This is a very recent problem that we have with our three-year-old Border Collie cross. It started whilst we were all on holiday last week and has continued at home. If my husband goes to get out of his chair, our dog goes mad and really barks excessively at him. I then have to shut him in the dining room for him to calm down, which he does do quite quickly.
He has done this to our house bunny when there is a sound in the house he doesn't like and as soon as he has reacted I have sent him to the dining room. His barking at our rabbit has been less and less to almost nothing because of this.
We are just a bit worried that he has now started this with a member of the family as apart from this he gets on well with all of us.
Hope you can help.
Julie Smith, Berkshire
Hope you can help.
Julie Smith, Berkshire
Hi, you could try and introduce him to a blanket on the floor in the room you most use. Teach him to lie on his blanket with an 'on your blanket' command (or just 'blanket', if you wish to keep it short). Whenever something goes off that your dog will react to, say 'on your blanket' firmly and calmly. Make sure he associates the blanket with a calm and nice atmosphere. Praise him for calm behaviour and no vocal usage! If this fails, prepare him a stuffed KONG and distract him with that to replace when he would usually be barking. Good luck.
ReplyDelete