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Location: Dogsey and Worcestershire
Joined: May 2004
Posts: 49,483
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Originally Posted by
cadavelier
For the first 6 months or so, everything went well. She loves other dogs, children & women. The problem arises when a man comes to the house. If it is someone she met when under 8 months old or so, she is fine. Any man after that, she goes nuts. Nothing agressive, just continuous barking. I have tried "no bark" command, to calm her.
Tried having men give her treats, she gulps them down, then continues her barking. If I put her outside she will sit at the window where she can see the person, and continue barking.
I spoke with the obedience trainer. Her suggestion was to meet any men that need to come over, away from the house. Introduce her (Kodi) to him, then when all are comfortable, walk back to the house. That works fine with close friends or family, but obviously not for delivery people or not close visitors.
Jim
Hi Jim
it sounds as though some incident occurred between an unknown man and your dog, the incident may have involved fear and surprise which initially led to the barking, you may have inadvertently perpetuated the problem by having the strange men reward the barking with treats. See the bit I have highlighted above?
she gulps them down, then continues her barking. she may have learnt barking at strange men = a reward.
I would use food rewards but in a slightly different way. I think it is a good idea for strange men to come to the house, and to meet your dog in as many situations as possible.
When a man comes to the house I would have him ignore your dog completely, no word no eye contact. The moment she stops barking
then and only then have him throw her a treat from a distance still not looking at her. A number of treats can be thrown, this indicates to your dog that the strange man means good things, not looking at her means he poses no threat. You can have the same man go in and out a few times always adopting the same behaviour. When your dog accepts a man and doesn't bark, progress to the man bending down and calling the dog to him to receive a treat rather than the man approaching the dog, this poses less of a threat to the dog. Have him give lots of praise when she goes to him but no touching, eventually if she is comfortable with him he could extend a hand and gently stroke the dogs chest never the head or neck which can present a threat to a nervous dog.
You can also teach your dog to hush and bark on command as an extra aid....
First your dog needs to learn what the words 'bark' and' hush' mean with a game. To begin you need a 'prompt', a situation where you know your dog will bark and that can be controlled by you, something like someone ringing the bell or knocking at the door.
Take some favourite/high value treats like chicken pieces and stand inside the door, arrange for another person to stand on the other side of the door and ring the door bell and they must do this
immediately after they hear you say the word 'bark', when your dog barks praise her, say good dog in a pleased voice;
..now show her a treat while she is barking and say the word 'hush' and your dog should stop barking to take the treat, she can't bark and eat at the same time,
..let her sniff the treat but don't give it immediatly, only give it when she has been quiet for five seconds, then give the treat and say good dog in a pleased voice.
Repeat the game until your dog gets the idea.You can fine tune it to allow a certain number of barks before you say 'hush' to allow your dog to do her job of alerting you . When she has got the idea only give the treats at random intervals then not at all , just give praise.
My present dog likes to sit on a chair-back in the window and watch for anyone going down the lane, she has been taught to bark three times ,it's quite funny if anyone passes, she barks three times and then turns to look at me as if to say is that ok ?
Here is an article by one of our members which may help too...
http://www.dogsey.com/dog-articles.php?t=8050