In last week’s Barks and Bytes, Barking Dogs, I posted about some of the constantly barking dogs in our neighborhood.
Patricia Stover said, “Unfortunately mine seem to think a leaf blowing in the wind or someone walking by while I am in the shower or on the pot is THE most opportune time to bark incessantly at what ever bird, squirrel, child coming to/from school. Which being stuck in the situation I am in keeps me from controlling said behavior…. Any advice as to how to keep barking to a minimum would be greatly appreciated.”
I replied with this, “I use treats. When my dogs are barking at the door or window, I will check it out, then I’ll say, “It’s okay, it’s just the garbage truck, let’s go get a cookie.” I try to distract them with treats. They are much better now than they used to be.”
I thought it might be good to elaborate a bit on that. FUF is not the best post to get long-winded, because it’s typically pretty long to begin with.
My dogs bark. Make no mistake about it.
The difference between me and my neighbors is, I don’t let them bark without checking out what they are barking at and then letting them know, I’ve got it under control and redirecting them or taking action, whichever option suits the situation best.
Let’s break it down shall we:
The Bark: Hey, I see a squirrel/deer/cat/person/other dog walking, you might want to check it out.
You think if we stand here long enough she’ll give us a cookie?
The Response: I go to the door/window, look out. I say, oh, it’s just a cat, or I don’t see anything. I pet each of the dogs calmly and say, let’s go get a cookie. Cookies fix anything.
The Bark: OH MY DOG, someone I love is here!! They’re here!! I see them in the driveway, oh please, please, please let me out.
The Response: I open the slider door and let them stand on the balcony greeting our guests.
Sampson pretty much keeps to those two barks.
I’m a lover, not a barker.
Delilah however, she has a third bark. Her third bark is generally saved for people/vehicles she doesn’t know.
Two different examples. The garbage truck collecting our or our neighbor’s trash and a neighbor getting a delivery. When she spies one of these trucks her barking becomes insane. I will calmly pet her and reassure her it’s okay, but the thing that works best for her, is to distract her from the window. Just offering a cookie isn’t always a great deterrent, so I try something a little different. I take a handful of small treats and scatter them on the floor, just like I was throwing bird seed. I do this two or three times and by then, the bad thing, the thing that makes her panic, is usually gone.
The second example is worse. Poor Delilah, when the truck or service person is actually in our yard, she loses her shit.
If we are getting an appliance delivery, I secure her in a room behind a gate. Typically, if she can see what’s going on, she’s okay with that, as long as I am home and showing no signs of distress.
Oil deliveries are another story. Our fill pipe is right by the French door and it’s a full glass door. Delilah is right there at the window, frantically jumping and barking, her teeth are gnashing and she wants a piece of that action.
I can only imagine how many times our oil delivery man has had to clean out his shorts after delivering oil.
Putting a curtain up won’t work, she will only pull it down with her jumping. lately I’ve taken to trying to have the oil delivered on Saturdays, so that way there’s a chance that someone will be home. The last time it was delivered on Saturday I brought her into the bedroom, shut the door and the curtains, and fed her treats as long as she was calm.
It did work, but we haven’t done enough counter conditioning for her to actually tolerate someone at our back door.
That is how I handle their barking Patricia. And if they are outside in the yard and start barking, I always go outside to see what it is and will call them inside by offering a cookie.
Finally for your amusement, I will share the time I forgot the bug guy was coming and left the back door open.
I was in the kitchen and saw him walk across the deck at the same Delilah saw him. She took off out the back door and I ran right behind her, slamming the door in the process. (That was to keep Sampson inside, because he saw us running and wanted to follow us.) Of course, her four legs went faster than my two and luckily the bug guy had the sense to jump up on the wall. This didn’t stop her of course, she ran right up to the wall and put her face right in the general area of his crotch and told Jimmy and the Twins in no uncertain terms, intruders weren’t welcome in HER yard.
Thankfully he was very understanding and accepted my apology.
Luckily despite being in a built up area there are no barking mad dogs here and no one allows an unsupervised bark fest. We are very lucky. Have a tremendous Thursday.
Best wishes Molly
We have gotten pretty good about stopping our howling and barking when asked in the house. We used to howl every morning when Mom went upstairs to put walking or running clothes on, but after many, many times of her racing down, sometimes with nothing on even to get us to be quiet, we quit. With one dog it wouldn’t be so tough, but with three of us all in different spots it is not an easy task. Now she just has us howling when she walks Katie sometimes. Leaving us inside would stop it, but she likes us to be out for those few minutes since she is pretty much right there but she can’t stop our howling.
I can only imagine how high the bug guy’s heart rate went! Things like that always happen at least once when there are dogs in the house. We had a similar experience when the carpet guy came to measure, but it turned out he’s a dog lover and didn’t mind Daisy’s barking charge (of course, Daisy is only 15 pounds!). He charmed her and she charmed him right back. 🙂
WE confess…. We are Yard Yappers…. We need to join BA . That is what Mom says, anyway.
PLUS Ernie Barks at EVERY Animal he sees on the TV… and THAT gets on M & D’s Nerves…
Hello I am Frankie and I’m a BARKER
Hello I am Ernie and I am Also a BARKER
Both Cricket and Luke are like Delilah. Sheba will only join in with their barking and carrying on for a minute, and then stop. I pretty much handle it the same way you do, and I’d say we’re making progress but are not where I want to be yet with Luke.
That’s my biggest fear, that someone will actually come into the fenced in yard when Luke is outside. So far no one has though….but I often think about putting up a “Beware of Dog” sign just to be on the safe side.
LOL, can’t. stop. laughing. I’d have paid good money to see the bug guy scenario. Just thinking about all those colorfully described scenes in my mind will keep making me chuckle whenever they pop up in my mind throughout the day. Thanks for the laughs today though my co-workers think I’m totally bonkers whenever they hear peals of laughter coming from my office. I can always count on you and the D-Dog to get me through whatever “stuff” the lawyers are handing out. 😉
Dante has a hard time stopping barking…we’re still working on it. 🙂
Inside the house, Ducky’s the only incessant barker. Callie and Shadow usually just chill out, unless someone rings the doorbell. Then I have a 3-ring circus to contend with; but once I get hold of Ducky, the other two calm down quickly. Inside Ducky has two barks – one for “play with me!” and the other for “I gotta pee!!!” Problem is they sound identical, so it’s a guessing game. Once we figure it out, she quiets down. Outside she’s more like Delilah and her sisters are like Sampson. I would have loved to have seen the big guy’s face! Ducky has a bad habit of mortifying us if we don’t keep her away from “strangers”, so along with working with her, we have to keep her on a leash or in her crate. I won’t go into details here.
Our Becca was a barker and at everything…even nothing sometimes. I’m so grateful that neither Jack or Maggie are big barkers, well to be honest Maggie has never barked since we got her, not once, not even close and Jack only barks if someone strange is at the door…which is actually a good thing.
Haley’s not crazy about the meter readers that come close to the house once a month. I’m always worried that they’ll come walking through the yard when Haley’s already outside. She would only bark at them, but my fear is that they might over-react and do something to her, like kick her or use dog spray. I’m glad it’s never happened yet though.
OMG, LOL Delilah!! No bug people allowed here!
LOL Delilah. My dogs will bark at people coming into the yard but generally they will not get next to them and usually I can recall them. We use “sit” for getting the dogs to stop barking. That means sit quietly and shut up…lol. I think we have discovered why Storm has been barking in the early morning and disturbing our sleep. We think she hears some animal run across the deck. Probably the stupid skunk! Not sure how to stop that aside from blocking off the deck. Maybe we can get some predator urine to keep said animal off the deck.
Gambler doesn’t bark which is so nice as the girls are busting a gut over any little noise.