This is a clip from a session yesterday. Prior to this video the dog was barking constantly for about 10 minutes for his ball. Now I see this often, dogs barking for toys, food or attention and to shut them up, we often give them what they want.
To you, it’s a way of keeping them quiet but to the dog, it’s creating anxiety, especially when what they usually get, does not come and has been reinforced a lot.
A dog should never get what it wants for barking, unless you’ve asked the dog to bark.
By kicking the ball (something the owner does) to keep this dog quiet, it’s teaching the dog, every time I get my ball, drop it at your feet and then bark, I get what I want. Because the owner is busy talking or doing things, when the ball is not kicked or thrown, the dog gets majorly anxious, as normally, barking gets them what they want, so they just bark more and more and get more stressed.
I think we’ve forgotten that dogs are hard wired to do task and instead we give them everything for free and end up creating serious issues.
Make the dog work for what it wants, it has so much more meaning to that dog and it does not create behaviour problems.
Fuss, food, toys, whatever it is, make them do something first, it’s really simple and highly effective.
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