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Barking when the phone rings
Submitted by pebbles on Dec 01, 2006
My dog will not stop barking when the telephone rings and will not stop when I am talking, do you have any idea's?
Answer:
In the dog’s mind, he is rewarded for barking whenever the phone rings because whenever the phone rings and he barks, the phone stops ringing. We know that the reality is that the phone stopped ringing because someone answered it or because the caller hung up. But the dog believes that he controlled the ringing by his barking.
This is actually relatively easy to stop because all you have to do is teach the dog to understand that his barking doesn’t control the ringing. Have a friend call you at a predetermined time. You should let the phone ring (and ring and ring) until your dog loses interest. Don’t answer the phone and, most important, do not speak to your dog and do not yell at your dog.
Have your friend call you several times a day over a period of several days. Your dog will quickly learn that he can’t control the ringing with his barking.
Typically, a dog that barks while his owner is on the phone does so because he has been rewarded for barking. Usually, when we are on the phone, we actually want to participate in and hear the conversation. So when the dog starts barking, we pet him to quiet him or we give him a treat to quiet him. Although we’ve done what we felt was necessary to stop the barking, the dog realizes that he can get the attention he craves by simply barking whenever we are talking on the phone. It’s the exact same thing that happens with kids … they start acting up whenever mom is on the phone.
So, the hardest part of this re-training is to ignore the dog when he barks while you are on the phone. Begin by petting and/or treating your dog. Then use your cell phone to call your home phone so you are in control of both ends of the call. As long as your dog is quiet, keep offering your affection and treats. As soon as your dog barks, remove all food and attention and ignore your dog. In the beginning, just do this exercise for a few seconds. Over time, build up the length of time. And also begin waiting a few seconds between treats and/or petting. Again, build up the length of time between rewards slowly so as not to cause your dog to revert to the old behavior that consistently worked ... barking.
The idea with both of these exercises is to reinforce the calm, quiet behavior as opposed to the barking.
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