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Barking Control

Posted January 5th, 2010 by 3ACDpups
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Hello again,

First off thanks for all of the great advice :) This site really is wonderful!!

Secondly....to my new area of concern. We live on about 4 acres and have 3 cattle dogs. At night, whether they are confined to the side yard, or are able to run free of the whole yard, they bark at what I can only presume to be birds throughout the night. In the early evening and morning they bark at people walking past, and our neighbors have two dogs that wander around sometimes on the street in front of our house and of course our dogs bark at them (they are very "dopey" dogs and don't even seem fazed that our dogs are barking at them!). I have a hard time with yelling at them because a) i'm usually half asleep, and b) I don't want to make them stop barking completely because I do want to know if someone actually enters our yard. So....is there a technique to train dogs to only bark at a person or dog that is actually on the property and then to not bark at birds completely?? I've thought about having a friend walk up and down the street and then praising the dog for the good behavior of not barking, but then I don't quite know how to make them bark once they enter the property. Any thoughts?? Thanks in advance :)

Comments

re: Barking Control

Aidan's picture
On January 5th, 2010 Aidan says:

You're on the right track!

You start off having your friend walk ON your property, when they bark you click and treat. Then your friend walks OFF the property, when they are quiet, click and treat. Then your friend walks back ON the property, reward barking. Walk off the property - reward not barking.

Of course in practice it's not quite as simple as that and I would have to know the lay of your land to come up with something that is easy for the dogs to understand, but that's how it works in principle. You also need to consider the function of the barking, but chances are food will be an effective reinforcer, hence controlling the behaviour.

Using this method you can shape what sort of barking you would like also, I would suggest a short duration of barking might be nice given that you are not training them as guard dogs.

As for the birds, that's a tough one. Personally I would bring them in at night where they will be less inclined to bark at wildlife, and really only inclined to bark if someone is close to your house. Crate training could be an option for safely housing your dogs inside at night. Sometimes management solutions take a whole lot less effort than training solutions.

I take it you have had some success with the barking at the dam?

Regards,
Aidan
http://www.positivepetzine.com

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