Is your dog driving you barking mad?
If there’s one behaviour I get asked about the most it has to be barking. It drives everyone barking mad!
Barking Mad is possibly the most important Learn to SPEAK DOG course for house harmony and to keep your sanity!
- Barking at the window
- Barking at the door
- Barking in the garden
- Barking at the TV
- Barking when out on walks at dogs, cars, people
- Barking at you
- Barking a seemingly nothing!
Dogs bark for many reasons, many of which we can’t comprehend! Recognising the triggers that stimulate your dog and makes them bark is half of the battle in greatly reducing, if not stopping this completely – a blissful thought eh?
In my short but effective 5 quick tutorial video programme, we start by recognising details like:
- The natural bark patterns of your breed
- When the barking started
- Where it started
- The pitch, volume and pace of the barking
- The learned barking behaviour
- How you’ve already tried to stop the barking in the past
All of this can be very helpful when reshaping behaviours. Understanding how your dogs mind works and processes events and behaviours is also vital when it comes to this to correct unwanted barking… We have to start thinking more like a dog and less like a human!
Why dogs bark
Dogs bark to communicate their needs and feelings to us (their pack), to other dogs, to threats and to other animals.
This a very important part of their communication ladder, so it isn’t something we want to stop altogether; (I would neither try to, or advice anyone else to!)
Troublesome, excessive barking is something that isn’t necessary and something we 100% want to and can stop! In this programme, this is the goal.
I told you that dogs bark to communicate with us, to give us a message, to let us know that they are feeling a certain emotion. All barks sound different to the trained ear (that will soon be you). They have a different tone, pitch, volume, intensity and are very identifiable. If we don’t understand or respond accordingly, your dog with simply carry on!
The main emotions that cause barking:
- They’re excited
- They’re scared or nervous
- Danger is approaching
- They need something (typically a toy, the toilet or food/water)
- They are hurt or in pain
- They’d like to play!
In most cases, if you go right back to the root cause of the problem, ‘excessive barking’ is driven by anxiety!
Any living creature feels more comfortable in a situation if they are sure of what is going to happen next. It allows us to relax and feel more confident. This is the same for humans and dogs! Creating certainty in their world can greatly reduce their stress response, therefore reduce their need to bark.
But how? It’s simple really when you speak dog – it’s time to learn!
One of the biggest mistakes people make when trying to stop their dog from barking it to try and “tell them off”.
So, your dog starts barking, you try and shout louder because you want your dog to hear you over their barking in the hope that they will realise that you are not happy with the noise they’re making – thinking this will make them stop.
But in dog world, what happens is, your dog becomes more anxious, more animated and the barking accelerates, not reduces – aarrghhhh! This is because your dog doesn’t hear you telling them to “stop barking”, they hear you cheering them on. They think you are barking with them!
Pair that with the frustrated energy you are delivering that command with, which your dog perceives as “uncertainty or another reason to be scared” and they believe they have to ramp up the barking to not only keep themselves safe, but now they need to keep you safe too! It is a barking mad situation, that’s for sure!
As well as creating certainty for your dog, you also need to communicate to them clearly what behaviour it is you are expecting of them. It is no good just keep telling your dog “no” if you haven’t told them what it is you actually want them to do instead.
Now this may sound like common sense, but actually this is the part most people miss out when trying to stop an unwanted behaviour!
Creating certainty in a dogs’ world is a pretty simple thing to do, the first video in this programme shows you clearly how. We do this by using a certain word or sound (marker word or sound) and teach our dogs that when they hear this word or sound, that something of high reward (positive) is about to happen. We call this super charging our marker word.
Creating a new behaviour is where it can become a little more tricky…
In all areas of dog training, consistency and repetition are key; but there is one other thing that is more important than that and that is timing.
Reinforcing a behaviour at the wrong time can be the difference between creating a behaviour you do want and creating a behaviour you don’t want! When doing any sort of training around excessive barking ,”capturing” the exact moment to reinforce your dog, has never been more important.
Now I can hear you saying “Emma, how am I supposed to find that right moment, if my dog just doesn’t stop barking once they start?
We create it!
Because dogs are more of what they practice, the more you can create the behaviour you want your dog to practice and reinforce it to create some certainty, the more likely your dog is going to be to choose that behaviour themself in the future.
Now for the best bit… Although what I’ve told you might sound complicated and you’re probably wondering how on earth am I going to put all of what I’ve just told you into practice – I am here to tell you that it isn’t complicated at all… in fact, it has never been easier!
I’ve created an easy to follow, tried and tested training programme to help you make excessive barking a thing of the past!
- This programme will not take hours out of your day
- It won’t ask you to buy lots of expensive equipment
- It certainly doesn’t require you to use any aversive corrective techniques on your dog
Just quick, simple, fun exercises for you and your dog to work through together.
This programme will not only help with your barking problem, but it will also help grow the relationship between you and your dog too. Win/win!
For just £55, all the barking madness will be sorted!
The solution to your dog barking struggles is yours with the click of a button and some easy to action steps. Click now, the course will be immediately delivered to your dashboard and is yours to keep forever!Â