Not sure if this is in the right place, but I'm starting to train a bark alert, separately from search work, to integrate later. I had started training a jump alert, but have a few misgivings. One is that I don't wish to get knocked down in rugged terrain. The other is that when I have food in my hand, she'll jump up nicely and put her paws on my chest while she takes the food, but if I don't have food, she jumps up to bite at my face. I don't have a clue how she can tell whether I have food or not; I've tried to keep my visual cues and voice the same, but somehow she just KNOWS (and yes, I do correct her if she jumps at my face).

So today I had her on her tiedown, with a handful of summer sausage. I tried to get her hyped up enough to bark, but the most she would do was jump around like a lunatic, and occasionally make some whining noises. She did bark a few times, which I rewarded immediately and enthusiastically, but she never seemed to "get it".

I plan on trying a toy as well, and just keeping at it, hoping she gets the idea. If it just doesn't work, I guess I'll stick with the jump alert; it's not what I *want* to do, but it just might be what works best. Sigh.

Any good tips for me to try tomorrow?

Thanks for all the tips!!!! <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/laugh.gif" alt="" />

After I made the original post, I brought out her special toy. That seemed to wind her up a lot faster. Her stages of frustration are:

1. Jumping around like a maniac.
2. Jumping around like a maniac + whining.
3. Jumping around like a maniac + bark.

The toy gets her from stage one to stage three much sooner than food does, BUT only if she's on a tiedown. If she's loose, she never really leaves stage one. So it looks like I'll keep working on getting her to stage three on the tiedown, but at some point I have to get rid of the jumping around like a maniac part. All I want is the bark; AND we'll need to be able to do this without the tiedown. Guess I just need to keep working on it until I get the bark on command every time while on the tiedown, then try it loose. But what of the jumping? WHAT of the JUMPING????

Have you tried making the toy inaccessible?

For example, put in a crate. When she barks, open the crate door and let her get it. Once she's barking regularly you can add a cue.

Just some food for thought...I decided to teach my SAR dog in training to bark rather than jumping on me as well. The dog however has different ideas! We are now at a point in her training where she comes at me full tilt, launches herself at me and then barks...<sigh>...I was hoping to keep relatively clean with this one!

Natalie
http://alikamalinois.tripod.com

my dog wouldnt bark, so i used the following

show him/her the toy......... and dangle it in front of the dog and every time that it lunges at it/ goes to take it, snatch it away.

wave the toy around infront of the dog and say speak (or ssssssssssssssssss as i use) and then any form of noise that resembles a bark deliver the toy for the dog, (throw it over its head behind it)

as this goes on, continue to bait the dog with the toy, and every bark throw the toy (as the reward)

then start to show the toy and out it in a pocket out of sight and say (sssssssssssss) or speak, when it does so deliver the toy.

very soon the dog will associate the speak with the toy

and hey presto

<img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/laugh.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/laugh.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/laugh.gif" alt="" />

Natalie,
I haven't tried that. I'll try it later today and see what happens. I can totally picture your dog launching herself at you! LOL! That's exactly what I'm hoping to avoid, too.

Neil,
That's exactly what I've been doing, only I say "Tell me!". She just does a whole lot more jumping around like a lunatic than she does barking. My Lab was MUCH easier to teach "Tell me" to than this one. She's a nut, but that's exactly why I chose her, so I can't complain! <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/laugh.gif" alt="" />

Lisa,

Let me know how it goes <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />

Natalie