Curb the Barking

Ears Ringing from Barking?

Pandora only had one event where her incessant barking put us on our neighbors’ “most hated” list. That was when Pandora decided no more night crate. And she was done. Period.

I’m fairly stubborn myself, and figured it was just a phase. I kept telling my husband if we give in, she’s never going back in the crate again. We have to ride out the phase. For two weeks, I’d put her in the crate and the barking would start and it wouldn’t stop until I opened the crate in the morning. She’d take a few twenty second breathers here and there, but she never stopped. All night long. Fourteen nights. I’m no stranger to sleepless nights, I raised twins. However, I will admit that once the twins slept through the night, I thoroughly enjoyed the sleep. So much so, that it’s really hard to go back to sleepless nights, or maybe it’s age.

I’m a firm believer that you need to pick your training method and see it through. I learned this through parenting a horde of boys. You can’t read a tip and try it for two days, then give up and try another. Your child needs to know the consequences will be the same and you will stick to it. When I implemented a punishment for my kids, I gave it a solid two weeks. Usually, it only took a week so long as I was consistent.

So that ideology stuck with me during this phase with Pandora. And Pandora usually reacts like the kids. At first there is an increase in rebellion. Then there’s a little give, then reluctant acceptance followed quickly by another round of resistance, and finally full acceptance.

However, this time, there was no give. No change in the barking, no weakening in intensity. She gave me nothing. After two solid weeks, I had to admit, she’s not a crate dog. She’s not having it. I didn’t change anything, and she didn’t give one darn micromillimeter.

So, she no longer sleeps in the crate. We don’t even use the crate anymore.

Bad Barking Habits

Even though we solved the worst barking, if you consider ceding a solution, Pandora still has a few barking issues we need to work on.

Anytime I’m in my office and anyone wants to talk to me, she barks. She sees people walking up the road and she barks. A delivery driver comes down the driveway, she barks. My husband moves, she barks. People come to visit, and she barks for their attention.

Clearly, some of these, I want her to bark at. Others, not so much.

I want her to bark and let me know if someone is near the house. However, I want her to stop barking when I give a command. For a while, I would look out the window, take note of what she was barking at, and say “Okay, thank you.” It still works, but we seem to be in a regression period.

As for the other barking, I don’t want it at all. I don’t want my family shushed by my dog. My husband needs to do things and we don’t want to deal with my dog trying to give me a play-by-play of my husband’s actions.

Which has led us to…

Operation: Curb the Barking

Pandora doesn’t go on barking tirades when we’re not home. So far, the only things that have suffered during our absences have been toilet paper and tissue boxes. Which kind of sucked back in 2020 when people were hoarding toilet paper.

We decided to continue with our plan to acknowledge + “thank you” when people are near the house. I’m pretty sure it’s just a phase…(rereads paragraph two and prays).

I searched around the internet and came across two sites that share the same basic training idea:

WebMDs’ – Understanding why dogs bark and,

AKC’s – How to stop nuisance dog barking

Then I told my husband the plan, we will tell her “Quiet” and as soon as she pauses, we say, “Yes” and give her a treat. We also put our finger up to our mouth to show her a nonverbal command.

We’ve been doing this consistently for the past four days. And it’s working. It’s not perfect yet, but we are making a lot of progress. Last night, Pandora started to bark when my husband called to me from downstairs. I put my finger to my mouth, and she stopped. I didn’t even say “Quiet”.

Consistency and having us all on the same training method has made this process go well so far. Everyone in the house needs to be on board or Pandora will only listen to me, and then I get grumbly because I have to stop what I’m doing to go deal with the barking.

I’ll keep you posted, but for now, it’s working.

Always Account for Setbacks

There will always be a setback, a small rebellion. Whether it comes a few days after or a few months, the dog (kids do this too) will test you to make sure you are still enforcing the behavior. That’s okay. Don’t get discouraged. Usually, a couple days of constant training is the reassurance the dog needs to get back on the behavior track.

Unless it’s getting Pandora to walk on any path where vehicles can be seen and heard, then it can be discouraging. But that’s another blog post. We are making strides, but they are incredibly slow, and we have constant setbacks. So, yeah, that’s for another blog post.

For honest information on dog training check out: Behind the Game on Dog Training