Why does my dog bark at dogs outside? How can I stop this?

Hello, and thanks for your question. Most “aggression” issues in dogs are ultimately based on fear to some degree, so I would suspect this is at least partially fear based. Maggie knows that your family is her “pack”, and she’s nervous of outsiders. Every time she barks/growls at others and they end up walking away, she may be reinforcing to herself that “hey - this works! I should keep scaring strangers away!” If this is a behavior you want to work on (and I would recommend it, before it escalates to biting a visitor or stranger on the street) I highly recommend recruiting the expertise of a professional. Ideally a veterinary behaviorist, but your primary vet may be able to direct you to trainers they recommend. Behavior concerns require a lot of time, effort, patience, and consistency, and it’s important to give Maggie the right response at the right moment, before she’s too worked up to be receptive to you. A professional can help you learn how to read these subtle signs before Maggie is completely overstimulated. Here’s a link on aggression that may be helpful to you. https://www.petcoach.co/article/aggression-due-to-dominance/ Hope this helps!

This type of behavior is not unusual. Olive is likely watching out for any 'intruders' and she is protecting her territory. It will help to work on the recall command. This should be done with several, short, daily training sessions. Here is also a link about excessive barking. It contains some good information and helpful tips: https://www.petcoach.co/article/5-tips-to-stop-excessive-barking-in-dogs/ Please feel free to post any additional questions.

Hello, sorry to hear about Murphy. He may be experiencing fear or anxiety or he has learned that barking gets him attention. Here is a couple of tips from a handout explaining why dogs may bark and how to manage them. Hope this helps. Barking is a normal behavior for dogs but can become a serious problem for owners, potentially leading to eviction, legal action or relinquishment of the dog. There are many different normal motivations that will cause dogs to bark, including territorial defense, fear, play, social facilitation and learned barking. Be aware that your dog may have different reasons for barking at different times. Genetics plays a role in barking as well, and some breeds are more predisposed to excessive barking than others. There are some very rare and complex disorders that can lead to barking, including compulsive disorders, vocalization stereotypies and barking secondary to separation anxiety. Why your dog barks - Fear or anxiety o Watch your dog when it is barking to determine if fearful body language is shown. This may include some or all of the following: tail tucked or low and wagging, ears down and back, eyes diverted away from feared object with the white of the eye showing, lips retracted horizontally, lip licking, panting, leaning back and away from the stimulus - Territorial defense o Your dog barks at people or dogs approaching its territory (including your house and possibly your car or the area around your dog when on leash) - Learned barking (“attention-seeking”) o Many dogs bark to get a desired reaction from their owner (attention, food, to get inside or outside the house, etc.); barking will increase if the dog successfully elicits the desired reaction - Social Facilitation o Dogs bark in response to stimulation from other barking dogs o Play barking occurs when your dog is playing (with another dog, person, a toy, etc.) What you can do to stop your dog from barking - Make sure your dog has plenty of physical activity and mental stimulation! - Avoid situations that cause your dog to bark as much as you are able - Teach your dog some attention games so that you can easily interrupt undesired behavior o ”Come”: This helps you get your dog’s attention even in a high-arousal situation o “Target”: Teaching your dog to touch its nose to your hand or an object on command will also allow interruption of undesired behavior and focus your dog’s attention on you - Positively reinforce desired behavior o Praise your dog and give treats when your dog is quiet! o Teach a “Quiet” command Stage situations where your dog will bark; when barking stops reward the quiet behavior and begin to associate it with a “quiet” command If you have difficulty interrupting the barking, use a head halter to close your dog’s mouth and stop the barking - Desensitization and counter-conditioning to the triggers o These techniques allow you to address the underlying stimulus that causes your dog to bark and are especially useful if your dog is fearful o Desensitization: in this technique the inciting stimulus is very slowly introduced in such a way that the dog never reacts; the intensity of the stimulus is increased over time, but never rapidly enough to elicit barking o Counter-conditioning: the goal of this technique is to replace a negative response to a stimulus with a positive response by pairing rewards with the aversive stimulus - Bark collars o The use of bark collars is controversial and can cause stress o Bark collars should never be used in a dog that is anxious or fearful Some things NOT to do - Do not reward your dog for barking o The reward your dog is seeking may be your attention (even if you get mad!), a treat, getting in or out of the house, etc. o Terminate play when your dog barks in order to teach your dog that barking during play is inappropriate - Do not yell – loud noises may likely encourage more barking DO NOT PUNISH YOUR DOG

There are also some great resources on Dr. Sophia Yin's website based on her own research into barking dogs. Here's the link: https://drsophiayin.com/blog/entry/barking-in-dogs-noise-or-communication/

Many dogs have this problem - it's called leash reactivity :) It happens because Laika is so excited to see another dog, and frustrated because she can't immediately run over to them - which leads to barking and lots of crazy, uncontrollable behavior. Fortunately, this behavior is usually very treatable with a good training plan. Normally, a training plan for these dogs involves using very tasty treats to reward calm behavior at a distance from another dog - it's critical that you're far enough away that she can be calm and take treats, which means that you may need a lot of distance at first! Once she understands the game and is doing well, you can gradually move closer. It can be hard to do this on your own at first, so I would really recommend getting in touch with a good reward-based trainer who can help you in person. He/she can help by setting up controlled training situations at first with a calm "helper dog" to help both of you get the idea of how to work on the problem, until you're ready to transition to real life scenarios like passing another dog on a walk.

Hi there! Stitch could be bored or anxious. You could try distracting him and making him sit or heel and walk around with you, using treats as rewards. I will recommend owners try something like this in these situations first, and if distractions and simpke commands don't help, it's time to call a trainer. Trainers can help you work with Stitch in the right way to stop the u wanted behavior. Not only is it annoying, but you don't want him to get in a dog fight, bite a person or another dog, or chase a car and possibly get struck. Sometimes the longer we let bad behaviors go, the longer they may persist.

There are many different training methods for helping dogs to stop barking. Repetitions, consistency, and positive reinforcement are the three mainstays of training for almost all aspects of canine behavioral modification. Since she is stopping immediately sometimes, she is either recognizing your desire for her to stop or there is something that is occurring that both you and her are unaware of that is making her stop. You will have to think hard about the times that she stops and the times that she doesn't, and consider what may be different. If you are able to figure that out, training her will become much easier. Since I am assuming the majority of the barking occurs while you are walking Snowball, the best thing you can do is reward any positive behavior you see while you are partaking in this activity. Carry a small pouch of dog treats with you at all times. If Snowball starts barking and going towards whatever the stimulus might be, stop movement, have her her heel, and then the moment she stops barking reward her and continue the walk. Another method you might consider is training Snowball with a separate command that breaks her concentration in order to divert her attention elsewhere. If you are able to teach her the touch command, she might stop her barking in order to come to you in hopes of receiving a treat. The touch command is very simple. You basically are teaching your dog that every time you say touch, she is to come to your hand and touch her nose to it. While in the beginning this will likely only work from a few inches away, eventually with practice you should be able to divert her attention from quite far. If training does not seem to be effective, there are collars available that are meant to discourage barking. They range from ones that make annoying noises, ones that spray out something that smells unpleasant, and ones that shock the wearer. The shock collars should only be used in extreme circumstances when all other collars and training methods have failed. Hope this helps.