Help!!!!
Does anyone have any suggestions on how to get my 5.5 month old mini to stop barking so much??? When I put her in her crate or pen, this is when I'm at home, she barks and barks. If I say " no!" She barks back at me. I've tried ignoring her, noise makers, covering her cage....nothing is working! Help!
Comments
In general Bull Terriers are indeed not known to be a breed showing lots of excessive barkers. But there are exceptions to every rule.
I know both types of Bull Terriers - the quiet ones as well as the barkers.
Some barkers become quiet ones at some point.
My last girl was a very quiet one, although she also had a short barking phase in her younger life.
Djamila on the other hand has been VERY vocal in many situations from the start and still is - not only barking. And I have already spent a good deal of time on training and controlling the issue.
The good news is that there are several things that can be done about it.
The bad news is that barking can have a lot of different reasons from seeking attention, over insecurity or the feeling of being the one who needs to protect the pack to just a constantly very high level of excitement - only to name a few.
The measures to take depend on the reasons and triggers. Therefore there’s no general rule of thumb on how to stop this, especially not immediately. At least none that I would know of.
Everything you can do will take some time, because it should always involve training.
Today Djamila knows how to bark and how to be quiet on command. Teaching a dog to bark on command is actually even harder than stopping unwanted barking - no kidding.
But she also still has her "uncontrolled" barking phases, when she just "goes off".
With her it's definitely a high excitement level and she is very protective.
But I have established a "stop command" and some calming routines that at least help us to shorten the outbursts and cut off the barking quicker.
I strongly suggest to seek the professional help of a trainer.
He can evaluate the situation in person on-site or watch a video of the situation taken by you and listen to all the details about your situation at home, crate times, exercise of your dog, temperament, excitement levels, possible anxieties etc. and then develop a strategy together with you.
Even the tiniest triggers can set off OR resolve the problem.
In the meantime my advice is to NOT yell and if possible not react to the barking as long as you do not have established a working “stop signal/command” with your dog - I know this is probably hard - because if the reason for the barking is that your dog seeks attention, giving any kind of attention (even yelling IS attention) obviously would inadvertently reinforce the barking.
One possibility is to use aversive training and stop the behavior by providing a negative consequence. This usually takes a certain number of corrections, but I would still call it the more immediate “quick (and dirty
Using a water bottle is a gentle aversive training method. But despite being painless it’s still a form of punishment. And because it is a gentle method it might not even work with a Bull Terrier roughneck (and what's next then?).
Only trying can tell, if a water bottle works.
But compared to medicine this "treatment" of the behavior is like smearing anti-itch cream on skin that is itchy from an allergic reaction over and over instead of looking into the triggers of the allergy and avoiding them - the cream only treats SYMPTOMS and not causes.
And the water bottle only puts an “off-switch” on your dog without any understanding of the behavior.
I am in general not a big fan of aversive training, but there are some insignificant or temporary situations/ dog behaviors I would consider this kind of training warranted and sufficient for.
However, I do not consider constant barking an insignificant or temporary situation.
The second approach would be trying to work on the SOURCE of the problem, look into the causes of the behavior and work on those. That’s what I suggested the trainer for.
Dogs do not do things “just for the sake of annoying” us. That’s just not their way of looking at our relationship.
They have their own interests, feel their dependence and try to use their own means (barking, nipping, going up etc. …) to communicate and trigger a reaction/interaction and/ or geht what they desire. Their way of thinking is pretty simple and when they are young very self-centered. But that changes with socializing and training. They are not "evil buggers by nature", but they don't know better before we train them.
Often when we do not react at first a dog doesn’t assume that we DON’T WANT to react. They think they just need to try harder - to us meaning practicing the undesired behavior longer or more intense - to get the desired reaction.
Many different reactions (yelling, unshaped, diffuse commands of “no”, “stop” … Dogs don’t speak English, Dutch or Japanese.
But that does not mean that we as owners are doomed to give in to any of their wishes or their undesired behaviors.
The secret lies in understanding each other and communicating. I know that many owners find it hard to really work with and train a Bull Terrier, as people do it with herding dogs for example. But after all they are dogs just as any other breed. And while they may need a little more time for this or that, with a little patience they are anything but hard to train in both obedience and basically anything else you can train with other dogs.
Often a little more communication makes punishment completely unnecessary when we try to teach our dogs patience and respect and that insisting will not bring the desired results.
With many annoying dog behaviors no aversive methods are needed at all. Once we understand the causes of the behavior, we will even automatically find completely different solutions.
In my personal opinion the second approach brings more benefit and positive learning experience for both dog and owner.
But I am completely honest: It does not only need more text to describe, it usually needs a lot more time and patience in real life. Because the owners need to analyze the situation, maybe make changes in their daily schedules or arrangements in their homes and they need to actively work together with their dog over a certain period of time. Not everybody sees much sense in doing that. Or as in your situation angry neighbors require a more immediate resolution of this "noisy situation".
I can think of a whole bouquet of possible reasons for your dog's barking, none of them being just unruly behavior for the purpose of annoying you. And if annoying is not the intention, why punish or just not listen.
Your dog is trying to tell something, that’s for sure. If your dog only barks when crated, my first guess would be that he is seeking attention and literally telling you that he “wants out”.
But again, it is really hard to tell for sure and even harder to tell the reasons why he wants out over the Internet and therefore hard to give rock solid advice on how to work on that issue.
A reason could be that your dog lacks exercise and is therefore not in the mood for resting. Or it could have TOO MUCH exercise and therefore be on a constantly high level of excitement resulting in difficulties to calm down in that confined space. Another reason could be that your dog feels excluded from the pack in the crate and tries to “tell” you that.
Maybe he was just not introduced slowly enough to the crate to feel comfy in it and now feels caged or punished when crated.
Maybe he is afraid of staying alone at home in the crate or staying alone at home in general.
If the crate is placed in a very exposed place in the house and exposes the dog itself without providing any covered areas to retreat, maybe he is just not able to find a rest in it. Maybe he hears the neighbor's dog barking and uses the only way he can think of to respond in this limited situation….
I could come up with even more “maybe’s”, if I kept thinking.
But I hope this list already shows you why it is impossible to give advice on that without knowing the entire situation.
Also maybe the possible reasons show you that changing one little thing could already be the key to stop your dog’s barking, without using any training or water bottles. It’s just impossible to tell over the Internet.
I hope I don’t sound condescending, I really don’t mean to deny helping. Sorry also for the long post.
I see that you are looking for a more immediate solution.
Still could not help and at least try and back your dog a little in this.
I personally do not like to only work on symptoms, that much is for sure. But that’s only me.
I leave it to others in the community here, who feel more comfortable with water bottles and things like that to help you out with their own experience.