# How do I get my golden to stop barking?



## tippykayak (Oct 27, 2008)

If your "no bark" gives you a quiet moment to work in, can you follow up with a reward? If you can get just a second where she sees a stranger and doesn't bark, you can tell her "good quiet" and reward her. It can be a treat, a toy, or whatever else motivates her.

Positive reinforcement of a behavior you like (quiet) is more powerful and durable than using a negative to stop a behavior you don't like (barking). Combining the two is also very powerful, and sometimes you need the negative in order to create space for the positive behavior.


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## RedDogs (Jan 30, 2010)

1) Do absolutely everything you can to prevent it. The barking could be from frustration, fear, or fun... it sounds more like frustration for her.
2) If you see someone coming turn and go the other way. Go silently and like you just remembered it's time to go home.
3) It settings with people and she is not likely to bark, have others ask her to Sit and then feed a treat (you provide the treats). If she has an appropriate way to get attention, she may do better!
4) Call your instructor. Go before class and talk about the barking. If she is barking throughout the training class, your instructor is probably not set up or experienced to handle a dog like this. The longer it goes on, the harder it will be to stop. Find someone else. Take a few privates first to get her relaxed and working in the environment before going to a group class. If there are barriers she may do better. Take a frozen kong or favorite chewy for periods where the instructor is talking.


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## Renee R (Mar 1, 2009)

tippykayak said:


> If your "no bark" gives you a quiet moment to work in, can you follow up with a reward? If you can get just a second where she sees a stranger and doesn't bark, you can tell her "good quiet" and reward her. It can be a treat, a toy, or whatever else motivates her.
> 
> Positive reinforcement of a behavior you like (quiet) is more powerful and durable than using a negative to stop a behavior you don't like (barking). Combining the two is also very powerful, and sometimes you need the negative in order to create space for the positive behavior.


We have tried the positive reinforcement method. We will tell Lily "no bark" and she will stay quiet for a few moments, and as soon as we reward her she barks...even with the treat in her mouth.


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## Renee R (Mar 1, 2009)

RedDogs said:


> 1) Do absolutely everything you can to prevent it. The barking could be from frustration, fear, or fun... it sounds more like frustration for her.
> 2) If you see someone coming turn and go the other way. Go silently and like you just remembered it's time to go home.
> 3) It settings with people and she is not likely to bark, have others ask her to Sit and then feed a treat (you provide the treats). If she has an appropriate way to get attention, she may do better!
> 4) Call your instructor. Go before class and talk about the barking. If she is barking throughout the training class, your instructor is probably not set up or experienced to handle a dog like this. The longer it goes on, the harder it will be to stop. Find someone else. Take a few privates first to get her relaxed and working in the environment before going to a group class. If there are barriers she may do better. Take a frozen kong or favorite chewy for periods where the instructor is talking.


She does #2 with flying colors, she will even throw in a handshake for a stranger with treats. I guess the problem with her barking is more at home, she is an angel in class and really has only barked twice in training (once at a skateboarder.) After she barked at the skateboarder, our trainer had that person come over so Lily can see the skateboard and get comfortable with it. Ugh, this is so frustrating.


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## tippykayak (Oct 27, 2008)

Renee R said:


> We have tried the positive reinforcement method. We will tell Lily "no bark" and she will stay quiet for a few moments, and as soon as we reward her she barks...even with the treat in her mouth.


Then feed her one and show her another. If she barks, she doesn't get it. If she offers "quiet" again, she gets it. It'll take a bunch of repetitions, but she'll grasp it.

The upside to food reinforcement here is that it naturally has a relaxing, distracting effect. The downside to negative reinforcement is that it can increase stress, and anxiety and lead to more barking.

If positive reinforcement isn't working, you need to adapt your technique, not give up.


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## Muddypaws (Apr 20, 2009)

TRy lemon juice. Get one of those squeeze lemon juice bottles and when she barks say "NO BARK" and give her a squirt in the mouth. Do not squirt it at her face you have to get it right in her mouth. After the second time when she sees that bottle she'll stop herself, then tell her "Good" and reward her. Keep it up and carry that bottle around. Pretty soon all you have to do is say "no bark" and she will stop.

I only had to do it a few times when Darby was a baby.


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## RedDogs (Jan 30, 2010)

....Punishment can increase frustration and aggression. It can be super tempting to use but could make things worse.

Is her barking at people on walks the same as her barking at the skateboarder? Did she stop barking iwth the skateboarder? What did you mean in your first post that your instructor can't stop the barking [been there with one of my dogs!]?


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## Bender (Dec 30, 2008)

Teach attention work. Use a clicker and reward her for making eye contact with you, starting with just looking and then working up to longer. Give treats and tell her 'good look, look' etc. to keep her looking, or break eye contact and then ask for it again. Once she knows the game ask her to do it everywhere, in harder and harder locations - go to the mall and start far away from the doors and work up to the doors as she gets better and better.

You will be giving her something else to do besides bark, and she will start to look for you when she's stressed. At the same time, when you take breaks, have people come and meet her and feed her treats, or have the stuffed kong to keep her face busy. Even just sitting in a busy location for the day will soon have her well over her 'oh boy, strangers' mode. Doing superdogs worked very well for that, after the first few 'meet and greets' where the dogs had to sit through a mob of people coming to pet them they could really care less about all of the people. She may be going through a fear period where she's worried about strangers, totally normal, just keep working on her with it. 

Lana


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## fostermom (Sep 6, 2007)

Bender said:


> Teach attention work. Use a clicker and reward her for making eye contact with you, starting with just looking and then working up to longer. Give treats and tell her 'good look, look' etc. to keep her looking, or break eye contact and then ask for it again. Once she knows the game ask her to do it everywhere, in harder and harder locations - go to the mall and start far away from the doors and work up to the doors as she gets better and better.
> 
> You will be giving her something else to do besides bark, and she will start to look for you when she's stressed. At the same time, when you take breaks, have people come and meet her and feed her treats, or have the stuffed kong to keep her face busy. Even just sitting in a busy location for the day will soon have her well over her 'oh boy, strangers' mode. Doing superdogs worked very well for that, after the first few 'meet and greets' where the dogs had to sit through a mob of people coming to pet them they could really care less about all of the people. She may be going through a fear period where she's worried about strangers, totally normal, just keep working on her with it.
> 
> Lana


Excellent post! It works, too. Jasper is afraid of skateboards, but now when one comes towards us, I can tell him "look" and he immediately looks at me because I used all the steps that Lana used and so he associates "look" with good things, even if I don't happen to have a treat on me.


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