My 1 yr old Shihtzu barks when I sit down after.. (laser, toy)

[Debsdog]

taking her potty or whenever we sit down no matter what we have just done. We potty trained her by giving her treats after coming back in from doing a good job pottying. Now she will bark and bounce around and wont stop after coming back in unless we give her a treat and we feel she doesn't need a treat for going potty every time! We do give her a treat first potty time in the morning and we also give her a before bedtime potty treat.
By giving her a treat for every potty time, she stopped eating her dog food and will go for days by only eat treats. She also barks wanting out, runs outside, squats for a few seconds then comes right back in wanting a treat! Thus the barking and begging begins! How do we break her of this? She gets exercise because we play with her by throwing balls, using a laser light she chases, clap our hands that she responds too by running in circles, etc. She gets plenty attention all day as we are older and are home with her and she sits next to or on one of us all the time. We have tried the NO word, tried ignoring her and tried playing more, but this continues for at least 5 mins...annoying!! Help!

[chet everett]

Probably better off in another part of the forum related to pets unless you thing there is something unique amount Illinios ; we do lead the nation in soy bean production, I imagine that could be used in doggies treats...

[linicx]

You need to take control. Make sure your dog has dry dog food and fresh water to eat and drink at all times. Ignore the rest. Verbal commands: Foo-eee! Stop! Quiet! Shhhh! Pick the dog up: "Good dog, good girl!" Put the dog down. NO treats.

Dog are pack animals that dominate. Your girl is the Alpha female who has you trained to her liking. In the wild a dog may only eat once a week. She will not starve herself to death if you do not give treats. Giving treats is akin to giving a child candy instead of a meal.

Your dog needs company; get her a younger live cat; not a kitten. Unless you are a breeder and keep her in a cage all day, SPAY/ Neuter calms bad habits. A knee to the chest with a firm "NO! "will generally stop jumping on you and others. Like all training, it must be consistent.

Ankle biters are small dogs that are generally high strung; they jump and bark. One reason is because they cannot see out of any window; all they see are walls and furniture. They like to sleep in sunshine. So do cats.

Siamese and Burmese cats are very vocal high jumpers on counter tops, tables and higher than the average feline. Himalayan cats are the exact opposite. They are low key, quiet, and don't jump much higher than the sofa as they have short legs and they are muscular, but they do like lap time.

Set limits. Cat and dogs do not like to be swatted with a rolled up newspaper (small and light weight). I suppose it is the sound as it does not hurt. This is not the Sunday paper filled with ads. Smack the inside of your wrist. It if hurts, the rolled up paper is too heavy.
Use sparingly.

[Debsdog]

Thank you linicx.

[k9coach]

OK since you are thanking someone for advising you to knee your Shih Tzu in the chest, smack her with newspaper, and buy her a "live cat" I will step in here.

Your mistake was rewarding a dog for pottying once the dog came back inside. If you want to use rewards to reinforce potty training, you must give the treat outside, immediately after the dog potties, NOT once they come back in the house.

There is a process called extinction in animal training (and people training!). The way it works is you stop reinforcement permanently. In your case that simply means never ever give her a treat when she comes back inside. Ever. Now it is important that you understand the phenomenon that will occur: the extinction burst. Coming back inside has always worked in the past as a means to obtain a treat. When it stops working, at first the dog will try even harder to demand the treat. Act like you don't see, hear, or feel her. Her tantrum is part of the extinction process. Think about opening a jar. If one is extremely hard to open, you don't just give up. You run it under hot water, you beat it with a knife handle, you get out one of those rubber jar gripper things, you use every trick in the book because you know that eventually it will open. BUT what if no jar ever opened ever again? You'd eventually quit trying. You'd come to believe that jars just do not open so there is no point in trying to get one open. That's the process your dog will go through when you stop giving treats at predictable times.

If she is barking every time you sit down, that means there is a payoff for her. Dogs do what works, and intermittent reinforcement is even more powerful than consistent reinforcement. That means if she is barking at you and sometimes you ignore her but sometimes you give in to her demands, you are cementing that barking behavior in the most powerful way possible. Think slot machine addict. Intermittent payoff.

If I was working with a dog who had learned that barking pays, I would implement a robot plan. I would become a robot who is activated by barking. As long as there is no barking I will interact, give attention and affection, etc. But as soon as the dog barks, that's like pushing a button that makes the robot get up, walk away, and remove all attention from the dog. I promise if you do that every time, every day for a year she will stop this type of barking. It won't take a year, I'm just making a point. I have a feeling the most effective way for your dog to get your attention is to demand it. She is smart and is simply doing what works.

Use treats to reward quiet. Use treats to reward calm. Treats should not be tied in with the daily schedule, they should be used to mark specific behaviors we want to reinforce. Start practicing the "sit on the dog" exercise. This is when you sit on your dog's leash leaving enough slack for her to lay down and not much else. Here are a couple videos demonstrating what I mean:


Capturing Calmness- how to train calmness in dogs- dog training - YouTube


How to Sit on the Dog - Dream Dogz - YouTube

[runswithscissors]

Originally Posted by linicx

You need to take control. Make sure your dog has dry dog food and fresh water to eat and drink at all times. Ignore the rest. Verbal commands: Foo-eee! Stop! Quiet! Shhhh! Pick the dog up: "Good dog, good girl!" Put the dog down. NO treats.

Dog are pack animals that dominate. Your girl is the Alpha female who has you trained to her liking. In the wild a dog may only eat once a week. She will not starve herself to death if you do not give treats. Giving treats is akin to giving a child candy instead of a meal.

Your dog needs company; get her a younger live cat; not a kitten. Unless you are a breeder and keep her in a cage all day, SPAY/ Neuter calms bad habits. A knee to the chest with a firm "NO! "will generally stop jumping on you and others. Like all training, it must be consistent.

Ankle biters are small dogs that are generally high strung; they jump and bark. One reason is because they cannot see out of any window; all they see are walls and furniture. They like to sleep in sunshine. So do cats.

Siamese and Burmese cats are very vocal high jumpers on counter tops, tables and higher than the average feline. Himalayan cats are the exact opposite. They are low key, quiet, and don't jump much higher than the sofa as they have short legs and they are muscular, but they do like lap time.

Set limits. Cat and dogs do not like to be swatted with a rolled up newspaper (small and light weight). I suppose it is the sound as it does not hurt. This is not the Sunday paper filled with ads. Smack the inside of your wrist. It if hurts, the rolled up paper is too heavy.
Use sparingly.

DO NOT DO ANY OF THESE THINGS.

Also do not do the clappng hands running in circle thing, laser light hysteria thing. It makes them neurotic and anxious. These things are NOT exercise.

Besides K9Coach's excellent advise:

She needs exercise. Real exercise long WALKS. A tired enriched dog is a calm dog. She is also bored. Take her for walks three times a day. Especially in the morning so if you work, she is not stuck there all revved up with no outlet all day.

Just stop giving treats. If it takes a minute, give a piece or two of DOG FOOD but wean her off that habit.

Be calm. Stop clapping! Be a calm leader and be fair. Expecting a dog to live inside 4 walls or just hang around outside in the yard doing nothing but acting excited, or turning in circles or trying to catch a laser light is not fair. I know you didn't know this or do anything mean on purpose. Just sayin'.

Dogs walk just like fish swim and birds fly. This is your solution. And it will take her some time to just learn to walk on a leash calmly and not be hysterical every time she sees a dog or something because that's what she knows/has been taught.

Lastly, give her a Nylabone/Gumabone to chew on and get her anxieties out. Lay on the floor and hold it for her if she doesn't know what to do with it. AFTER the walk.

Watch this for everything you need to know; it's never too late, every dog wants to be in balance:

Part 1

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rgZyN...xzXTUr&index=1

Part 2

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bLoLl...qp_K0zfyxzXTUr

Part 3

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8c19o...qp_K0zfyxzXTUr

Part 4

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s2gCG...qp_K0zfyxzXTUr

[linicx]

It's worked for me for 50 years.

[abbara]

Oh no don't knee your dog or use the newspaper. Yes it will work but do you want your dog fear you.

Just don't reward negative behavior.
If you gave a child a new toy every time you went to the store because it cried, sure the kid is going to scream and carry on, if he saw he/she got their way.

My one dog loves to eat and I got into this too but after just ignoring him when barking he stopped doing it. ( I think it was harder on me.lol)

[L0ve]

Dogs are masters at training people, much better than most people can train them.

You have allowed yourself to be trained by a dog by responding to her tantrums and reinforcing her behavior.

Think in terms of cause and effect. Dogs quickly learn to push buttons if that button gets them what they want. When she pushes your button, you need to ignore the button and send a clear message that the behavior is unacceptable.

You are in control of her food. If a child screams to eat ice cream for every meal, you give them healthy meals instead, when you decide it is the proper time to eat. People who do not spoil their dogs with excessive treats, generally have zero feeding issues. An animal will never starve itself unless it has a serious medical issue.

[AngelBy]

My male dog barks whenever he's in the back yard and looks out the fence and sees the cars slow down, stop or turn ... the ongoing cars don't bother him much.

And in the house, whenever I cut something for cooking, pull up/down the blinds ... it seems that the noise makes him nervous and he circle around barking ... If I give him a treat, he stops and continues circling, barking/wimping again ...

The other 2 female dogs are just very calm and they lay down relaxed ... only this boy is panic like crazy (I picked him on the street 2 yrs ago). We thought he must be abused a lot before get abandoned.

Please advise how can I stop his behavior?