Dog Behavior Training - Barking Problem

This will be one of the few dog behavior training tips, start with knowing what start the Barking problems and how to react to it.


Dogs bark, that’s normal, of course. But excessive barking can be considered a problem especially if it becomes uncontrollable. Your pets bark, whine and howl to a certain degree. If men talk, dogs bark to communicate to their masters. See why your canine pet is vocalizing. The common reasons for barking are the following:


1. Your Dog Wants to Alert or Warn You, Your pet dogs bark to alert us of any intruders or strangers near our property. Dogs are very loyal guards to its owners. When it senses danger, it warns the owner and tries to scare the intruder by barking. But excessive barking, even without any sign of danger, could sometimes prove to be inconvenient and unpleasant.


2. Your Dog Wants to PlayDogs naturally show their excitement and playfulness by barking. When your pooch wants to have quality playtime with you, you would hear him barking incessantly until you give him the time of the day.

3. Your Dog Wants to Call Your AttentionYour beloved pets bark to call our attention on the littlest things. It may be a stranger outside or a noise that threatened them. When your dog is not feeling well or comfortable or is feeling pain, he would call your attention by barking. If he wants to eat, is feeling too hot, he wants you to do something, he barks.


4. Your Dog Is AnxiousWhen our dogs feel unsafe and threatened, they make sounds and bark until they are assured that their masters address their needs. Our pooch would sometimes be anxious about noises or movements. They bark when they are left alone or from separation anxiety from their masters. Aversion to certain people and other animals may cause them to excessively bark as well.

5. Your Dog May Be BoredAre your dogs in the lawn all day, tied to its leash in its small dog house? Do not wonder why they’re barking incessantly then. Your dog may be bored out of its wits and is asking you to take him out for a walk or play. Dogs need stimulation. They have a natural instinct or drive to be active such as dig, chase or tear things. It is important to remember that dogs are social animals.


6. Your Dog Is Responding or Reacting to Other DogsDogs bark at other dogs to communicate or to warn them of their territory. As alpha male in a pack, it wants to make its superiority known by barking. This is normal for dogs especially those who are not used to socializing with other canine pets.

And now let’s get to how or what we owners should do with our dog’s barking problem.

Give the dog what it needs. Our dogs sometimes bark to call our attention. When they bark, we yell back at them. Them, getting yelled at, is for them better than nothing. Because boredom can be one reason why your dog is excessively barking, be sure that you take him out regularly to walk or play. Make sure that your pet has enough food and water and some toys to play with when you are not in the house and when the dog is alone at home. Moreover, be certain that the dog has a comfortable place to stay in and relax. 

Get your dog used to being alone. This may sound strange but if you really think about it, it makes sense. Try to stop petting or rewarding your dog for doing nothing. This is because they become dependent on these reenforcements and they find it hard to be happy and comfortable when they’re alone without you to give these rewards. The only time you should give your dogs treat is when he is able to respond correctly to a command such as “quiet!” or “stay!”. 

Try to minimize saying goodbye. Dogs remember things well. When you get him used to seeing you go, he feels that he will be alone and starts to feel anxious about being alone. Do not make a big deal about leaving home. 

When your canine pets bark, try to distract them to make them forget about their feelings of anxiety or fears and keep them from remembering whatever caused them to bark repeatedly.

This will be the end of the first part of some of the dog behavior training, in which barking problems is the initial problem to begin with.

Fix Dog Behavior Problem | How to Train Your Dog

When adopting a new puppy, there are training issues that need to be addressed from the beginning. Although the puppy is undeniably cute, if certain behaviors are not addressed from the beginning, and if alpha dominance is not established by the owner from the beginning, the puppy will grow up with destructive behaviors that will be much harder to break as an adult. There are very simple solutions to many of these problem behaviors, and if the training starts as soon as the puppy enters the household, many of the presenting problems will not even manifest, since they were addressed the first couple of times that they occurred.

Issues

There are many different types of dog behavior problems that individuals will go to a trainer to help them address with their dogs. One of these dog behavior problems is excessive barking. There are some dogs that seem to have the propensity to bark at every possible noise, person, other dog or animal, and just for the fun of it. This barking can become annoying to the owner, and also to the neighbors, especially if the individual lives in an apartment or condominium.

Another dog behavior problem is digging in the yard. This can be a difficult issue to stop once it has started and can cause a lot of damage and even safety issues if it is not corrected. Digging can not only create holes in the yard, but can destroy gardens and flower beds. In addition, the dogs will often dig near the circumference of the yard so that the holes inadvertently go beneath the fence, allowing the dog to escape and the possibility of harm to come to the animal.

If there are multiple pets in the home, there can also be a dog behavior problem with food aggression. There are some dogs that start to protect their food from the other animals, snapping at them or chasing them away from their food dish. This can be dangerous, as snapping can lead to biting, and if there are small children in the home, the behavior can also be manifested towards them if they are in the vicinity. There is also dog to dog aggression that can arise between certain dogs, especially if it is two male dogs that are not neutered.

In addition to these aggression problems, there are also dog behavior problems involving a variety of other issues such as separation anxiety, chewing problems, thieving issues, running away and whining.

Dog Behavior Problem

Eating dirt

The ultimate cause for eating dirt is pica or licking and eating extraordinary objects combined with anemia. This isn’t very likely if there is no proof of anemia. In some instance, pica takes place with exocrine pancreatic insufficiency, chronic pancreatitis and chronic gastrointestinal disease but it doesn’t appear to be an eminent outlook of these diseases.

Digging holes

Digging holes is one of dog behavior problems which are considered as a normal conduct but is difficult to stop. However, if the reason for the digging is treatable and identifiable, it might help the behavior and if it has a reference to separation anxiety most particularly. There are numerous possible reasons for digging. It includes curiosity displaced aggression, wanting to escape the confines of the yard, separation anxiety, trying to stay cool in the summer or warm in the winter, boredom and aggression.

Sniffing or digging behavior

There are some possible reasons for seeing this kind of dog behavior problem. Some dogs perform this when they have a swelling anal sac leaking small amounts of exudates whenever they sit somewhere. This will guide them to examine the odor. We have perceived this to occur in dogs who are usually leaking urine. You may not be conscious of it if the urine leakage is small, but your dog would be able to and it can annoy the sniffing or digging behavior. It could be a phenomenon of separation anxiety if it occurs often when you are unable to supervise your dog.

Puppy play behavior

Dogs are able to recognize behavior anticipations between his interaction with people and with another puppy or dog. This is sometimes counted as a normal dog behavior problem. So, you don’t have to concern much and avoid not switching the interactions happening between themselves, except they begin to carry over to interactions between them and the children.

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Bad dog! Solving problem behaviors.

We wrote earlier this week about how easy it can be to accidentally reward your dog for bad behavior. So, how can you avoid this common training mistake? Let’s talk about how to fix behavior problems.

Photo by Jordi Espel

It’s important to pay attention to what’s rewarding your dog’s behavior. If you notice a behavior increasing, pay attention to what happens right after your dog performs that behavior. If your dog dances into the living room with your dirty underpants in his mouth and you cry out and give chase, what did your dog just learn? (Stealing underwear is a great way to start a fun chase game!) If your dog lunges at the end of his leash and you say his name to get his attention, what did he just learn? (Lunging at the end of the leash works to get my owner’s attention!)

Now, there are some other factors to take into consideration here. If your dog is displaying an unwanted behavior, there are three possible reasons why. Either you haven’t taught your dog what you want him to do in that situation, your dog’s needs aren’t being sufficiently met, or the rewards for that unwanted behavior are more powerful than the rewards for not doing it.

In most cases, dogs display unwanted behaviors because we haven’t taught them what we want them to do in a given situation. It’s normal behavior for dogs to dig, bark, chew things up, urinate, defecate, mark, hump, jump up, lick, roll in stinky stuff, and steal food. With the possible exception of humping and rolling in filth, we don’t mind when our dogs do any of these behaviors, as long as they do so when and where we wish. However, until a dog has learned where and when it’s appropriate to engage in these behaviors, it’s not fair to blame him for doing what comes naturally.

It’s completely unfair to blame your dog for engaging  in a natural behavior if you haven’t shown him what to do instead. Oftentimes people will punish their dog for doing something “wrong,” but forget to reward him when he gets it right. Consider this: there are probably hundreds of horrible behaviors your dog could do at any given time, and only one or two behaviors you’d like him to do. Instead of having to tell him “no” for each of those horrible things, why not just teach him what the correct option is right from the start? For example, if your dog chews up the table leg and you tell him no, he’s learned not to chew on the table leg. He still hasn’t learned that he can’t chew on the carpet, the stairs, the sofa, or the kids. If you instead make sure to reward him every single time he chews on his puppy toys and make his chew toys especially tempting by occasionally stuffing them with food or treats, he’ll quickly develop a preference for his own toys and will stop chewing on the furniture altogether.

Sometimes dogs engage in unwanted behaviors because their needs are not being sufficiently met, and if that’s the case, you need to address your dog’s needs if you want his behavior to change. A dog who lunges and barks at people or other dogs because he’s insecure needs to have his safety issues addressed before the lunging and barking will disappear. A bored dog who barks or destroys your property needs to be provided with physical and mental exercise before his destructive behavior can be resolved. Make sure your dog’s physical, social, and emotional needs are being met, and you can prevent most behavior issues before they start.

If you’ve taught your dog what you want her to do in a given situation and provided lots of reinforcement for doing so, and if you’re sure that all of her needs are being met, it’s likely that the rewards for performing the problem behavior are more powerful than the rewards you’ve provided for the alternate behavior. This is often the case with instinctive behaviors, such as predatory chasing, sniffing/scent tracking, or digging. Some behaviors just plain feel good to dogs, and a self-reinforcing behavior such as chasing squirrels or nipping at moving feet can be a difficult problem to resolve. In these cases, it’s important to manage your dog to prevent her from rehearsing the unwanted behavior (remember, “practice makes perfect!”) and work at strengthening her response to other behaviors you can use to interrupt the naughty one, such as come and leave it.

Finally, consider whether you can utilize the naughty behavior as a reward in training in order to harness its power. If your dog can walk on a loose leash, perhaps he can earn the chance to pee on the fire hydrant. If your dog can turn and look at you, perhaps she can earn the chance to chase that squirrel (on leash, with you holding the other end of the leash for safety). If your dog loves to bark and howl, perhaps you can put being noisy on cue and give her permission to let loose after she’s been especially well behaved. This is called the Premack principle and is an incredibly powerful training concept.

There is no magic cure for problem behaviors, but there is a simple formula that will resolve must issues.

1. Manage your dog to prevent the bad behavior (remember, practice makes perfect!)

2. Figure out why your dog is engaging in the bad behavior and resolve any underlying issues that may be contributing.

3. Decide what you want your dog to do instead, and train this.

If you’re struggling with a behavior problem, whether it’s a dog who can’t be potty trained or a serious issue such as fear or aggression, there’s no shame in consulting with a professional. Talk to a Certified Professional Dog Trainer and get their help in putting together a plan to fix your dog’s problem. Getting the benefit of a professional’s experience and education can be a godsend to struggling owners, not to mention the benefits of getting an extra set of eyes to look at the problem.

So, does your dog have any major issues you’d like help resolving? Which of the three reasons above do you think is contributing the most? What have you tried so far, and did it work? Please share your stories in the comments!