Mila: Excessive Barking Case Study – Dog Training Fort Worth
People aren’t surprised if their dog likes to bark. It’s a form of communication for dogs, and I’ve even met dog owners that are almost perturbed if their dog doesn’t bark. Many times, people want their dogs to bark at door bells, door knocks, or people passing by the house, as a way to alert everyone. However, there are some dogs that take their barking to an excessive level.
There’s no reason to get our dogs to completely go mute and never bark again, but there are ways to teach the dog to have more controlled barking. This means basically that when you say “enough” (or some word/command), the dog understands, follows your command, and will cease the barking so it does not become disruptive or annoying.
The other day, I had my first training session with Mila, who was enrolled in my in-home training program to address her excessive behaviors, particularly her barking. It didn’t matter if it was a person walking by, or even just a leaf blowing by the window: Mila would bark non-stop, and it would be near impossible to get her to stop. Most of the time when Mila stopped barking, it was because she had exhausted herself from all the barking that she finally stopped.
Many excessive behaviors, including excessive barking, are a product of some type of anxiety. This anxiety could because of boredom, lack of exercise, lack of leadership, etc. In Mila’s case, a big problem was her lack of physical activity and mental stimulation. While Mila’s owner tried her best, her work schedule prevented her from giving Mila the exercise she needed. We had to remedy this some way, and Mila’s owner not only adjusted her schedule to include a long walk for Mila, but she also hired a dog walker to come in during the day to let Mila out and play. This helped immensely, but it didn’t solve the entire problem. We had to also implement a consistent training structure that helped Mila’s confidence rise and cemented the leadership role for Mila’s owner. Now that Mila understood that she had to listen, she knew how to succeed and to calm down whenever her owner commanded it. This along with the physical and mental stimulation of exercise and training helped Mila’s anxiety go down, and consequently, her excessive behavior soon disappeared.
Different excessive behaviors might have different causes, but anxiety is normally present for all these dogs that are going through these issues. If we can determine what causes the anxiety, then everything else will fall into place and your dog will not only be behaved, but also happy and at ease!
If you dog is experiencing anxiety and exhibiting a lot of excessive behaviors (ie: barking, destructive chewing, jumping, etc.), call 800-649-7297 and we will schedule your initial in-home behavior consultation!