Barking for play

[Emily]

I need to come up with a method to stop Ella barking at other dogs when she wants to play. It's very clearly a happy, high pitched "play with me" bark and it's sooooooo annoying. It's almost as annoying as my "Ellllaaaa" every time she does it


When the neighbour got a new yappy dog, it barked every time we went outside and Ella barked in response. I 'fixed' this by marking the dog bark (before Ella responded) and rewarding Ella with treats or play. It actually didn't take very long for Ella to stop barking.

I'm struggling with the play bark though as it's not in response to something - Ella is initiating play. Any ideas of what I could try?

 

[snowbunny]

Maybe it would help to understand the context in which this happens. Is she on lead, or off? Are they free to play? Are they dogs she knows? At home or away from the house?
Sorry for all the questions, just trying to get a picture.

 

[Emily]

Maybe it would help to understand the context in which this happens. Is she on lead, or off? Are they free to play? Are they dogs she knows? At home or away from the house?
Sorry for all the questions, just trying to get a picture.

Thanks Fiona

Only with dogs that she knows
Both on lead and off
Both in situations when they are free to play and when they're not
Both at home and away from the house.

One example is at dog club. We might have finished working the pups, been for a walk and a play (dogs have had a off lead play) and now the humans are having a chat and the dogs are on lead. Ella starts barking at her friends, usually throwing in a few play bows.

Another example is this weekend. Three labs have been down the beach for a walk and a play (Ella gets an extra 5km walk afterwards as she's much fitter than the other two). Afterwards, we're back at the house and all humans (6 adults and 6 young kids) and all dogs are in the backyard. The two boys are knackered and lying down on the grass. Ella rests for a while and then tried to initiate play with barking, play bows and then shoving a toy at them. As you can imagine, there's a lot of chaos and the dogs are often wandering around, keeping an eye on the action. I'm not asking Ella to lie on her bed or anything like that as I'm happy for her to wander around and interact with the humans and dogs - I just want to work out a plan to reduce the barking.

 

[Boogie]

This is very, very common and normal behaviour for happy dogs. It usually diminishes as they get older (just as we don’t get the Lego out quite as often as we mature )

I would distract her, maybe playing a game with her yourself or giving her a filled Kong. It won’t cure her but it’ll give your ears a break
.

 

[snowbunny]

It sounds like she's full of life, which is lovely
But maybe she needs to learn to chill out a bit more in that sort of environment. Maybe when she starts to become a nuisance, you could do some arousal-lowering activity, like a kibble trail, snuffle mat, relaxation protocol type stuff etc for a few minutes to help her to come back down? Or the Kong, as @Boogie suggests.
She doesn't need to stay on her bed the whole time, for sure, but you can teach it as being a calm spot and send her to it when she's getting herself worked up, so she can chill out for a bit without any interaction.

 

[Oberon]

Do the other dogs respond to the barking by playing? Probably not. So the barking doesn’t work. I’d let the other dogs do the teaching. Eventually she’ll give up, as the behaviour isn’t getting the result she wants.

When Obi was young he had the same strategy of barking at other dogs to try to initiate play. No dog ever started happily playing with him as a result. Going to daycare with other well socialised dogs helped a lot with this as they’d just turn away from his barking and leave him with nothing. Fairly quickly he no longer bothered with the barking.

 

[Emily]

Thanks so much for the replies. I do have some follow up questions though - I hope you don't mind.

It usually diminishes as they get older

How old exactly? She's nearly four

I would distract her, maybe playing a game with her yourself or giving her a filled Kong.

Maybe when she starts to become a nuisance, you could do some arousal-lowering activity, like a kibble trail, snuffle mat, relaxation protocol type stuff etc for a few minutes to help her to come back down? Or the Kong, as @Boogie suggests.

I'm not sure how I can do this without actually setting up a training scenario. I can't imagine being able to get out Kong's/snuffle mats/scatter treats when there are other dogs (off lead) in the vicinity?

It sounds like she's full of life, which is lovely

We tend to refer to her as "spirited" . In all honesty though, she's absolutely wonderful, full of life and so much fun

She doesn't need to stay on her bed the whole time, for sure, but you can teach it as being a calm spot and send her to it when she's getting herself worked up, so she can chill out for a bit without any interaction.

Hmm, perhaps this is the key. I wonder if I do a 'relaxation protocol' with a small, easy to fold, towel so that I can take it it with me.

Do the other dogs respond to the barking by playing? Probably not. So the barking doesn’t work. I’d let the other dogs do the teaching. Eventually she’ll give up, as the behaviour isn’t getting the result she wants.

Well, at dog club they generally don't respond but she hasn't given up yet and it's 3.5yrs later so I'd say she's determined . When we were at the beach house (three labs), one of them actually told her off a couple of times which did stop her barking at the time but she'd try again after a while.


One of her best friends at dog club is a GR called River. Ella barks at her quite a bit, and her mum is actually a trainer, so perhaps I can get her to help me with some training setups. I wonder if I reward her for calm/quiet and remove her for barking? Do you think releasing her to play might be a good way of rewarding the quiet?

 

[snowbunny]

There are loads of calming games you can play. Chin rests are normally very calming. Or working on your event marking cues in a calm manner - my "good" marker means "the treat is coming to you, don't move", and I work on this quietly in places I need calm. Get the dog in a relaxed position, sitting, down, whatever, and sit with them. Choose your two markers, if you don't have different ones already: mine are "good" and "get it". Then "aeroplane" the treat to the dog's nose, slowly slowly and then "good" and a quick delivery to mouth. Play this until the dog can keep perfectly still waiting for the treat - great for bringing arousal down. Mixing it up with a "get it" cue works on them really controlling themselves. Treat on the floor in front of them, then mix up whether you say "get it" to let the dog take it, or "good", where they remain in position and you pick it up to deliver to their mouth.

Combining the chin rest (single hand, double hand, lap) with the "good" marker is very calming for my lot.

I wonder if I reward her for calm/quiet

Remember, you can't reinforce calm, you can just reinforce calm behaviours. There is a distinction, albeit subtle. And you can't reinforce quiet - it's not a behaviour. Barking is a behaviour. Not barking is not.

The barking is a functional behaviour, meaning she is doing it for a reason. The reason is to elicit interaction, thereby alleviate boredom. You need to come up with an alternative strategy for her that fulfils the same function at that time, whilst working on strategies so that it is less likely to occur in the future. This is why, in the moment, you need to find something to do that will entertain her in a way that you find acceptable, thereby fulfilling the function of the barking behaviour that is communicating her immediate need. And, going forwards, teaching her to settle for longer periods of time without needing to be entertained will make that barking behaviour less likely.

 

[Boogie]

Today Spencer decided to bark on the bus. It wasn’t alert barking, it was ‘I’m bored’ barking. I ignored him and calmly looked out of the window. Not an easy thing to do

He stopped and laid down
.