AboutLynn Houston Experience I have had a service dog since 1988. I do numerous presentations a year to schools, businesses, local clubs and other organizations regarding regarding SDs and through a small non profit I own, provide information and referral.
Education/Credentials There is no formal training for service dog education. I have 20 yrs of hands on experience and a necessity to learn the laws that apply to myself and my service dog.
Expert: Lynn Houston Date: 7/12/2008 Subject: charlie my dog
Question my dog has decide to wake up at 4:30Am every day for reason and bark at me until I get up. I take him out and he sits on the deck and barks more. I bring him in and as long as I stay up hes happy, I'm exhausted and don't know what to do???
Answer So, the question is, how did you TRAIN your dog to wake you up at 4:30am every morning?! He did it once and you rewarded the behavior (you got up and let him out, he won) and then you continued to reward the behavior. You can try a couple of things Extinction is when you ignore a behavior and since there is no reward for the dog, the behavior with extinguish itself. ie, when your dog barks at 4:30am, you totally ignore him (put your pillow over your head or whatever, but do not even acknowledge the dog is in the room). The problem with extinction is that if you don't ignore just one time, the behavior actually comes back even stronger than before. The other problem is that it could take a week or two to extinguish the behavior and you have to put up with barking for a couple of weeks.
The other option is to teach your dog, QUIET. When your dog barks, tell him quiet and either grab his muzzle, top and bottom (holding it shut so he can't bark), or squirt him with a spray bottle of either water, water mixed with a little vinegar or lemon (like a capfull for a small spray bottle) or bitter apple. When he stops barking, reward him (with a treat, toy, praise, ear scritches, or whatever floats your dog's boat... anything BUT letting him out on the deck). He should catch on pretty quickly, what "quiet" means. You can also couple the "quiet" command, with a "bed", "place" or "kennel" command.
