# barking



## gardener44 (Oct 28, 2016)

Hi just wondered if anyone else has found there dog has suddenly started barking, Chester is just coming up to 6 months and seems to have found his voice within the last 3 days and now barks at all new people, particularly children. I think he's barking through fear and I'm not sure what's the best way to react to this? He's pretty well trained in other areas so his basic training is good and he's responsive, if I ask him to stop barking he does fairly quickly but I would like to stop him barking in the first instance if possible, what way would be the best? thanks for any advice


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## Milliesdad (Apr 24, 2016)

We had that problem with Millie and we were told to try a vibrating anti bark collar.
It worked straight away and we can take it off after the first bark as she remembers for the rest of the day. 
They are perfectly safe, I tried it on myself just to make sure.


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## 2ndhandgal (Aug 29, 2011)

If he has just started to bark at new people in the last few days and you suspect fear I would takea cautious approach and give him some distance from people for now and when you see new people give him lots of nice treats so he can start to assocaite the prescence of new people with good things.

Using anything which can startle to stop anything can cause many more problems than it solves particularly if you suspect fear is the cause.


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## LPC (Jan 22, 2017)

Yes, I would agree. If fear is the cause, then the fear needs to be overcome. Offer reassurance and a treat just as new people are arriving. As 2ndhandgal says, this will show your dog that this is a pleasant event and not something to be feared.

I would also suggest a slight variant on the above: that you give a dog treat to any new visitor, who can then give it to the dog. He will soon associate new visitors with pleasure!


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## Bella16 (Jun 17, 2016)

We noticed Bella started to bark more when she hit that age she's now 11 months and still barking.

We got her a clix collar which has stopped it.

She does however randomly bark at night when on our bed even though we can't hear anything


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## HenryPup27 (Sep 28, 2016)

Yes Henry decided he was going to start barking at people at about 10 months old - but only if that person was a man on his own wearing all black with a hood/hat/scarf covering most of his face! Very specific winter wardrobe barking! Apparently dogs can't see black very well so they must look like a big dark scary silhouette coming towards him so in a way I don't blame him for having a little protest. It was also only when it was just him and me out on a walk, not when my boyfriend was there. My little protective teddy bear! Henry doesn't really need/have treats out on walks anymore, but we tackled it by having treats to hand again, and if I spotted somebody coming towards us who fitted that description then I would take him to one side and make him sit and face me, then give him some treats whilst chatting calmly to him telling him he's a good boy etc until the person had passed. After a few goes that seemed to do the trick. He still does it occasionally now but only at the start of his walk when he's got some excited energy to expend. Once worn out he takes no notice of anyone. Hope that helps. Oh yes and he will have a little gentle woof now and again at night time when on our bed if he hears someone outside. We don't mind that though. We just reassure him everything is ok and that we're all safe, or just ignore him and he stops. 


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## Marzi (Sep 17, 2012)

Dot yodels at some people we meet - it is not aggressive it is her woowwoowoooo hello and it is a happy to see you bark. However I am aware than non dog people might misinterpret this so in the first instance I gave her a ball to carry which acts nicely as a muffler, I also offer to throw her ball if we see some people we do not know approaching - Dot would rather play ball than anything so this works!

I would not use any form of collar that reacts when the dog barks as this might well make a situation much worse and does nothing to sort out the problem, just at best suppresses it.

Tasty treats or a toy to help your dog keep their focus on you are much more positive ways of addressing the problem. When mine were young my daughter was still at primary school and we would walk to meet her - loads of kids would want to pat the dogs as they came out of school and as long as they asked me I would show them how to greet the dogs nicely. I would work hard at getting the dogs to sit and would hold a treat at dog nose height as the child approached and then chat to the child about what the dog were called and how old they were and how they liked to be stroked... All calm and controlled - the dogs learnt that being approached by children resulted in attention and treats from me... they like children!!


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## HenryPup27 (Sep 28, 2016)

Oh my goodness! I had no idea that the wooowooowoooowooo barking was a happy hello bark? Henry does that sometimes, we call it his joined up barking, but I assumed it was a step up from normal barking, but you reckon it's a happy greeting? He did it to a fisherman on the beach the other day as we were getting ready to play ball and he was in full excitement mode! I thought it was him telling the man he was really excited about the fact he was about to play ball on that occasion, but other times I've thought it was him trying to warn off the single men dressed in black! 


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## Marzi (Sep 17, 2012)

HenryPup27 said:


> Oh my goodness! I had no idea that the wooowooowoooowooo barking was a happy hello bark? Henry does that sometimes, we call it his joined up barking, but I assumed it was a step up from normal barking, but you reckon it's a happy greeting? He did it to a fisherman on the beach the other day as we were getting ready to play ball and he was in full excitement mode! I thought it was him telling the man he was really excited about the fact he was about to play ball on that occasion, but other times I've thought it was him trying to warn off the single men dressed in black!
> 
> 
> Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


Dot's yodel is definitely a greeting - she does also have a startled bark that could be described as joined up, but the tone is completely different. You do get to know the noises that your dogs make - I know which of mine is barking even if I cannot see them and also whether their bark is warning, fear or greeting. Body posture, if you can see them, also helps you understand their bark. All three of mine are very submissive - we walk with lots of other dogs regularly and in areas where we often meet other dogs - mine are known as possums


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## HenryPup27 (Sep 28, 2016)

Marzi said:


> Dot's yodel is definitely a greeting - she does also have a startled bark that could be described as joined up, but the tone is completely different. You do get to know the noises that your dogs make - I know which of mine is barking even if I cannot see them and also whether their bark is warning, fear or greeting. Body posture, if you can see them, also helps you understand their bark. All three of mine are very submissive - we walk with lots of other dogs regularly and in areas where we often meet other dogs - mine are known as possums




Love it! He doesn't make a huge amount of noise in general so I will have to listen and learn on the occasions that he does. I was certain he was excitedly telling the fisherman that he was about to play ball though so perhaps I was halfway there with that. He's such a sweet dog, and very nosey when out and about!


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