My Brain Hurts With Vinny, tips needed to stop barking and lunging.

Im writing this after attending one of my obedience classes with Vinny so my overreaction will be gone by tomorow but if there is anybody on here with any tips/ideas anything that might help me then i will love you forever . He's so over the top with this barking and lunging at other dogs its wearing me down mentally . I will not stop working with him until i can make him better balanced and more chilled with everything that life will throw at him but at the moment i feel like somebody being put me in control of a speeding car without a clue as to how to drive it. If anybody can shed light on what i should be doing in these situations i will have something to try or something to think about next time i run into them

When we see another dog in the distance or close up his focus goes on them 100% . Hes a big dog so every pull/twist/turn he does to get a better view of them is difficult to correct individually as he moves somewhere else around my legs . He barks constantly at them . Its not a aggressive bark more of a wooooof wooooof . He then moves to make the lead tight and ends up on his back legs making himself more inposing while barking . I have a halti that came today so im hoping that will change his focus but its the barking that i have zero idea of how to stop . Dont get me wrong i know barking is normal and i dont intent to stop him barking completely its just situations like this it makes the other dog bark and he feeds of it . Next door we have 2 little dogs that bark absolutly loads and when he hears them he is out there to have a few barks . We go out and say "come" and he comes back no problem and leaves them alone . Im ok with that , sometimes though when they are quiet he will go outside and bark at them to get there reaction then go again . If for example i could press "mute" on him while we are walking when we see another dog i think the whole situation would be damped down 50%.

Another barking question . He constantly barks in the boot of the car . When it isnt running he is fine and even when its running and im in the back seats talking to him and trying to calm he constantly barks at anything outside

Im not entirely sure if this makes any sense as its late and im fried from work and classes . Just feels better writing it down and having a moan

Hi there,.... Your Baby Boy is having at it isn't he. My partner had two Rottweiler's, and he would use an empty soda can, put pennies inside, tape the opening and shake it to get his dogs attention when they barked incessantly. This is sometimes called, "nuisance barking". Once the Rottweiler's heard those pennies, they would cease barking. Dog's don't like to hear those pennies. You can try this. I tried it, and my babies stopped barking because they didn't want to hear those darn pennies. Sometime's our dogs just love hearing themselves. This behavior is normal and seen in puppies&adolescent dogs. The older they get the more mellow doggies become. I prefer the can w/pennies, because it saves your vocal cords, and your dog will stop barking immediately, and refocus his attention on you...

You couldn't use this method at a training class in case it upset any of the other dogs - I know I wouldn't be happy if someone was doing this when I was trying to concentrate on my dog! It's rather an extreme and outdated method of correction anyway and, like Mimi in another thread, I would prefer to use distraction and rewards techniques or isolate the dog until it realises that nothing exciting will happen unless it has some self-control - a bit like the naughty step for children! Good luck - I know what it's like!

Do they do any relationship building or focus exercises at your training place, or could you do any one to one type training to build focus and confidence with less distraction?

Behavior interrupters (rattle bottles) if your timing is out by a hairs breadth can make a behaviour 10 times worse which is why they are no longer recommended.

I agree with Imana-Banana about focus exercises and one to one advice. You need to be able to control the degree of background stimulation so that Vinny is able to relax and be able to pay attention to what you are asking him to do.

This is a big subject for this type of medium, and I can do no better than advise you to get hold of, 'Control Unleashed', by Leslie McDevitt . It is agility focussed, but the exercises are transferable to daily life, and it provided me with a few 'light bulb' moments which changed the way I dealt with problems.

Re. the car - would it be possible for him to travel nearer to you, using a dog seat belt - at least until he feels more secure. Good luck with him.

thank you for the responses . I will get the Control Unleashed book and DVD in the next week and have a look . As with all stress highs im feeling better today .I took him to the local common today and he was much better even though we didnt see any other dogs maybe it was good for him as he had a hour on the halti without interuption and was fine bar a few stratches at the halti . Thanks again for the responses and i will have a look at some focus exersices in the coming days

Have you tried sticking a kong or treat ball in the boot with him?
It will come, if he is dog obsessed use your obedience class to work on that. Forget about all the other things everybody else is doing and just work on marking his quiet or calm moments and rewarding those.
I had this with my lurcher and spent quite some time standing on the very very edge of a large outdoor training school. All I did to start with was try to keep a hold of my spinning screaming dog, then eventually he'd need to breathe or get exhausted and I could click and stuff him full of awesome treats. Often he was so excited he'd just spit them all over the floor. You can also try taking a step towards the dogs as his reward. If you consistently manage to keep hold of him he should eventually learn that a bit of quiet will get him to see those dogs a lot quicker than throwing a loony.
Anyway you have my sympathy because it sucks. Have a word with your class trainer to see if they are happy to just do your thing in a corner as if your dog is kicking off like mine did you're probably a bit of a disruption, lol

Tobias, Vinny is still a puppy and is now going through the "Kevin" stage. As you did not have him from when he was really young, Vinny is now having to learn what he should have learned before you rescued him.

I do not like the bottle rattling/shaking thing at all, and I honestly cannot see it doing any good - especially during a training class.

I think that you have to understand that Vinny is a puppy who is now going through the teenage "Kevin" stage of behaviour and who needs to have definite parameters as to what is and what is not permissable.

Have fun and be prepared for a lot of hard work with your lovely pup!

The bottle shaking thing might be useful as I have heard it before... but I'd think that it would be just as annoying as the barking? Also, since this barking happens in the car... wouldn't it be dangerous to do this at the point in barking?

I don't think you should use this method, I think distractions that are more QUIET would be better for the dog.

I took him on his first outing this morning in his halti into town and my fear of him pulling was unfounded . He was great and having the abilty to quickly and slightly check his movement to the direction i wanted was brilliant . We seen a dog as we were walking through a huge carpark and as usual he barked and started trying to get close only this time the halti did its job and closed his mouth . He rapidly recoiled and tried walking backwards i can only assume to try and get his halti back off . It was a little mental but id take that for the first tie having something on his nose . The best part came when the dog had passed and we walked forwards he didnt look back as he usually does and seemed n like he didnt care about just seeing another dog . Peaks and valleys eh . Ive been filled in by my father about dog training and how its great one day and murder the next . Even though i have a moan here and there i have to say im enjoying the whole process (dare i say journey) of seeing the small evolution of my dog. Also coming on here and reading multiple threads has been a god send. I will keep updating my process mainly as a form of processing what is happening and what im doing .