Any ideas to help stop a very barky dog?

She is small dog of the barking breed. She barks when someone is at the door, when the phone rings, when she hears a noise from the TV, if the wind blows a leave from twenty miles away. Everything and sometimes barks at nothing.

I know that she is a little barky breed and don't want to stop all of it. For instance, someone at the door is fine.

Any ideas or help of any kind is appreciated.

Thanks,

Nora

You can mark and reward for behavior that you do want, such as quiet when the phone rings. Also, if you are extremely calm and don't reward her with excited attention when she does it, that helps.

Barking is kind of a self-rewarding behavior, which doesn't really fall into the category of behaviors that will be extinguished if they are not rewarded in some way, so you might want to actively look for the wanted (calm, quiet) behavior and mark/reward/praise it.

I do praise the calm/quiet behavoir (but just started that in the past two days) and previously I have been telling her no in a stern voice. She looks at me and stops when I do that, but then barks again(and again). So I started giving her little pops on her leash (she is still tethered) and that helped a little but still not a lot of improvement. I'm afraid she won't out grow it because she barks so much. For instance, if I am on the phone, she will really get going. I have also tried reassuring her (nobody's there, it's OK, etc.) She barks if she hears the least little noise when she is in her crate, too.

I don't really know how she ended up on death row at the pound, but I have a real suspicion that someone got her for a pet and didn't like the hyper activity and barking because she is a purebred who is registered. The guy that rescused her from the pound had her about three months, but I don't think she got any real training except to stay in the crate. He also had an older Italian Greyhound with her (he had the greyhound a long time) and was just trying to find her a home. So I think most of her time then was spent in a crate with another dog.

OK, for the question. Should I correct her with the leash? Or just hope she out grows it and wait for quiet times to mark?

Crap. I waited to long to edit, again.

Any links to posts dealing with barky behaviour is appreciated. I am using the search and put the term back in it and newer than 1 week to 1 year and nothing comes up. I am sure that term is in there somewhere, I'm just not doing the search right.

I am interested too. I have a little barky breed that doesn't bark. I figure because the older, boxer, doesn't bark. Now that I added a third they all have started on some degree, to bark.

I ignore, redirect. SOMEWHAt successfully. I do not like needless barking.

I read back on the threads under Dog Obedience and Puppy Training about half way last night (I think I am in 2005 now) and found some things on teaching a dog to bark thinking that if I could get her to bark on cue, then I could teach no bark. Nothing was very specific.

Helpful ideas?

Also, if someone has the time, please post hints on how to search. I'm sure it is something simple I am not doing in the search, but I am simple person.

Thanks,

Nora