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guest_
· 5 years ago
· FIRST
I love these comics and appreciate whenever anyone posts them. As a hopefully helpful and topical fact- if you want your dog to stop barking- the aliens did two things half right and a couple wrong. Dogs bark for many reasons. Of all of them though- giving a “reward” like peanut butter to stop them tends to just teach them that if they bark they get a treat. That can lead to MORE barking. Likewise- attention of almost any kind can reinforce barking. If you haven’t trained your dog is doesn’t know what you’re yelling at it and your yelling can seem like you’re barking too (and reinforce its behavior) or it will just be happy for the attention (negative or not) if it’s barking because it is bored or lonely.
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guest_
· 5 years ago
An excessive Barker can be a challenge and there’s no “one way” to “cure” every dog. But in general a few things can really work. As it pertains to the aliens- distracting the dog CAN be an effective training method. You want to give it an incompatible behavior like going to “its room” or “crate.” You CAN and likely should reward and motivate that behavior with treats- but the distinction is that you’re rewarding the behavior of going where you told it- not giving the treat after it barked. Simply ignoring the dog until it stops can help- but doesn’t always work and you may not have the patience. You also must be consistent. If you let it bark 15 minutes and it stops, then next time get fed up after 10 minutes and yell- the dog now knows it just has to bark a little longer and eventually you’ll break first.
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guest_
· 5 years ago
If you’re going to “ignore” you don’t talk to it, look at it, touch it until it stops. This tends to work best on dogs that are motivated by attention. Some dogs are motivated more by food or play and this may not help much or at all with them. Counterintuitively- teaching your dog to “speak” can help. Teach it to bark on command- then once it’s mastered that- teach it to stop barking on command. Now you can stop it from barking using commands and without giving treats when it barks inappropriately and it will know barking doesn’t get treats unless it’s told to.
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guest_
· 5 years ago
You can also have a friend or partner help if your dog barks at a certain stimulus like other dogs, people, cars, etc. if you walk your dog to an otherwise calm area and wait with your dog with your helper out of sight, then have your helper introduce the stimulus just barely- you can use a training method like those above combined with desensitization to help. Dogs left alone long periods- especially those left in yards or in areas of a home that are exposed to public use are more likely to developing barking behaviors as well. Best of luck if you have a barker. Training is key to behavioral issues but it’s not all on the dog- the human may have to make changes or put in effort too.
