Some Tips to Stop a Dog From Barking at the Fence
By: David Codr
Published Date: February 22, 2020
For this LA dog training session, we help 4 year-old Shepherd mix Buddy, sharing tips to train him to run away from the front fence instead of barking at people passing by.
Buddy is a big dog and he thinks his job is to protect his guardian and their home; barking when people are outside the fence. There are many ways to stop a dog from barking at people, but first you need to make sure the dog’s needs are being met.
- Does it get enough exercise?
- Does it see the human acting like a leader?
- Does it think it can tell the human what to do?
In this case, the guardian is doing a good job of acting like a leader for the most part. She had some rules that she enforced and Buddy respected. But the other two areas needed work.
I suggested a few creative ways to exercise Buddy (Feeding out of toys and a snuffle mat, long distance recalls and scent games, using a weight filled doggy backpack and letting him sniff). The guardian can set Buddy up for success by exercising him before people frequently pass by the home (when school lets out) or before walks. Dog exercise is needed every 2-3 hours for high energy dogs like Buddy. Finding the right amount of exercise will be key in Buddy’s canine rehabilitation.
I also suggested the guardian practice my Petting with a Purpose method and reward his desired behaviors through Passive Training. These are easy and highly effective ways to add structure and develop a healthy leader follower dynamic.
I also went over a Focus exercise. This is a great way to redirect a dog’s attention. Calling a dog to look or move away from things its reactive to is a great way to help stop unwanted dog behaviors like barking at people.
Since Buddy is so smart, I thought we could use some basic dog training with a clicker to teach the dog to move away from the fence instead of barking at strangers. You can learn hot to teach a dog to run away instead of barking at the fence in the free dog training video below.
By practicing calling Buddy away from the fence when no one is there, his guardian will have much better success at stopping his protective barking behavior. Its going to take practice, combined with the other things we went over (covering part of the windows, creating a barrier to the front part of the yard and the other things listed here), but if the guardian is consistent, the dog should stop barking at strangers.
To help the guardian remember everything we covered in this in home LA dog training session, we recorded a roadmap to success video that you can check out below.
Categorized in: Dog Behavior