Expert: Suzanne Harris BSc CPDT - 10/29/2008

Question
My dog is 11 yrs old. He is rather calm, no signs of anxiety, is never kenneled, listens to most commands. The only complaint that I have about him is that he uncontrollably barks when he is excited/upset. No one can play with any other dog if he is in the same room. He does not want anyone to play unless it is with him(dog & dog or humane & dog). He just goes nuts and does whatever he can to get over by them. He is very dominant, but usually gets along with other dogs. He does not respond to distraction (i.e. treats, commands) when he gets upset. Other than this he does not bark when someone comes to the door or if someone is walking by. He just doesn't like it when anyone gets excited. Please help.

Answer
Dear Heather,

Modifying the behavior of an 11 year old dog is not going to be easy or quick.  I suspect that barking in the past has worked to his advantage in that it has gotten him attention -- even negative attention (such as reprimanding him) is better than none in a dog's mind.  The most effective way to reduce the barking is to give him no attention whatsoever when he starts up.  If he comes over to get in between you and the other dog, you can keep petting the other dog but not your barker, until he stops barking.  In general, don't respond to him when he barks, but give him lots of attention any time you can when he is not barking, or has not barked in the past 10 seconds.  With all that said, he's got 10-some years of reinforcement behind the barking, so eliminating the behavior will likely take at least a few months.

Another way to deal with this is to give him a quick squirt from a water bottle each time he barks, and at the same time say "Quiet". Don't say anything else or give him any other type of attention.  Think of yourself as an unemotional robot who responds in this way when it hears a bark; it's just the consequence of this behavior.  Eventually you won't need the water squirt, and the word you associated with it will be all that's necessary.  Some dogs don't mind the squirt and you'll know this soon enough, but if he does mind it you'll know and you should use it consistently; have several bottles around the house so you don't have to go looking for it each time.

Go to http://www.dogdaysusa.com/barkingsolutions.cfm for more information and detailed instructions on barking.

Good luck and thanks for writing!
Suzanne Harris, BSc, CPDT
http://www.dogdaysusa.com