Quote: linda west

I have The Power of Training Dogs with Markers. I have been using it since I got it at the end of August.

There's a video to watch and re-watch. It changed your life, didn't it?

 Quote: linda west

.... Basically the biggest problems we are having is maniac barking when he hears any sort of noises outside, barking in the car, and I am afraid to let him close to anyone in case he decides to bite. We were very lucky the two times he bit (never broke skin) as it was, of course, our fault and it could have literally cost us our house. ....

100% management is of course called for with this dog, as I know you now understand. I wouldn't even say "afraid to let him close to anyone" as much as I would say "always keeping him from all interactions with non-family so as to eliminate any possibility of a bad outcome."

I'm sorry I don't remember details of the noise-reactivity or the car-barking. Can you recap it here?

For example, what do you do when he barks about noises near the house? And in the car, is it barking at approaching humans, dogs going by, what?

Lenka, It sounds like you are making really good progress with these dogs! Since you are in such good hands, I'm going to be quiet (shocking, isn't it?? LOL!) and learn along with you as I don't know alot about reactive pups. I'm really glad you asked about the trainer!!

Connie,

thanks for the post. I think this barking stems from years of bad leadership. Anytime he hears a noise outside or anyone approaching the house he starts barking. I try to catch it by saying Quiet and rewarding him for stopping but he can escalate very quickly so if I am on the other side of the house forget it and when I am at work my husband simply does not have enough strength and endurance to continue working with him (he has health issues).

I tried bark collar before, Dogtra YS300, but it also reacts to out other dog (also an AHT) so he gets corrected for her barking. The other problem with the bark collar is Chili has an extremely sensitive throat so leaving the collar on him really affects him and when I take it of after he has had it on for more than an hour he wheezes and is very uncomfortable.

Now he has teamed up with the little one (Saana, 1.5 years) and together they have a howling competition every time.

Same thing in the car. Basically they bark at anyone in the vicinity, they have gotten better as we have worked with them 1:1 (much easier than in the house) but it still is an issue and again, they can escalate very easily.

Thanks for all your help,

Lenka

I'm a big fan of teachign a calm, default behavior that is imcompatable with the unwanted behavior.

For example "go lay quietly on your mat" or something like that. Work on teaching them that laying down on their mat is the best.thing.ever. Once they understand what you want reward and reinforce the behavior as much as you can. It's dinner time? get their bowl of kibble and feed them one piece at a time as they lay quietly on their mats. Pick up random treats throughout the day and have them go lay quietly. When this is down solid, you can start to plug it in when they just start getting excited and have a very good chance of calming them down.

Dogs feed off each other big time. So is there any way you can crate them one at a time in a bedroom? One dog in the crate while the other is loose and swap them every 3-4 hours? that way you can focus all your attention on one and they don't feed off each others excitement.

Mara,
I think I will have to set up planned teachable moments throughout the day since this happens as life happens. That way one of the dogs is out of the way and I am ready. Then my husband can get out and make noise, small first and increase as they get better. The little one had a really hard time being in the bedroom for extended periods of time and we moved her into the kitchen to have more interaction with us. If we plan the noise then it's easy to get one out of the way. Thanks for the ideas!