Barking At Dogs As We Drive By

[phall]

My boy, Star, has started barking at dogs when we drive by them in our van. This is fairly new behavior (maybe a month or so) and I’d like to hear thoughts on how to stop this.

 

Star is 2 ½ years old and is a very outgoing, active greyhound. He gets along great with other dogs – both greyhound and non-greyhound. He’s done meet & greets, he walks regularly with a small group of non-greyhounds, and walks with greyhounds – no issues whatsoever.

 

But when we drive by other dogs, he’ll bark and bark at the dogs. It’s not an aggressive bark, but high excitement. Even when it happens I can take him out of the van, and he’s fine with the dogs we drove by. So it seems like it’s related to being enclosed in the van. (He’ll bark at dogs if they approach the van while he’s in it and it’s parked – but again, if I take him out of the van to meet the dog, he’s fine.)

 

As a way to get him to stop, I’m thinking about having some good treats with me in the van and being watchful for dogs – trying to spot them before Star does. If I see dogs, I’d get Star’s attention on the treats, so that he’ll begin associating seeing dogs outside of the van means getting good treats. But I’d love to hear of any other suggestions/recommendations.

 

Thanks.

 

Pat

[Guest IrskasMom]

I don't have any Advice how to stop that. My Morty if he see's a Dog or even a Person he start's to growl and means absolutly nothing by it.He just growls. He is a Whimpy Boy otherwise .

Edited May 16, 2011 by IrskasMom

[Guest Wasserbuffel]

On an epsiode of "It's me or the dog" they covered this problem. The owner had a couple danes or something that barked at anything and everything when they were in the car.

 

Their solution involved temporarily curtaining off the back area of the van. They had a section facing the fron open for the dogs to look out until they started barking, then the passenger would quickly put up the curtain to block off the visual stimulus. When the dogs were quiet, the curtain came back down so they could see. Lather, rinse, repeat until the dogs figured out that being quiet was rewarded by being able to look out. You would definitely need a second person to help with the training.

[Guest Shermanator]

Echo does the same thing. Its like she's trying to be all 'billy bad a$$,' when she knows the other dog cannot get to her. She used to be very insecure, and has had a lot of fear agression. Since we've brought her home, we've be able to build her confidence, and now she's perfectly fine with other dogs. I'm not worried about it.

[JJNg]

I had the same problem with my IG, but he was barking for a different reason. He was fear aggressive and very reactive, and would bark at other people and dogs in other situations as well. However, the car was one place where we had the most success in resolving this behavior. I had a friend who does clicker training help me. She rode with me while I drove, and every time he saw a person/dog, she would immediately click and treat before he got a chance to start barking.

 

The timing is very important, as well as catching every instance the dog notices a trigger. With an experienced trainer helping me with this, the behavior was 95% better after a single 15-20 min session. Of course, every dog and situation is different, so your results may not be the same, but I think this approach would work for a dog who is barking out of excitement too.

[phall]

thanks so much for all the suggestions and input on this. Jjng - thanks for sharing what worked with you. That similar to what I had in mind.

 

It helps so much to hear from others on things like this.

 

Pat

[Batmom]

jjng's notion is what I do with Joseph.

[phall]

Thanks, Batmom, for your input! I appreciate it!

 

Pat

[greytlucy]

Our poodle was doing this. It started with just dogs but he started getting stimulated by the other cars too. We were doing clicker training with him and this was workign with two people in the car but the stimulation is just too much for him and even with clicking each and every stimulus he still was really wired to react and with only one person in the car it was just impossible to work with him.

 

(He also chases cars on leash...we use clicker training for this and it works but even after months of working at this if we don't catch him as he's starting to react to each and every car he will lunge and give chase. I'm not sure we'll ever actually completely retire this behavior! )

 

We looked at crating him in the car but it was just about impossible to find a crate that fit both the 26" tall dog AND my VW beetle.

 

We decided to give a harness a try. We started with the harness in our Element where we could fasten the restraint at floor level and he coudln't get up on the seat to look out the windows. He took really well to this(he's an exceptionally relaxed dog when not overstimulated ironically). He learned to lay down and relax in the car. We clicked and treated a bit at first and offered him a bully stick to keep him busy. The first couple times he would stand up, but it wasn't terrible comfortable for him so he'd settle back down. We drove him exclusively in the Element for a couple weeks and just this past weekend tried him with the harness in my Beetle. We didn't know how this would go since the harness would allow him to sit up on the back seat and he'd be able to see out the windows. Surprisingly, he did really really well. We took him for two "sunday drives" to see how he did. With both of us in the car, we were able to praise and reward(with clicker). We were also able to settle him back down on the seat easily when he did try and stand up. Yesterday my husband used my car when he took Cosmo to daycare in the mornign and picked him up in the evening so it was just the two of him in the car and he reported the ride was uneventful when Cosmo happily relaxed on the back seat the whole time.

 

I'm happy to have found this solution - both so we don't have a crazed dog in the car(dangerous for everyone including other cars!) and so he's safely harnessed in should an accident happen.

 

Good luck!

[Guest ReleaseTheHound]

Greyt advice here! I am lucky to have a pair of greys who do so well in the car.

 

Edited May 20, 2011 by ReleaseTheHound

[cleptogrey]

i just read thru this and it brought back memories of driving on I95 to baltimore from ny many, many, many years ago. my crazy, fun, silly salkui charlie(who was blind in one eye) used to bark at cows and horses on the side of the road- yes off the highway in a field. i haven't thought of his craziness in years