Annoying new barking behavior

[dmwlakewylie]

It sounds like Willie is excited about his walks. His barking seems to be more of a 'yippee, I am so excited, I want to share my excitement with the world'. I was going to suggest the same thing dogpaw said - do the training when you have time during the day. Maybe you can get earplugs for the training so you can wait him out. And, when he is quiet, your praise should be a soft 'good boy' or whatever your reinforcement word is (maybe with a little treat) as not to excite him further. Good luck!

I guess you posted right before mine so maybe the ignore won't work as well as hoped. I know some people have a can with pennies they shake or create some strange noise to interrupt the behavior.

[dogpaw]

If putting your shoes on is the main issue then putting them on some place where he can't see you is probably your best bet.

Finn doesn't like to be ignored so it's easier to work on this behavior with him. If your guy doesn't care about being ignored then most likely ignoring isn't the best way to go about fixing it.

Just curious, what kind of dog is Willie?

[TabulaRasa]

It's definitely an excited thing (as opposed to the mailman thing, which is clearly territorial).

He actually loves attention, but he's suuuuuper stubborn and difficult to redirect, in general. He just now gave up on the mailmain, so I turned my attention back on, gave him a bacon treat, and am stroking his ears. But I know he only gave up because he wanted to. Awww, now he's lying at my feet again.

He's a beagle mix. He's doesn't do the classic beagle bay/howl/bugle, he just barks, and in pretty isolated circumstances, thankfully.

[dogpaw]

I don't know much about Beagles, I have heard that they can be very stubborn and very talkative.

Good luck, I hope you are able to find a solution.

[Va-Cat]

This is probably going to sound overly simplistic but have you tried putting him on leash first and then putting on your shoes? It does seem to be all about association with the shoes. Just trying to think of some way to disassociate the shoes with the walk in the morning...... I know a screaming bark would get me right to the roots of my teeth at 5:30am!

[TabulaRasa]

Hah, not too simplistic, and I have been doing the leash him first, then put on my shoes thing, recently...no real difference, though. Hmmmm.

Dogpaw, he's got the intensely stubborn thing down, but he's not nearly as talkative as most. He's only part beagle, though...just seemingly in all the parts that count.

[foxywench]

my first suggestion would be change the order in which you do things. mabe leave him in his crate untill your shoes are on, ect...

my other suggestion is when you have time...spend some time putting your shoes on then taking them off randomly through the day so he learns that shoes on doesnt automatically mean walk...essentially desensitize him to the action.

and worse comes to worse i agree, put shoes on while not in his line of sight

im having some issues with an obsessive barker too, im wondering if its spring fever lol as my guy has never been a barker and knows 'enough"...for some reason lately hes gone into barky and ignore enough command mode...
least your guy seems to have a trigger which will make things easier to work on desensitizing and "re-training"

[TabulaRasa]

I do a little bit of the mixing things up, i.e. putting his leash and harness on before shoes, and vice versa, putting on my jacket and then, instead of continuing the "going out the door in a minute" routine, walk around the house with it on for a little bit, etc. I can't leave him in the crate, because he's not been crated when this issue most commonly arises, he's just awakened from sleeping on the bed.

I already do put shoes on/take shoes off intermittently throughout the day at times when it doesn't mean "walk" time...this is actually what's made me notice the behavior...the fact that he barks if I put on house slippers...or if I put on flip flops to go down to the basement. Or to run out to the car or garage or take the trash out or check the mail. He expects that shoes=walk, when they certainly don't, and never have, and aren't going to start. Not sure why this has cropped up, suddenly.

This morning, since it's not a work morning, I had time to do the ignore thing when preparing for his a.m. walk. As soon as I went for my shoes, he started barking. I oriented my body away from him, and stopped getting ready, and walked away. He tried to get my attention, but I ignored. When he was quiet, acknowledged him, praised him, and started getting ready again. He started barking again. Rinse, repeat. This went on for about a half-hour, and, as predicted, he was super worked up the longer it went on, b/c he had to pee. But I didn't take him out until he stopped barking at me. It did take slightly longer than a half-hour, though. Def. am not going to have time for that on the typical work morning, and to be honest, I'm not going to get up earlier than 5:30 to do it, either.

[lifelongMOgal]

Originally Posted by TabulaRasa

I'm thinking of doing the ignore/wait out method - withdraw all attention to the behavior until the behavior stops a la human ABA - the only problem with this is that you have to commit to the wait out 100%, and this could a. make me late to work, b. still wake everybody up while I wait it out and c. increase the likelihood of him peeing or crapping on the floor due to my waiting for his calmness to take the morning constitutional, thus setting the stage for another potential behavior I'd not like to introduce to the equation.

We'll see.

I'm not sure on spending the $ on a citronella collar...he seems impervious to citronella.

I liked luvmycat's suggestion. Here is another that works with a fenced yard: Put the dog outside before you go to put your shoes on. When you let the dog in wait awhile and do normal daily tasks before it is time to go for a walk. Let the dog be accustomed to shoes on not necessarily meaning an immediate walk. It sounds as though you may have to wear shoes more often in the house instead of only putting them on to walk out the door for anything, at least until the habit is broken.

[Offsetdude]

Moderator cut: rude to other posters and cruel Okay dogs bark, it is one of their jobs, if this is a problem get rid of the dog and get fish they don't bark too much.