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Location: West Yorkshire
Joined: Aug 2008
Posts: 855
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Originally Posted by
mom24dogs
My half Old English Sheep Dog half Pitbull/beagle mix dog, Marley, is 8 months old, over 50 pounds, and he is neutered.
Marley barks excessively at my neighbors. It's so bad that if my neighbors are outside I cannot let him outside. He runs up and down the fence barking and barking like crazy. He wont listen to anything I say, he is in his own zone. I try to take him outside on a leash so I can control him and all he does is pull as hard as he can to get to the fence and he still barks. He will take off and yank me and almost pull me over to the ground. He will also spin round and round while he is on the leash. I am guessing letting out some anxiety energy by doing that?
Then on the other side of my house, my neighbors have 2 dogs around his size. He likes to bark at them like crazy too. But this bark is more high pitched like he is excited and wants to play with them soooooo bad. They will run up and down the fence together.
His barking is super annoying and I am sure it drives my neighbors crazy. I know it drives me crazy. I have tried working with him, putting him on the leash and making him sit and be quiet, but it doesn't last long. It's like he will never learn.
What do you mean by
'tried working with him?'
The best way is for him not to see your neighbours, it won't cure the barking but will cut it down which will make it easier to train him.
I don't know if barking at the people is fear based or what. He is afraid of new people. When I took him to the vet for the first time he tried to bite them and they had barely touched him. We had to put a muzzle on him and he still tried to bite. He also acted like that when I took him in to get neutered. When my husbands friend came over to our house Marley barked at him a little when he first came in, then he kept trying to check him out. But the way he was doing it you could tell he was scared and weary. He was going in really slow to sniff. He was going up to sniff the guys face. And I could tell Marley was uneasy and I was afraid he might try to bite him.
How much socialising have you done with him?
One of my dogs is frightened of people, I keep her away from them until she has quietened down then will let her in, if she shows any sign of being nervous I take her out again.
Marley has tried to bite at me a few times. He was outside and I wanted him to come inside but he didn't want to, so when I tried to grab him he tried to nip at me. Another time he was laying in his cage and he had his paws hanging over the doorway. I went to put his feet inside so I could close the door and he growled at me. Another time he was laying and sleeping on my legs and one was starting to hurt so I went to pull my leg out and he growled at me. Even before I had him, when he was like 4 months old and lived with my nephew, I took him outside to potty and when I wanted to go back inside he didn't want to so I went to pick him up and take him in and he growled and nipped at me.
When we go to get hold of a dog's collar to a dog it can be an aggressive act, dogs go for the neck when attacking so Marley was just defending himself from you as you have threatened him.
Did you let him know you were going to move his feet or your leg? When dogs are asleep and this type of thing happens you could be attacking him, not his fault he bit. What is your reaction if someone suddenly wakes you up? I bite and bite hard if that happens to me.
Why are you picking your dog up? He has 4 legs you have 2. We have to teach our dogs to let us pick them up, it is quite scary to suddenly be in the air with their legs dangling.
He gets scared when I get mad and yell and wont listen to me. Like I yelled at him to get in his cage because he nipped at one of my other dogs and he just gave me his scared look and wouldn't go anywhere. Another time I got mad and yelled at him to go outside, he wouldn't go. Then I used my happy voice to tell him to go outside and he went. So he does not like it when I get mad.
Marley is a dog, he doesn't understand English only dog, when you are yelling at him it is
IMPOSSIBLE to understand what you are saying.
You said he nipped one of your other dogs but what were they doing when he nipped him/her? Think back to when you were a child, a child does something to you and you react, the adult only saw you react so punished you, dogs do this as well, your other dog may have set Marley up, I get that quite a lot with mine.
Other than that he is a pretty good dog. He loves to snuggle. He loves to play with his rope, tossing it around and playing tug. He likes chasing balls too. He knows sit, on command, and shake. He goes in his cage when he is told.
What can I do with him to get through to him. I have thought about a no bark collar but I really don't want to do that. I don't know what to do. Any advice?
Sorry to ramble on so long. I hope people read this.
Stop yelling at him, all it does is makes you more angry and puts a lot of stress on you all. Use your happy voice when you ask him to do something.,
Teach him a good recall so you can call him in from the garden, in the meantime you can have a lead on him when outside, let him drag it, if he barks you can pick the lead up and lead him into the house, much safer.
DO NOT USE A NO BARK COLLAR A lot of dogs learn how to get round them, you have other dogs and they can set them off when they bark and often it can make a dog worse and even turn them aggressive.