Stopping high pitch barking!

[Dooner]

We have an increasingly vocal 7month old from a breed known to be chatty. We recently worked with an awesome, very experienced trainer who gave us a technique that seems to be doing great: “Find It.”

Prep work: throw small pieces of your dog’s favorite treat on the ground and give a cue like “find it.” Use high-value stuff, you want “find it” to be your dog’s favorite command by far. Do this repeatedly in short training sessions.

To deal with “alert” barking: throw a couple/few/small handful of treats away from the stimulus with the “find it” command.

Why it works: an active command like “find it” requires much less self control from the dog than just “stop barking”–you’re redirecting energy rather than trying to stifle it. Additionally, dogs have a number of natural coping mechanisms for stressful situations, and sniffing is towards the top of the list (sneezing, shaking, lip smacking/appeasement licks, and others i cant remember) .

[TheHotSensitiveType]

@Dooner Thanks!!! You gave an easily understandable explanation, and that command is definitely going to be added to the little dogs repertoire!

[Foxtrot_s]

That is interesting, Dooner - (HST - let us know how your dog responds.)

[Romany]

I love Dooner’s suggestion, a rewarding distraction!

[Cheesy_Pouf]

@TheHotSensitiveType

We adopted our little terrier/chihuahua mix over a year ago now, and she has proven to be very challenging. Our best guess is someone got her as a purse dog and didn’t spend a lick of time training her… As a result in her year long life, we were at least her third home.

She has one habit we can’t figure out how to break. She goes ultra sonic with the pitch of her yipping when I get home from work/ someone is at the door/ the door bell is rung. She starts out barking, but then the pitch gets higher and higher. It isn’t that we want her to stop barking, but that high pitch yipping really, really hurts our ears and must stop… Suggestions? Citronella collar? Vibration collar? Other?

One of my Heelers has the need to be ackowleged. Pat him and tell him what a stunner he is, and he zips it. He still dances around, quietly though.

I tried the speak/quiet training to no avail.

Here are my experiences with bark collars. The citronella ones can and do go off when another dog nearby barks. I tried a vibration collar on my Heeler, he acted as though he were getting a massage from it. So we switched to an electronic collar with an alternating current. The more the dog barks, the more it increases in correction. I chose this type bc I still want my dog to bark sometimes, just not burst my ear drums when a leaf blows past the window.