help puppy barking

[pbowhunter]

just brought home a seven week old pup. Her mom was a black lab and dad a chesapek(spelling). she barks not agressivly toward other dogs or people. But, she barks when she is left alone in the kennel, if i leave her on the yard leash, or playing. I want to try to get rid of most of this behavior as soon as possible. was wondering who else has encountered this behavior and the best method to stoping this. I have been just saying shh everytime she does so far.

[Ralph Wiggum]

Add a healthy squirt (as much as you can get in there) of lemon juice into her mouth after you tell her QUIET. She should pick up on the idea quickly.

[WaveWacker]

Welcome to the world of a new puppy. Don't be to too hard on her at her age.

[Heartman]

Plain old squirt gun following a "No barking" command. Doesn't have to malicious, just right in the kisser each time. We use water and it works good, and you can do it from a short distance away.

[nofishfisherman]

If she's barking only when in a kennel or in the yard by herself she could just be anxious about being alone.

My pup rarely ever barks but he'll whine a little when left alone or if I crate him.

At first it was pretty intense and would keep me awake but after a few days it got better and now he only whines for a second or two or if he needs to get out to go to the bathroom.

The other reason dogs bark is if they are bored and want attention. Just yelling at the dog won't stop the behavior becuase they see it is that the barking they are doing finally got your attention. They don't realize its negative attention, its all the same to them.

[jeffreyd]

How about a 1 yr old lab that wants to eat everyones sack lunch when he sees them or even hears someone in the other yards? Have tried the spray but he just laughs at me. Do not want to keep him from barking but need to control his aggression when he sees others. He plays all day with other dogs and is around other people but when we go out, he just goes nuts.

[OutlawTorn]

Pup just needs some crate training. Best way I've found is to just ignore it. My Chessie was easy to crate train and hardly cried at all, but my GSP is a big baby - through and through.

He whined and cried and barked for weeks when we brought him home and started crate training. He eventually stopped, too.

As long as you are reasonable about potty breaks and the normal social interaction with your pup, they should spend a LOT of time in the kennel when you first bring them home. It gives them a place in the house, helps to teach potty training, etc. Best thing to do is to just ignore it as long as you have no concerns for its saftey and you know its bladder is empty.

Also, if dad is a 'peake, remember - those dogs were bred first to hunt and second to be watch dogs and watch dogs bark...its just what they do when left to their own devices...its still just a behavior that can be modified though.

[Walleye Widower]

I try to stay away from these things, but I can’t do it anymore. Here’s my disclaimer: I am not a professional dog trainer, I have only trained two dogs in my life, but I feel I am more qualified to answer some of these questions than most. I do not train hunting dogs, I train working line German Shepherd Dogs for the sport of Schutzhund, I have not yet competed in a regional trial and I have not titled a dog, hopefully if everything goes well I will put a SchH 1 on my new puppy in Sept 2010. My current GSD is retired as a pet; she cannot do the work required for trials.

Whoever gives advice to get a squirt gun and squirt the dog with a “no” or pour lemon juice in the pups (or dog for that matter) mouth is an [PoorWordUsage] and should not be giving advice on their idea of dog training.

Please don’t do this to your dog, it is mean, it will ruin your bond with him, destroys trust with your dog and it probably will not work. As an example, how about the next time you talk I walk over and punch you in the stomach because I don’t like your voice, it is the same thing. It absolutely amazes me how people’s common sense goes straight out the window when it comes to our dogs.

The people who give advice like this do not have a good bond with their dog, you can tell by just looking how the dog looks or interacts with them; they do not look happy, they don’t wag their tail, they are not having fun, they don’t have that special twinkle in their eye and in extreme cases cower at the owners feet as soon as they make a mistake. Remember, a dog may respect you (because it has been forced to) but he will not have a true bond with the handler, he only works for you because he has to. Don’t bother arguing with me on this point, I wont respond.

A pack leader is always fair, consistent, never mean, never raises his voice and gets seriously mad at the dog, is calm, is not a bully (like the people who squirt lemon juice in the dog mouth) and does not hit their dog (including but not limited to newspapers, hands, rocks, BB guns).

In your case, make sure the pup is healthy just to rule out any health problems. . This is the first thing to do, once you have ruled out any health problems you have several options, here is two of them:

1. Teach the dog to bark on command, when that is done, teach him “no bark” this can be done by using marker training (if you don’t know what that is, learn about, it is very effective dog training tool)

2. Buy a Tri-Tronics or Dogtra no bark collar, do not buy any other brand, other brands don’t work and you will be wasting your money. Very low-level stimulation does not hurt a dog. Cheap e-collars and cheap bark collar do not work consistently, which equals mixed signals to your dog (not good)

Other things that could be going on:

• If he is teething he will be uncomfortable which maybe causing the barking (but that is usually about 4-6 months of age)

• He might have slight separation anxiety (if this is the case you will have to do some research).

• He may be doing it for attention, if this is the case don’t let him “win”, crate train the dog, put him in the crate, when he barks and acts stupid don’t let him out, only let him out if he is calm. This may take a while and there is much more to a proper pack structure program and crate training that I can get into right now.

• Make sure the pup is getting enough attention from you, don’t put a dog in a kennel for 12 hours at a time and expect him not to do “bad things”

• Make sure he is not bored, get a kong or other chew toy, fill it with peanut butter or frozen yogurt to keep him busy, if he is teething this may not help.

I would suggest doing a lot of research on raising a puppy (you obviously care or you wouldn’t have posted), be very careful of keyboard dog trainers, look into marker training, do not ever correct (compulsion train) a puppy (dogs aren’t ready for corrections until at least 8 months old, if someone tells you different do not listen and walk away). If you over correct a pup you are running a risk of ruining him for life.

When the dog gets to the correction phase of training never correct him for doing something you are not 100% sure he knows what you want. Its your job to teach the dog, if you have to use compulsion (corrections) to teach a dog something you failed not the dog. People who compulsion train dogs lack knowledge and do not understand how dog training has evolved (they must be stuck in the 60’s-70’s), compulsion training just teaches a dog to “turn off” pressure and does not teach a dog to think and problem solve, it turns a good dog into a robot. I want my dog to think and work through problems, but maybe that is just me.

Don’t get me wrong I believe in corrections and I use them but only after my dog has learned an exercise. If I am 100% sure he knows what I want him to do and he refuses to do it an appropriate correction will be administered. Dogs need to go through 4 phases in my opinion (and I have learned this from a very experienced dog trainer):

1. Learning phase

2. Distraction phase

3. Correction phase

4. Maintenance phase

This is my 2 cents, tell me to go fly a kite if you want, it won’t hurt my feelings. I just felt something had to be said here.

Have fun with your pup, they grow up too fast!!!!

Happy Training!!

[ranger20]

well i think walleye said it all not much more to say

[MuleShack]

How about a 1 yr old lab that wants to eat everyones sack lunch when he sees them or even hears someone in the other yards? Have tried the spray but he just laughs at me. Do not want to keep him from barking but need to control his aggression when he sees others. He plays all day with other dogs and is around other people but when we go out, he just goes nuts.

Sounds like he is leading the pack...that should be your job.

If he assumes the leader role, he does not listen to you anymore and will become aggressive.

[caseymcq]

Whoever gives advice to get a squirt gun and squirt the dog with a “no” or pour lemon juice in the pups (or dog for that matter) mouth is an [PoorWordUsage] and should not be giving advice on their idea of dog training...

2. Buy a Tri-Tronics or Dogtra no bark collar, do not buy any other brand, other brands don’t work and you will be wasting your money. Very low-level stimulation does not hurt a dog. Cheap e-collars and cheap bark collar do not work consistently, which equals mixed signals to your dog (not good)...

I am just asking this in an attempt to understand where you are coming from.

Why would a squirt of water be worse than an electric shock? I have only trained two dogs so I am always open to others opinions/thoughts on dog training.

I don't use a squirt gun. I rarely use an electronic collar. One dog didn't respond to an electronic collar until it was about mid-range on the dial. The other dog folded like a wet noodle on the lowest setting (didn't use the collar on her much if at all).

The two dogs I trained were the same breed (Labs) but two totally different dogs. Our male, Oscar, was a thick headed dude. A person could probably have yelled at until they were blue in the face and he would have stood pretty firm. Our female, Maggie, was so sensitive I could look at her crossways and she was on her back with tail between the legs. I had to be careful when we were working on retrieves that when she was doing well I didn't get over enthusiastic or too excited because she may take it the wrong way. My point is that the dogs had two drastically different personalities and training each needed to fit each dog.

[Surface Tension]

I'm kind of late on this thread.

At seven weeks you'll have to expect separation anxiety.

That'll be barking and whining at night. No discipline at that time. That is a time for bonding with you. IMO, if your to get a pup, it should be crated next to your bed at night. Any episodes of crying at night only needs our reassuring voice to settle the pup. Returned to the location back for the day. That could be crated inside or in the kennel.

That separation anxiety won't last long BUT it can begin again with the separation from you. Your obedience training should be started. Really every minute your with the pup is training.

Any barking should be stopped immediately with a NO command.

Can't express how important it is to stop the barking behavior, well that would be for any application of use I have for a dog.

I'm old school in my training. Best way I can sum that up after many years of training retrievers is knowing how to avoid bad habits. # 1 there is strict obedience training and mastering exercises before you move on. As I said obedience training should be happening every moment your with the dog, or more like it correction and control. Aids of any E-Collars are used only when training has failed. If you use that method, more times then not a bad habit developed you didn't foresee or whatever, which can happen even when you on top of everything. More into that, there aren't two dogs that are alike. The most obedient dog can faultier, if your not in close control when that episode happens, an E-collar can.

Interesting comments about getting a dogs trust.

Just as important is getting a dog to be obedient.

They sort of go hand in hand but a disobedient dog you can't trust. If there is an error to one side or the other, I'll take the obedient dog I can trust, well if it has to come down to that and it could depending on the dog. Like said no two dogs are alike so you have take that into account.

In the end a first time dog owner would have a lot of questions asked if they bought a book about their particular breed. Since this is a Lab and I'm old school I'd recommend Training Your Retriever by James Lamb Free to start with.

[Surface Tension]

Casey your up late, so am I.

I was typing as you were. It just took me longer to complete.

Is it possible to have a 2 year old Lad that has never barked?

Yes, I have one and he has the drive of a of 747, and obedient as all HE double hockey sticks.

Where did I go wrong