patricia mcconnell barking

Perhaps there was, and I just didn’t see or hear it, but there is something about her behavior that makes me suspicious. Researchers Seyfarth and Cheney wrote a fascinating book, How Monkeys See the World, about their extensive research that suggests that the vervet’s calls are truly context dependent, and not purely expressions of different emotional states. Very interesting that the scientists tend to think the two hypotheses are mutually exclusive, while anecdotally the commenters generally think a bark/vocalization could be both. Time will tell. Barking when excited about playing was a whole nother story. Will he stand (or down) around his owner if they don’t give the sit cue? Finally I thought we had a break through and older dog laid down ignored him and puppy stopped. Humans cry, laugh, giggle, gasp, etc as an expression of internal state. This must be the derivation of one of my favorite book titles ever: HELP! According to the neighbors she’ll start when the car is about 3 blocks away. Do you think dogs can imitate us talking? After reading this book by Patricia McConnell and listening to some of her teachings on YouTube, I am so impressed by her natural intellect concerning animal behavior and her true devotion to animals . I don’t like it but it is easy enough to issue the stand down command of “enough”. Required fields are marked *. Just curios if you’ve had similar things happening. We’ve had more rain recently (2.5 inches one evening), and I think I’ve learned the derivation of the old-time phrase “We’re in clover now.” It means “having a life of money and comfort,” but I never thought much about where it came from until the frequent rains turned our pastures into buffets of green, leafy white clover. We modified our system to “Good guarding” Then walked to the house, meaning she had to follow to get treats. Thankyou. My own dogs are Staffordshire Bull Terriers, and don’t tend to bark a lot, though they make plenty of other noises. I think I probably lean in the direction of barking as a reflection of emotion, but I definitely wouldn’t rule out the first option at this point. It’s young wolves who do the most barking, so that fits. Dog barking results from their association with us. You can leave condolences in the Guest Book, buy sympathy flowers, and pay your respects. But some of her other barks are clearly aimed at communicating, like when she lets me know that Yuki wants to go outside. I have become fairly proficient at recognizing the body language that precedes barking (ears on alert, worried look, etc.). Individuals of these species are easy to teach to stop barking, because they never start. This has been surprisingly effective. So I am trying #9. It’s how to stop the barking once one has been alerted or warned that is the challenge. I can yell “Hey!” as a communication to get attention and I can also yell involuntarily in pain or surprise. A couple times, it’s even seemed to scare him. Taz, the rotten-lab has a huge big scary loud bark. Why would dogs whose emotional landscape is so rich be any different I wonder? If it was, I suspect I wouldn’t have gotten so many requests to address it. By Patricia B. McConnell, Ph.D. Oes Fido's barking at visitors make you a little nervous? Patricia McConnell, Ph.D. Very occasionally she’ll do a short woof (mostly at other dogs), but that’s it. We simply call her to come which removes her from the window. http://m5.paperblog.com/i/31/315809/day-1-portland-to-cubbys-camp-great-south-wes-L-KHfusH.jpeg, I have seen “Sylvia” and loved it! And he communicates constantly. Typically, this is the last bedtime backyard trip. Current lab, Cocoa, came to us very nervous, unsure of herself, and it was only after some weeks that she alarm-barked. Willie did exactly the same thing, and I learned to say “Willie, don’t be silly” and not get up and change what I was doing. Four months later I can just say “enough”. The bark-pause-bark pattern seems to me, on reflection, to be a “request-wait for response-repeat request” sequence that reminds me of a person knocking on a door or a child tugging on a parent’s sleeve. It is what they do. The class trainer said I needed to get ... Patricia McConnell has given me the bits I was missing and it's fantastic to see how positively my dog is reacting. Method 3: Negative reinforcement. She then showed that dogs can make it up as they go and started to use the door alert bells that hang on the handle to pull the door open . If I see the “threat ” before they do and issue a command of leave it …they will not bark at all. Emotions could have an impact on the “tone” of the barking, but that doesn’t necessarily mean they can’t have specific meaning beyond emotion. BTW, I, too, liked the play, Sylvia. So it really is both inner state and communicating an idea at the same time. One of my dogs is a ferocious barker- his volume, intensity and occasional snarling bark tells me almost EXACTLY what is happening outside. I’m not sure why, for a dog, every vocalization has to be always one or always the other. Occasionally I’ll have to tug on the collar to get them to come in happily to get the cookie, or gently tap the muzzle or chin as a reminder, but I’ve never had to do anymore than that. @Trisha- I always love pictures and stories of your dogs and like Nic1 would like to see video of life with the dogs and sheep on the farm but would understand that it could be too time consuming and a bit intrusive. I’m going to try the peanut butter. Adult wolves do bark, though, so that seems less likely. The bark for fox was “cat/small dog/cat/small dog” (kitty dogs). Ranger is pretty close to the perfect barker. MEANWHILE, back on the farm: The bounty of summer is keeping us busy. Of course, that still doesn’t tell us which hypothesis is correct, but it adds an interesting new dimension. My first deafie would sometimes sit in the backyard on a beautiful day, completely relaxed, and bark gently at the sky. And does what we think it is change because they don’t usually howl at all–so are they not experiencing the emotion when they don’t howl? Within three hours he had ceased barking and resorted to standing up, wagging, and growling at the pigeons, which was totally fine with me. Same with screaming back, which I try not to do, but when the house has been really quiet, or I am reading a scary book, it sometimes just happens. She doesn’t look at whoever she’s demanding something from, she just sits in the middle of the floor and barks. I can see at once whether he’s scented a deer vs. a coyote, for instance, just by the way he holds his head, but I don’t know if he’s even aware of it, much less trying to communicate this information to me. In Dr. Lord’s argument the dog is not trying to communicate, barking is more of an automatic response to their emotional state. Just like they offer a hi-5 or a spin that you have taught them. But I’m big on solutions that work, and love practical, simple solutions. I told him he needed to actually bark with sound to tell me he was back and ready to come in. Then stopped asking. To Pam with the new Sheltie who barks on walks or in the car. We feel terrible about doing this and call it her timeout but she seems unfazed and is less stressed being away from the stimulus. Lunging, barking, and growling at any dog he saw while on walks - even two blocks away. He never barked, otherwise. Any specific suggestions. The deer and bunnies love it, too. She explained that barking to alert us to something was a dogs job. Now we had a game. Or it could just be that some dogs are wired more for ‘language’ communication than others. I tried obedience class, but my dog was expelled. Owner rarely took him in the car, except to vet, and rarely walked him. Masai villagers keep dogs, they told me, because they bark when lions try to break through the thorn bush barrier to kill their cattle. No one reminds us of this better than our dogs. Care. We’ve tried redirecting her behavior and same story–good in many instances, but not with mt. Usually, just picking him up and plopping him in a lap helps. It’s not his. Unfortunately, I had always let this behavior go on the street. he will decide he needs to bark at anyone walking by the training area, I can signal him to lie down and he stops barking. 28 quotes from Patricia B. McConnell: 'We humans may be brilliant and we may be special, but we are still connected to the rest of life. Our neighbor had an Akita that had in-and-out access when they were gone via a doggy door. Testimonials | It is 3 o’clock. Thanks for the book recs! He likes the treats they give, but doesn’t trust them one bit. . When people who have known the Sammy for a while see her now, they marvel at how much happier and more interactive she has become. My Irish terrier has learned from a friend’s dog to make a “ba-ROOO!” bark when he wants me to take him out to play. We have alarm barks, playful barks, etc. Barking at the ground. Their barks vary as they perceive ours varying. My theory about barking accommodates both concepts, but you have to start not with dogs, but with humans. Banana. After a good run in water, mud, and pollen, that order, the dog needs a bath. Patricia B. McConnell, PhD, CAAB Emeritus is an applied animal behaviorist who has been working with, studying, and writing about dogs for over twenty-five years. My dogs both seemed to reach an age – around 9 months – when they considered themselves responsible for alerting the household to possible dangers but had no idea what was, or was not, dangerous. By the way, this blog obviously is not about how to deal with a barking problem, but here are two books that do a great job of it: The Bark Stops Here by Terry Ryan and Help! Even if she is in another part of the house she comes running and barking as soon as she hears an ad begin. Now we use “enough” which I trained by being somewhere else andbecoming more exciting than the dog out the window by jumping and dancing like a maniac and feeding a handful of treats one at a time. I certainly didn’t notice a change in how much they barked before and after teaching it, although I did not take data. It means that we have learned to associate a particular bark with a particular context, but that could be because the dog is specifically signaling “stranger coming” or is expressing ambivalent emotions that correlate with “Uh oh, trouble coming, I’m worried, pack, come back me up!” along with “You! I suspect he thinks he is getting away with something, lol. It’s quite the scene to watch us! She will happily alert me to anything out of the ordinary, and, as many others have said, that seems to be most easily stopped by getting up to check out the strange thing and let her know that everything is handled. He does not bark at every passing person or dog outside, he does not bark when someone comes to the door. Re both hypotheses being true: Kathryn Lord was asked that at Sparcs, and her answer was that no, each hypothesis is mutually exclusive. Patricia, I used your two light pats on top of the dog’s head with a voice neutral, “enough”, and it works! (See Dr. Susan Friedman in her Living and Learning with Animals course  and her many seminars and workshops for an in depth analysis of using clear and humane science-based methods to influence behavior. Always go to see what is causing the barking concern, and when I am satisfied with the problem I say QUIET to my GSP, not in a loud voice but an “in charge” voice saying “ok, I will take care of it, good dog” and have a treat on hand. It only goes on after she starts barking and comes off after she stops. ), I’d guess that I’ve used this and Method #5 more than any other two, both in my career as a behaviorist and as a dog owner myself. Fall fun this week in the blog. This does come with a down-side, i.e. (they’re known for a weird chortling noise which a zookeeper friend of mine compares to hyenas and African wild dogs). Another variation is the “What’s that?” voice: “What’s that? I am now trying to turn this around. HEY! Better living through chemistry. Greet her as a stranger with a pat to the head and you’ll get a snort – this same sound only ever happens in this context. Perhaps involving a human linguist would add a whole lot more to the study of dog barking than one might expect. “I’m barking and I can’t be quiet” is a great description of my chihuahua mix. Jun 5, 2019 - A cache of Patricia McConnell's work on how to train a dog, deal with canine behavior problems, or find help from experts like a canine behaviorist. I should say here that Willie still struggles not to bark when people are at the door; he does what I ask but then a bark will burst out of his mouth as if he belched. w Has your dog ever growled while you were out walking when someone tried to pet her? Speck barks to tell us he is excited about something to tell us something. Counter-conditioning has helped a ton, and there’s always more to be done. I asked them to yell as loud as they could. Great information from Patricia McConnell. 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