which she does, and then she just stares at whatever animal is on the television like it’s some version of crack and she’s addicted.

Logan body blocks her when she does it — gets in between her and my cabinets — so I appreciate him helping me out there.

Outdoors, Abby walks right by dogs unless they bark at her. If they do, that sets her off — but luckily, I am not the walker of Abby usually because that would drive me nuts.

I’ve not had a barking issue with either of my Goldens. Thank God because I’m failing with Abby in this department.

 

Here's mine letting me know the cranes are walking up the street again. The flagged tail on the one is a hint that he was barking and other was listening intently.

If I lived in a house set close to the road or nearby houses, or in an apartment - I'd feel differently about letting them bark. As we live in a house, I don't care.

If we are staying in a hotel and there's constant noises outside our room (dog show hotel wakes up at 5-6AM with people and dogs rumbling past) - then my dogs are told "NO BARK" - and they don't bark. It's a different set of rules than at home where the dogs are letting me know that way way down by the street somebody is walking past. Hotels, we absolutely want to avoid complaints!!!!

Oh and we don't have a doorbell on our house - so typically the dogs going to the window and barking is our first clue there's somebody at the front door.

Training "no bark" - when they are puppies, I'll grab the muzzle and hold it firmly while saying "no bark". My dogs are good so there really isn't much need for more force than that as they grow up.

 

Here's mine letting me know the cranes are walking up the street again. The flagged tail on the one is a hint that he was barking and other was listening intently.

If I lived in a house set close to the road or nearby houses, or in an apartment - I'd feel differently about letting them bark. As we live in a house, I don't care.

If we are staying in a hotel and there's constant noises outside our room (dog show hotel wakes up at 5-6AM with people and dogs rumbling past) - then my dogs are told "NO BARK" - and they don't bark. It's a different set of rules than at home where the dogs are letting me know that way way down by the street somebody is walking past. Hotels, we absolutely want to avoid complaints!!!!

Oh and we don't have a doorbell on our house - so typically the dogs going to the window and barking is our first clue there's somebody at the front door.

Training "no bark" - when they are puppies, I'll grab the muzzle and hold it firmly while saying "no bark". My dogs are good so there really isn't much need for more force than that as they grow up.

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Wow, beautiful dogs.

 

Thank you everyone for your advice on this! I am definitely going to have to get more stern with her. I like all these ideas and I think if I can just be more assertive with "NO" she will come along ( hopefully)! Its always helpful to see what other owners do and I appreciate you all!

 

Barrier reactivity — xRoan is the only one on this thread with a reasonable suggestion IMO. Yelling NO at reactivity or punishing for it is a recipe for disaster in 99%+ of cases, and sweeping the behavior under the rug when you know you have an existing reactivity issue is only going to reinforce and make it worse. This is TOTALLY different from when you have a non-reactive dog who likes to bark out the window — in those cases, I absolutely agree with correcting it.

You can and should start with desensitization and counterconditioning, which perhaps you are doing for leash reactivity already. It’s a long road that requires a lot of patience and seems like watching paint dry. Any time you have a reaction, you are undoing the training to an extent, so you have to be hyper vigilant. Most trainers suggest blocking access to lookouts while doing DSCC for leach reactivity for this reason, which sounds terrible, unless you are able to be there with a management plan/distraction before each potential reaction.

 

Just sharing our experience as well...and with full disclosure: our pup is leash reactive with dogs (mostly tries to cross to our other side to avoid the dog), but not reactive at all to people in person.

We have wall to wall, ceiling to floor front windows, and Kiki loved to bark at all parcel delivery people, some large groups of people and some dogs. Living in the city, we couldn't let her keep barking. We started out blocking access to the front window, and doing dedicated training sessions per xRoan and got nowhere. She even got worse and started barking at regular people because access to the front window became so exciting. After 2 months with zero progress, we tried a different approach. She went back to wearing a houseleash. When she barked, we'd give her a sharp No, and use the house leash to guide her away from the window. Within 2 weeks she got a lot better. We stopped the house leash but kept up with the verbal correction and calling her away from the window. Months later, I'd say she is not totally reliable but goes days without barking. Mostly what she'll do if anything, is a very quiet boof, and then give us a side eye. It's a huge improvement. All this to say, perhaps try an approach, see how your dog reacts to it after sufficient time, and if it doesn't work, course correct and try a different approach. It may not be one size fits all.

 

"When she barked, we'd give her a sharp No, and use the house leash to guide her away from the window. Within 2 weeks she got a lot better."

Yes, this is exactly how I would do it. You don't have to be a drill sergeant, but you must be firm because the behavior is unacceptable. This is not an argument, and this is not a democracy. The barking stops now. And when it happens, reward.