Training Tips.

swbaggies

I have a couple of questions in relation to a couple of things Arrow has started doing the last few weeks.

1. He has started growling when approached when eating. He never growls at any other time and when he is finished he doesnt growl. He sits before he eats. I have been taking his food straight up from him when he growls. Anything else i should do or will he just learn growl= food goes

2. When i researched the breed it said the are not big barkers. im sre i read this . Well mine must be the exception then lol. When he is in the yard or the house wth the door opens and he spots a dog or person going past he barks and growls, like a warning.If somebody aproaches the house or rings the bell or comes up to the gate he does nothing and doesnt even go look, oddly it seems only when people are going past. When I walk him, he is not dog/people aggressive (if anything he was timid, not now) and NEVER barks at anything. We have a lot of strays and street dogs in Phuket so it means he barks a lot as lots of dogs wander past. I dont mind him barking, just what he is barking at.... e.g. in an ideal world i am not sure whether it prefer him to never bark rather than he is now. Ideally id like him to bark ONLY when people approach the house, if he is to bark at all. 

any tips?

swbaggies

cont....

at the moment, i dont scold him for barking and i just call his name or stroke him. I appreciate the stroke may be telling him he is doing good but I dont want him to stop barking, just the timing.

Ive looked at things online and most articles ref shock collars(which id rather not use) seem to aim to eliminate barking not change the timings.

also forgot to add that as they are street dogs he is barking at he sees them and meets them when he is walked and shows no agression or barking, just when on the property.

Sorry to waffle.

Laylas_Mommy

I'm not sure if these are normal bully actions per say but I can without a doubt tell you we went through both with Layla. As far as the food aggression we simply took turns hand feeding her every meal (rotating family members) a few days. I just assumed her growling was because she was afraid someone would get her food so by hand feeding her we were just reassuring her that we knew it was her food and we wouldn't take it only give it to her. The barking however took a little while longer. Layla was the same way only barked if someone or something walked past. Layla is quite the attention hog and I'm convinced she only barked because they were ignoring her. We tried several things but what finally worked for us was actually physically turning her away from the door or window and telling her no. Well actually I told her she was being rude and not to worry everyone loved her even if they ignored her. I would squat in front of her and make sure she kept her attention on me for as long as was bully possible and I would try to do this every single time. Like you I didn't want her to think it wasn't okay to bark just that there was a right time so I made it a point when she did bark at the right time for example something in the back yard (her domain) or if someone rang the bell I would always praise her, bearing in mind not to let her continue too long after the praise or she would just keep going. My sassy Layla will always be a vocal puppy and I'm more than okay with that for me it was more about her not knowing when she had made her point lol. I hope this helps a little!

Djammy

I have finally managed to finish another essay for my blog on issues with excessive barking.
Maybe there are still some useful tips in it:

Help, my English Bull Terrier doesn't stop barking! How to stop barking dogs

Today I also shot this video as "decoration" for the article. Turned out kind of cute. This trick took us a while. But it's working fine today.