Hey there, dog lover! Welcome to this episode of the Unconventional Dog Trainer. We hope you enjoy our battle tested, relationship based solutions for helping your unconventional dog shine, with your host, Luzelle Cockburn. Let's dive in.

The most common challenge dog owners have are with barking dogs. So what can you do about it? Alright, so first things first. Let's get you sort of in the mindset to understand your dog a little bit. Say you see an advertisement for a piece of jewelry. The more you look at it, do you want it more or do you want it less?

Of course you want it more. So the same with our dogs. The more they are looking outside our homes for things to bark at, the more they're gonna bark at them. We also have to keep in mind that dogs were bred to be our security systems before such a thing existed. So our Dogs were selected to bark. Um, that's what their job was.

If they didn't alert us to intruders, well then they were a useless dog. Um, uh, back in the day, people probably didn't feed these dogs and they didn't breed from these dogs because these dogs, uh, weren't going to keep them safe. And most people, um, had dogs for safety, to alert them to an intruder or a problem.

Now if you allow your dog to look out the window, look through the fence, well then they're going to look for intruders. If you don't want that, you need to block their view. Um, I had a client, a dog, the dog was called Doug, and Doug moved from a rural property into town. Lovely boy, one of the most amazing dogs I've ever met.

Uh, he was such a sweetie. Anyway, what was happening was, there was a little gap in the fence that he could see through, and he was barking at everyone walking by. And of course First thing I said is why is Doug barking? What's he barking at? Where can he see through the fence that he needs to bark at?

Block that view and when they did, his barking stopped. It can be that simple. So if your dog is sitting on the couch looking out the window, well, then you need to stop that. You need to shut the door so that they can't see out the window. You need to baby gate off the area, put something in the front, maybe frosting if the, if they're sitting at the bottom.

If you've got a full length window, maybe frost it or put something in the front so your dog can't see through. Um, Or even close the curtains. Yes, some of these measures are a little bit drastic, but you either have the conversation with your dog, and if you want to learn how to do that, I teach that in Hush the Bark at the dog training lab.

And if you don't want to constantly train your dog and help your dog, well then, you need to manage it. So, there are only two ways to deal with things. Train it, manage it. So the easiest thing to do is block off your dog's view. That has instantly stopped so many dogs from barking issues, it's not even funny.

So if you have a dog with a barking problem and it's because they're staring out the front yard, move them to the backyard. If it's because they are looking out the window, well then they are no longer allowed to look out the window. If you need to close the door to that room, um, shut the curtain, use a baby gate to block off that area where they can see, put something in front of that area.

Whatever you need to do, you need to do. Otherwise, you need to learn to have a conversation with your dog about how to stop barking. And that's what I teach you in Hush the Bark. So my dogs stop barking on thank you. Thank you is the cue I say, and then my dogs Uh, reduce their barking. You might get a few woofs still, if your dog is thinking there is a problem for them to deal with.

Um, but for most of the dogs, um, they generally go, okay, that's my cue. I'll stop now. And so, there is how I handle it. Um, I hope this has helped you, and I hope this has solved your Barking problem. If your dog is barking when you're not home, well, then you can't really address it. You're going to need something, uh, a little bit more challenging.

If you can, like, um, I had my German Shepherd would stand at the gate and bark. We blocked off the view so she couldn't look out and that stopped her barking. So if you can block off the view, then that's great. But if your dog is barking all day and you're not home and you can't block off the view, well, then you need to look at an alternative.

I'd hate to recommend off the bat a bark collar. However, for some dogs, this may be the tool that's necessary. However, I had one client come to me. because the dog was biting people touching their collar because what they did is the dog had a barking problem and what they did was just slap on a bark collar and it was a little Kelpie and this Kelpie was so distressed because she associated the bark collar with touching her collar that's when it started she she really had a challenge there and the owners couldn't Couldn't deal with it any other way because they weren't home.

So you really need to understand where it's coming from, why, what can you do about it? If you need to have your dog inside, in a kennel and run, whatever you need to do, you need to do. Quite often you can find a solution that doesn't require rehoming your dog. So hopefully this Uh, episode has helped you understand what you can do to help your dog with a barking challenge.

Anyway, happy training

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Luzelle the Dog Trainer & The Naughty Good Dogs!