paul
Settling in well!
Posts: 72
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Post by paul on Apr 18, 2016 12:19:16 GMT
Hi all. Our Teddy can be a bit of a barker and we have put up with it for some time now. Recently though I decided to give bark and quiet on command a go. I was sceptical about teaching him to bark, I really didn't want to make things worse. Anyway, I started training the command and pairing them together and he is responding quite well. The problem I have encountered though is he we bark now on some occasions that he would not normally bark. He will go quiet on command when this happens, but I am concerned that he is learning to bark for the treat reward that comes after the quiet command. There doesn't seem to be a great deal of advice about this particular situation on the Web, so I wondered if anyone on the forum could help? Like my thread on eating sticks, I have been advised to distract with a squirt of water, but not to let him know where the water in coming from, which would be pretty difficult to do. Thanks
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Post by orpheous87 on Apr 18, 2016 22:14:51 GMT
I think, at the beginning of training any new command, you need to treat every time so that the dog gets the idea but eventually you want to phase the treats out so that a marker word will do i.e. "Good!" So, if he's reliably responding to the commands and you can get him to respond, say, 20 times out 20, maybe only treat him 15 out of 20 times but mix it up so that he'll get a treat two or three times before missing one, then go back to treating for a few times. That way he'll never be sure whether he's getting a treat or not and should hopefully respond every time just in case. Then, eventually, you'll be able to only treat him every now and again.
Good luck with the training! I've tried to teach Cody to bark on command, but got told off by my parents for him making too much noise - not much help! So he continues to bark and bark at the drop of a hat. Very frustrating!
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paul
Settling in well!
Posts: 72
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Post by paul on Apr 19, 2016 12:16:41 GMT
Thanks orpheous87 for the response. I will do as you advise with Teddy.
It was all good intentioned teaching him quiet and bark, in an attempt to stop annoying the neighbours. What is really annoying is we are training both dogs obedience and before when I put Teddy in a 'stay' he was pretty good, but now he remains in the stay but barks at me. I could never do a competitive stay with him randomly barking as I certainly wouldn't be popular.
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Post by lotsofcats on Apr 19, 2016 14:30:21 GMT
I wish I could get my dog Kobi to stop barking, especially when we are out walking, he barks at every dog we meet. It can be very embarrassing. Any ideas anyone, on how to stop him barking?
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Post by scallywag on Apr 19, 2016 17:03:51 GMT
I wish I could get my dog Kobi to stop barking, especially when we are out walking, he barks at every dog we meet. It can be very embarrassing. Any ideas anyone, on how to stop him barking? I know what you mean Jenny Beau is getting that way too. I see a dog coming towards us and I cross over, if the dogs on the other side of the road already I have to distract him, telling him to LEAVE IT 99% of the time it works, but some dogs just start having a go at him anyways and he has to join in Grrrr
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Post by orpheous87 on Apr 19, 2016 20:10:01 GMT
I was watching an episode of It's Me or the Dog the other day and it was a Pomeranian who wouldn't stop barking. Like, he was barking constantly. Victoria explained to the owners that she wanted to wait for 3 seconds of quiet before marking it and rewarding. She sat there for 20 minutes while the dog barked at her without taking a breath. Eventually he was quiet for 3 seconds and she got to reward him. This is a good idea, in theory, but I don't know about you, I'm positive my neighbours would have something to say if we let Cody bark solidly for 20 minutes without shutting up!
Granted that Pomeranian was an extreme case. Any other dog would probably give up much quicker, allowing you to mark and reward much quicker. I've tried with Cody, but no matter what the marker is (clicker or word), as soon as we've given the treat, he barks again. And he'll quite happily continue that way for as long as we want to treat him. Trying to wait for longer than 3 seconds is always risky because he'll bark again fairly quickly if he gets no response.
My problem is that I know all the theory and the recommended ways of stopping barking, but can't (for various reasons) put them into practice. I need a different approach for Cody.
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