Puppy has a high pitched bark!

Betsy18

Hi Guys,

I'm new to this puppy situations so would love some advice!!:)

I have a 11 wk old Shihtzu, have her 3 wks now and she was very poorly a few days after we got her. thankfully she has come on great now and is starting to grow! she is near housetrained and is walking on the lead brilliantly!! only problem at the minute is her loud barking! she barks when we dont give her attention and especially in the mornings when we let her out of her room, we make a fuss over her and take her outside to run around but she just sits in front of us and barks! she has a really loud high pitched bark and i am afraid that our neighbours may start to complain about the barking early in the mornings! i try to ignore her when she barks but it is hard at times!

we have friends coming to stay with a young baby this weekend and i am afraid that the barking will wake the baby each time!

Any advice would be greatly appreciated??

peasant

Congratulations, you are the proud owner of a healthy puppy !

No quick fixes, I'm afraid. You have to teach her over time that excessive barking is not desirable and that keeping quiet gets rewarded.

When she starts barking, withdraw all attention (saying NO! is attention as well), turn your back, ignore her.
When she's quiet, give attention/praise.

This will be a long-ish process and will test your nerves, but keep at it.
At the same time you could try and introduce a command, like "quiet" or whatever. Every time she stops barking, say the word (please use the same throughout the family) and give her praise/a treat if she stays quiet. (Timing is important for this, the praise/treat has to be given instantly, as the barking breaks will likely be short )

Hopefully she'll cop on sooner rather than later and you will be able to use the command to shut her up.

As these barking fits usually tend to happen at a time when it's most inconvenient for drawn out training procedures, expect the odd relapse. Just be patient and as consistent as is possible.

And before your man shows up advising to spray the pup with water ...please don't do that to such a young pup. You'll only frighten and confuse her.
Drastic measures like that can be used on an older dog that already knows what's expected of it and just flaunts the rules anyway ...but not on a young baby that's only learning.

Betsy18

Thanks for the advice! i am going to ignore the barking as best i can and hopefully she will get the idea soon!!:rolleyes: thankfully she is now a healthy puppy!!:D