This is a barking topic too, not sure if it is the same type of barking as the other thread.
Today I came home from church and just wanted to relax. Terra when she is excited or doing behaviors I ask her to do, barks, a high pitched excited barking at every behavior. I have tried not rewarding her when she barks and just wait. She only gets worse. Well today like I said I came home. I sat down to do some reading and she sat next to me and barks. A high pitched bark. So, I think maybe I can clicker train her not to bark when she wants something. So I put my finger to my mouth (like a hush mannerism ) She will be quite when I do that, but only for a second. So I click and treat when she is quiet. So, she figures out, I can get a treat doing this. So she barks, of course this brings the other dogs to me and they are watching. I put my finger to my lips and she stops I click and reward. I hold my finger there for awhile, she is quiet. As soon as I put my finger down she barks. (she is trying to train me). This is a real issue with her. If I act upset and tell her no, she will continually bark. So, I put her and now the other dogs on their mat. She is staring at me, but she is quiet. But I can't keep my dogs on the mat all day. This is a continuing problem. Her bark is high pitched and she repeats it and repeats it . If I ignore her she goes on and on and then the other dogs think something is up and they begin to bark.
I am at my wits end. I am really tired of her barking. WHen ever I put my finger to my lips and say "enough" she is quiet but only for a few seconds or until my finger is removed from my lips. I can't walk around all day like this. SO, I am asking for help. I know she is a terrier and we all know how they can be. Besides this, she is a good dog. But man she is getting on my nerves. Help?!
sharon

hey sharon , heres' a related story that taught me a lesson . . .

when i had my first BC , scout , he started to do the excited barking thing and i didn't know how to curb it .

i arranged to meet scouts' breeder at a flyball tournament . she was a lovely , kind , yet tough woman of british descent . no nonsense type .

we sat in the stands watching the dogs run and talking about dogs in general and scouts' barking in particular .

she arranged herself to have access to scout , who was quite excited by the action on the field in front of us . scout was about 4 months old , the cute puppy stage . anyway , when the next run started scout started to bark . anticipating what was about to happen , she quickly grabbed scout by the scruff of the neck at the precise moment he let out the first bark . in one quick motion , she tweaked the flesh of his neck in a twisting motion enough to elicit a yelp and issued a firm " NO " . that was the end of it , i never had a problem with him barking when i didn't want him to after that .

i was so surprised to see this kindly older woman handle her little puppy like that , but she did it once , and it worked .

the lesson i took from it was , if you are going to use a correction , make it count and make sure the dog knows what is expected of him .

i am in no way suggesting this is the way to deal with your dog(s), but it was one of those learning moments in my career as a trainer .

I was talking with my pet dog trainer and she was saying, since Terra is so soft. After I reward her for her stopping barking the first time, and then she begins to bark again, just get up and leave her alone in the room. She will get the message. I appreciate your story, my Terra is very soft. I have had her for about 3 years and when I go to pet her she drops to the ground. I am trying to not do any thing physical with her to correct her. So, I am going to try and walking out of the room thing with her and see how that goes. I do not know if she was mistreated, or perhaps someone didn't know what to do about her excited barking either and may have over punished her. I am not sure. I got her as an adult. Thanks for the input I appreciate it. sharon
Terra is the dog on the left in this picture.

yeah it was just a story of how one ( unlikely ) person showed me how to deal with a dog she knew well .

henry is going through a whiny stage when he gets put in his crate and i sit nearby . the moment the whining starts , i get up and leave . that has been working .

also , i've been trying a new thing . i'll leave the crate door open as long as he is quiet . the moment he makes a noise , the door gets closed . . . so far , limited success .

Sharon,

HArley will do that too especially when we just play ball. I do the finger thing too but then bring my hand down and wait.

I did build duration over time, now I can have the chuck it in hand with the ball and do jumping jacks. But at first it was very short, then I could move my hand a bit then move some and so on.

I did repeat the finger over mouth as soon as he did bark before he go the release.

So I did that just like any other ob stuff.

Arlane: I will continue to work with her. She just needs to be worked more. I am starting to train her more. She was slow to mature, but I think she is now ready for more.
I appreciated your advise. Duration will work on that. sharon

Sharon, a bit unorthodox but have you tried barking back at her.

I was busy one evening, working on a project and really absorbed in what I was doing. I guess Vince didn't like the intensity of my focus, or something, and decided to bark to get my attention. And boy did I get an earful. He's loud and was right up in my face.

I must have really been concentrating because I didn't even notice him right there and it scared the bejebees out of me.

But that fear turned right to anger. I stood up immediately, direct eye contact and let out a bellow (bark) I had no idea I had. He slithered off to his bed.

He will give the odd bark and whine when I rev up his drive with toys but he's never barked at me in the house again.

This was nothing planned and not something I'm sure I could repeat but it was effective for him at that moment and seems to have had a lasting impact.

No I haven't tried that yet. I have growled and stared at her, but I think that only makes things worse because she gets worried or fearful and that makes her bark more. I will take into consideration your idea.
terra is a very hyper dog. She has high energy and that doesn't help things. She gets very excited easily. She is a very gentle dog but just a dog running on high energy and drive.
We are working on it. Someone else told me to squirt her with a water bottle. But since she also has fear issues I do not want to do that. She is very afraid of anything in your hand.
Thanks sharon