# Barking for attention - won't stop



## Walter (Sep 21, 2010)

Chester is almost 7 months and just recently his barking has took a bad turn. He used to only bark when he was standing in front of the door when he had to go out or when my alarm goes off in the morning and I don't get up. Both times it was only one small bark. I was ok with that. Recently however he barks ALL the time. Whenever he wants something, when he wants to play, go out, or sometimes just for attention. And its very loud barks. If I ignore him it usually takes a solid minute (or more) or so barks til he stops. And even then it may not be for long. If I am sitting and get up while he is barking to try to get him to stop, he immediately thinks I am now playing with him and darts across the room barking and growling in a playful manner. When I can "catch" him I hold his mouth firmly closed and say "NO BARK". This doesn't work. Sometimes he even barks immediately following his punishment. I'm at a loss as to how deal with this behavior. It is never aggressive, it is always just when he wants attention; but cannot put up with it. He is such a good dog in all other ways, but it's almost embarrassing when he acts like this because I did not raise him to, and I can't seem to find an effective way of controlling it. Any and all suggestions would be greatly appreciated by me, Chester, and my neighbors.


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## Charliethree (Jul 18, 2010)

You have inadvertantly 'trained' him to bark for attention. He barks to go out - you let him out. He barks to get you out of bed - it works!. He barks at you - you talk to him, chase him around (play with him in his eyes) and hold his muzzle shut (not recommended) - he's got your attention. A couple of things you can try - teach him to 'speak' - bark on command - then don't use the command. Another approach - when he barks at you, ignore him, leave the room -go into another room and close the door, or stand still arms folded, turn your back on him, no eye contact, if he needs out, wait 20- 30 seconds after he stops barking and reward the quiet by letting him. YES it is annoying, but the harder you work at ignoring the behaviour and rewarding the quiet - the sooner he will learn not to do it.


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## Pawz's mama (Feb 12, 2011)

Honestly, just keep ignoring him. When he does it, turn your back on him, and go about your business. Be consistent with it, and hopefully eventually he will get the hint that barking is not gonna get him anywhere. I don't think holding his mouth shut is going to be very effective. When he does have a barking spell, and he is quiet for a while with no barking, give him praise also. Good luck.


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## em6984 (Dec 1, 2010)

Hi Walter,
My Henry does this too. As soon as he starts we leave the room and he stops instantly =D however, when we re-enter he barks again so our technique isn't perfect either.


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## Bender (Dec 30, 2008)

You can also change what he gets for barking. If, for example every time he starts barking you simply walk him to another room, put him in and shut the door and leave him there for a few minutes, he'll start to rethink the barking routine because that's not what he wanted or got. Retrain yourself that his barking is a request to go sit in the spare room alone for 2 minutes and see how he does.


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## Walter (Sep 21, 2010)

Thanks all. I have just in the past few hours tried a bunch of this. Mostly, the ignoring and turning my back on him. I will try putting him in the spare room when he barks. That is a good idea I think as the negative reinforement should cause him to rethink why he is barking. Thanks


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## ilovesandwich (May 1, 2013)

I'm hoping to revive this thread. Sandwich (3 months) has a similar problem. She barks for attention and she barks when she needs to go out. We are in the middle of house-training so the barking IS helpful for that, I suppose. But at the same time, barking barking barking is not ideal. 
We do ignore her or leave the room and after a few minutes she stops. I praise her for quiet, too.
Is there an alternative method to teach her so she can tell me she has to go out without barking? We have a bell but it's near the door and she is limited to her puppy pen and crate right now. Should I move the bell? Is that confusing?


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## Barkr (Dec 23, 2011)

Bender said:


> You can also change what he gets for barking. If, for example every time he starts barking you simply walk him to another room, put him in and shut the door and leave him there for a few minutes, he'll start to rethink the barking routine because that's not what he wanted or got. Retrain yourself that his barking is a request to go sit in the spare room alone for 2 minutes and see how he does.


This worked with Roxy, for barking and begging, now all I have to do is point to the bedroom door and she will stop, and slink away to her mat.


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## Roushbabe (Feb 20, 2011)

Keisel still does this from time to time. I take it as a lack of exercise and sometimes it's just for pure attention. When he first started doing this around 4 months old.. I would do everything in my power to get him to stop...

Get up and redirect.. whether training to sit or something else. 
Get up and put him in crate or other bedroom as soon as he did this behavior (I wasn't addressing the situation directly). 
Tell him to stop by saying no or hush
Get up and leave (he would follow me in a playful matter).

All these ideas didn't work and just escalated the problem because each one of the techniques in my case gave Keisel attention whether it was for a minute or a second. He wanted me to make eye contact with him and do something and he accomplished it every time so the barking go worse. 

The only thing that worked for us is completely ignoring him. It was hard at first because he would bark for a good 5 minutes till he gave up. Now it only lasts 10-30 seconds and he gives up. As soon as he stopped barking and gave up (give him about 30 seconds even a minute to make sure he is done barking) I gave him big relaxing praise. He is starting to put two and two together by realizing that when he's quiet - he gets a reward like a massage or cuddle time. That way he was still calm and I didn't excite him again.


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## Abby girl (May 26, 2013)

This is a timely issue for us as well. Abby is just shy of 4 months old and although normally very quiet - ie. she doesn't bark to go out, or bark at people of dogs - she barks like crazy at our cat. This happens when Abby is in her crate and/or x-pen and Ella is wandering about. Of course it doesn't help that Ella will just sit 3 feet from her pen and stare at her. We're certain Ella does this on purpose! :doh: We have tried telling her to hush as well as ignoring her but as long as Ella is there she barks. If we remove Ella she's quiet. We still have Abby and Ella separated as Abby will not leave her alone despite our attempts to bring them together - we know she just wants to play but Ella is 18 years old with spine/back issues. We'd like to get to the point where they can be loose in the room together but we can't see that happening anytime soon. So, aside from removing our cat from sight, does anyone have any other suggestions? Thanks so much!


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## laprincessa (Mar 24, 2008)

My best friend has a yellow lab she rescued - he sometimes gets into barking fits and she was at a loss. I don't know what possessed me one day when I was there - but I started barking back at him. He looked totally astonished, barked one more time, I barked louder, and he stopped.

It's worth a try just for the giggle factor.


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