My pup is getting close to a year old and barks at other dogs and sometimes other people for attention not out of fear or aggression. We did a kinda workshop at our training facility which kinda helped me grasp things in my approach and it went down quite a bit after initially becoming a problem around 51/2-6 months.
At 11 months it seemed to return in full force though I’m revisiting and using the tools the trainer gave me which was redirection, practicing leave it, and me adding distance when it comes to dogs in the yard that I know will bark at her.
During her puppy socializing/desensitization I was sure to not let her meet dogs on leash nor was she pet by every stranger. I can count on my hand on the amount of strangers she met before 6 months and it’s less than a handful. I think I might have messed up and not did a good middle ground. As in a little under socialized to where she’s an “eager greeter” now. So my next approach is pretty much go to a different outdoor shopping center everyday with a little foot traffic and practice commands.
We go to a training facility and when talking to them about this specific issue they just said to keep having her come in to the group classes and that they won’t put a barrier up unless needed and see how she does. So far, she can do every thing even a “wait” command for the 20sec might react to a dog right after. Other dogs jumping movement seem to excite her the most. In a class with barriers she preforms everything just fine.
They do offer one on one training but don’t think she’d really benefit from because shes pretty biddable and confident willing try just about all equipment (agility, balancing boards, skateboard, a-frame, inflatable peanut,with her only struggling a little bit with the tunnel) and comfortable enough to be lured into a lot positions that would make teaching her tricks a breeze. But we haven’t focused too much on those because obviously want to get her manners (barking) under control. Because owner consistency and persistence is important they do encourage me to go to beginning agility and enrichment classes where she thrives as long as dogs are out of sight.
I think I’ve only posted before where I was venting about how when your pup barks when excited it denys a lot of people from seeing how great they are. Also the struggle with anxiety when it comes to trying to improve in that area while also feeling anxiety and just wanting to avoid the situations.
She’s a small dog so when I got her my goals where “no separation anxiety” something I failed my previous dog with and “no yappy little ankle biter” which is something he excelled at being nonchalant around other dogs, cat, even if they were barking their head off a foot a way. But I genuinely struggle to remember his early years, we went to a similar facility I think when he was a year or so and recall him needing barriers to. I can’t recall if it was over time but I think he just really took to the “leave it” command really well then I never had to tell him it about regarding dogs and he was highly food motivated with no pickiness. My current pup I still don’t have a treat she’ll ignore something completely for she has to get off at least a few barks.
She has a lot of energy, the type where I needed to enforce naps when watching another family members puppy. I don’t expect any sort of calm for a few years lol. And besides when leaving her a lone for a bit the idea of “tiring” her out doesn’t exists. Like I tire her a bit with the flirt pole, nice walk, and makes her we’ve done a little training, and a puzzle before putting her in crate when leaving for a few hours but in other situations it just means she might pause a little more and still want to play. I haven’t considered any calming medication and would only want to use it as a last resort after she reach full maturity because I enjoy her energy otherwise.
Sorry this got much longer than I meant so TLDR:
Anyways to get back to the question on topic I’ll say that I’m kinda torn in that part of me wants to solely focus on this problem, another want to see how well she’ll do in the training facility tiny agility program, or if she’d like FastCat, or learn tricks. I spend a lot at the training facility and enjoy it a lot. But pretty sure they don’t offer one on one training where a trainer come to my house or the trainer accompanies me somewhere like outside of a dog park or where a lot of dog traffic is that she’d react to so that’s be a separate cost and wouldn’t even know if it something you can expect results in like a month or something that will slowly progress as she mature and I might as well keep with the other activities.
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