bradpattison.com

There is no such thing as a quick fix, and this is no exception. You NEED to correct the behaviour. Plain and simple. He doesn't need to be in the room, but you need to go to him, and correct him. He's not associating "NO NOISE!" with anything. To him, you might aswell be saying "BLAH BLAH!" Since he's not allowed in the room or bathroom while you're getting ready, I assume (and correct me if I'm worng), you yell "NO NOISE!" from that room and he can't see you, just hear you. How is he supposed to know anything without you correcting him?

Seriously......?

Wow I must say that I am somewhat disapointed in much of what I am reading............. I don"t care what you say to your dog because nothing will work. I do not see one thing in here about getting the dogs mentally stimulated, I don't see any acknowledgement that the dog has been barking for a long time and then many of you look for a miracle to just fix the dog. That will not happen, I also see things in hear like I don't have time to watch the dog, Hellooooooooooo put the dog on umbilical and be a responsible owner. I see so many mistakes but very little effort. I hear you guys getting pissed off and making excuses. Some dogs will take months to fix and some will not.

10 to 1 interuptions are to soft, dogs have been conditioned. Your response is to slow, lack of socialization, lack of exercise. Hmmmmmmmm oddly enough I have been able to have success with every barking dog. Is every dog able to be 100%? NO

Can you guys be doing a better job? YES

For instance why do you think the dog starts barking when the hair dryer is turned on? Hmmmmmmm well personally I hate the sound of the HD........... Secondly the routine for the dog is Mom is getting ready to leave me home and bored all day, and gee I really want to go for a run or a walk. The dog possibly is saying other things.

Do we forget that a dog is an animal and they are not little people and they are all not perfect. I am sure some of you annoy your dog and fail horribly or minimally ? But we don't see that..... The dog is barking for a reason, some of you encouraged your dog to bark as a young puppy and liked it. Now you get pissed off because your dog barks. Well take a look at your actions and get upset at yourself not the dog.

Yikes yikes yikes. No noise this no noise that, it takes a lot more for some dogs then a phrase, it takes hard work all the time, every time.

I feel sympathy for some of you, not all of you. I see good advice and I see excuses and complaining but I do not see the hard work that is required and the efforts put forth.

It takes hard work, but remember you can do it and the NO NOISE is not a miracle drug, technique, speed, action, ability all are needed for success.

FYI........ it took 14 months to stop a dog from barking..

Just like it takes months to quit smoking or stop being a drug addict. It does not happen over night with all dogs.

Brad

Brad
I wish you'd come on here and kick our butts more often.
We too need a little refresher now and then.

We are NOT expecting a quick fix. Nothing has EVER been that, since we started training Keymo. It has taken hard work, determination and BOTH of us working as a team to make the cahnges in our dog's behaviour. He's never REALLY been THAT bad (compaired to other dogs I've seen or heard about) but he's certainly not perfect either.Neither are we - THAT'S why were learning TOGETHER.

Is my neck hair up? You bet!

Pami - you were wrong in assuming we yell "no noise" from another room. We go right back TO him, in his face and say it. We also have put in in a "time out" . Oh, we KNOW we have to correct this morning barking thing. And we are not going to back down simply because we got "corrected" ? Most certainly NOT !
We are going to work HARDER at it !

Brad - Thank you for responding ! Now we all know what to "title" a thread to get your attention: Say something that contradicts one of your theories ! Seriously . . . Thanks for responding.
Keymo in the morning when he starts to bark is simply because 1- he wants to be with us (because the cat IS allowed in these rooms) 2- he knows his last walk before we go to work is coming and frankly, he likes to go for that walk. He's happy he's going out soon.
He is calm in the morning most days. He either has a toy or a bone or sometimes the cat keeps him 'entertained". He is socialized with other dogs. We got to the dog park 2 times a week and a walk every day after work where sometimes he meets other dogs, sometimes not. I plan on starting a Sat. morning "dog meet" at our local community center as soon as the soccar field is not flooded.
You're right about his "routine" in the morning. We have said as much to ourselves - BUT - it IS hard to chnage when you have a job to get too and YOU are on a timeline.

Today - we will start to work WAY harder at this issue. Hubby has already brought Keymo into the room where I am to see me. He' s usually not allowed in here (because this is the room the cat's litter box is and he, like some other dogs have "eating litter issues".

Thread members - thank you for your support !

Brad & Pami - thank you for the corrections & the snap on MY LEASH ! If you can't "see me" - I'm looking up at you!

wow, needed that swift kick in the butt!! It's way too easy to get complacent and fall back into that 'average dog owner' rut! We all want our dogs to be better than the average dog and that's why we're here, but it is so easy to let things slide.thanks Brad!

Okay..then answer this for me... When I have two or more dogs on umbilicle and I get my kids to go ring the door bell I can easily interupt them with a quick leash pop and the NO NOISE and they quiet... One dog is growling with lips curled and the others are trying to get away.. I pin that dog that is growling easily with no struggle but still growling... 21 times and no struggle( by this time he isnt growling but ears are still pinned close to the head and looking away)..If I place all the dogs in their crates while I am working with only one dog, that one isnt barking but the others are, do I simply ignore the others and work on only that dog at that time ?..This seems to defeat the purprose of getting them to stop barking if it isnt their turn out..I rotate the dogs without the day so they arent locked up all day.. I place some outside now tht the weather is good and I even have my neighbour knocking and or ringing the bell while she is out for her smoke breaks.. I dont know when this will happen as most of the time you dont know when someone will come to your door.. I live right behind a school so the kids are outside, unless they charge the fence to get the dogs barking they(the dogs) ignore them..

If I go out and do some errans and come back the dogs dont make a peep..they come to the door to see who it is but no barking no charging nothing but yet when my husband comes home they go crazy..Barking, snarling, growling, tails way up.. sometimes hackles..Same man that has been in our lives since they were puppies and they still freak when he comes in the door.. I dont get it..

SO my question is.. How do I work with all of the dogs with the no noise at the same time without having them umbilicled 24/7 or locked in their crates?... One dog..great!!! Two dogs.. Fantastic!!!.. Three dogs ..YIPPEE!!! Four Dogs.. WHOO HOO!!! All on umbilicle... works great..no umbilcle a distaster... Believe me no quiet commands either..They get thier daily walk/run.. I live right by a school yard lots of ups and downs..the water park lots of twists and turns changing directions and such.. I have done everything in the book... I am not looking for quick fixes ..I am just unsure whether or not I am doing the right thing or not.. Enough works but not always..Maybe I have to start over... I wish I knew the key to work with them all at the same time..

Ok - since I posted this hubby & I have been working EXTRA hard on interrupting Keymo's barking. Not just in the morning (this morning he didn't bark at all, but I think he was simply too tired as hubby had to take him out for an un-scheduled pee at 3am) but we are interrupting his barking WHENEVER it happens.

We let him bark a couple of times, in case it's his way to communiacte something to us - like "I need to go outside", in case we aren't looking directly at him when he first barks.
But if he keeps it up we interrup him with a REALLY firm "ENOUGH ! No barking".
He gets ONE warning from one of us, from wherever we are , but we look right at him.
Second time, if he does it - we go RIGHT over to him, stand tall infront of him and repeat "ENOUGH ! NO barking! Next time it's crate"
IF there's a third time , we got get him and firmly take him into his crate.

He's learning - quite a few times we haven't even had to close his crate door. He just gets put into a sit and he stays there.
We leave him in his "jailhouse" for 15 minutes with NO eye contact, then call to him "come on out Keymo"
Sometimes he comes, sometimes he stays in his crate. Last eve, he fell asleep in there after we "invited " him out !

I even go stop his barking when he's outside and he barks more than just when he's playing "kill my toy".
It's VERY time consuming, but I'm doing it. The other day I think it took me an hour and a half and 4 re-heats just to drink a cup of tea !

Thanks for the snap on my leash and collar!
All of knows how hard it can be to be committed 100% of the time, and I'm sure there are LOTS of us who "let things slide" time and again, eventhough we KNOW we're "slacking".

I took Brad's and Pami's comments to heart and it felt like one of Brad's "in your face attacks" on me personally !
MAN ! He can reach RIGHT THROUGH THE COMPUTER SCREEN and do that!
Thanks - I needed that!

I started the "No Noise" the other day with my dogs to see if it would work, yeah right they just started barking at me... Guess I will stick to using my body language to make them stop it always works for them...

We have tried and tried the No Noise with interuption and putting Ronix in his crate or on a mat etc for time out and all this has acheived is making him terrified of these things...he now pants and shakes when he is anywhere near his crate (which has destroyed using it for the car). He knows he should not bark, it is almost like he speaks before he thinks as he will bark and then cow as he knows he has done wrong. He does not bark all the time but will bark if I say 'hello' to the neighbour, if someone sneezes in a strange way etc...you really can't pick it!!! We have tries to condition him with random noises and saying hello to no one and he does calm down but the next time there is someone really there all hell breaks lose!!! He loves people and dogs so it does not make a lot of sense.

I know this is not easy but sometimes I wonder if we will ever get there.

Whether true or not, here are some things I have heard which I'm just going to throw out there and let us know what you think.

For some breeds, barking is self-rewarding. It's like every time they bark, it's like getting a treat or a "good dog" praise. I find this to be difficult to curb. I am mostly thinking Beagle here.
I've also heard that barking is the sign of a so called 'trouble-maker'. It is the attempt for a dog to take on a leader role of alarming the pack.
Which in turn, should be OUR role, as owner.

The leash check is good. Let's face it, our dogs are not always on leashes. There are other ways of interupting the mental state, like squirt bottle or a quick, assertive approach to the dog and a quick, assertive poke to the front shoulder, accompanied by a firm "ENOUGH", etc.
Point is, get the idea to your dog that you are the leader and you say the barking is unecessary.

For the particular situation of getting ready in the morning and yes, exercise, a pee, a poo and breakfast should all come first, you could always impliment a distraction. Like a rawhide or Dental Bone, or a Kong. Only use it at that time. Give it with a sit before getting ready and take it away before leaving. I think our dogs can sense our intentions, we're getting ready for something and as our dogs are apart of the pack, they are wondering what they should be doing to 'get ready'. Give them something to do while you are doing something.

Bark for thought.