[juliemule]

I need suggestions. I need a bark alert.

Libby, half malinois half dutch shepherd, has made tremendous strides in her training. She was the dog the pd here said wouldn't work at all. She had no drive, but as I found out, she had no opportunity to ever play with a toy.

After a couple months, her hunt and prey is excellent. She has the scent recognition down pat for cadaver, is working water finds, buried, you name it, had an awesome sit alert.

To do disaster, we need a bark alert as well. She is quiet. Only time she barks, is showing guarding over her crate in the suv.

I have tried using food, toys, agitation, a bite sleeve, back tying, barking at her, a bark circle.with known dogs. Nothing. She sits and waits. Forever lol.

She had some pretty bad dog aggression, we have worked on this, she can now be offlead to work, she ignores other dogs. One common way is to use a bark circle with young dogs. However this will create more issues with DA, that we have worked so hard to correct.

Does any one have any suggestions? Normally the breed is noisy, and even a little frustration causes a ton of barking, squealing, whining.

She has never been corrected for barking, she had zero training coming here a few months ago. Obedience is going awesome as well.

 

[hanksimon]

I have a Lab-GSD pet dog and the personality is VERY different than a malinois... however,
1. When he was a young puppy, he would bark at me, at predictable times.
2. I set him up to bark, and when he did, I said Bark, then gave him a treat. And repeated. (Also used hand signals)
3. In addition, when he was reliable, I said Bark, then withheld the treat, to frustrate him... so he barked again, and I said Two... and so on
4. Later, I recognized that I had taught him to be frustrated on cue ... So, he would bark a specific number of times, but frustrated.

You might do something similar over her crate.... and I think she'll quickly learn not to feel the wrong emotion for the alert bark....

 

[juliemule]

What do you think about leaving her crated, out of the truck, and working a familiar dog on the bite sleeve in view? She never shows aggression towards my other dogs. She loves the sleeve, but has never offered to bark for it.

She is the most patient mal ever lol. She literally will just sit and freeze staring intensely, ready to pounce the minute you release the tug or ball, yet she will sit for half an hour. That's when I finally gave up :/

 

[EdDTS]

I know when I was trying to teach my dog to bark on command, I used a word he would have no idea what it was and kept repeating it to him like he SHOULD know the command. So if you say "sit" in a serious tone like I do, I said "speak" in the same tone. I had already ruined bark with him. lol Eventually after becoming frustrated and wanting the treat he let out a little like growl. And that little growl turned into a bark the next time I asked him to "speak".

If she REALLY loves biting the sleeve perhaps you could use that as a reward, once she barks let her go at it.

 

[juliemule]

I may have been confusing. I need the dog to bark as an alert for detecting human remains. Eventually.

I haven't used the command giblout (sp?) yet. She wont offer any noise. The only time she even growls, is in an intense game of tug.

Any noise she would offer at this point I will reward lol. I can put it with her sit alert once she learns a bark. Never had a dog that was difficult to teach this to.

 

[EdDTS]

I was pretty sure that was what you meant. I've never done a bark alert before so I was just sharing what I know since the challenge right here seems to be just getting her to bark once and if she learns to bark on command, maybe that could somehow be applied to what she already knows in terms of searching. This is all just speculation on my part, I'm sorry if it's not very helpful.

 

[juliemule]

I was pretty sure that was what you meant. I've never done a bark alert before so I was just sharing what I know since the challenge right here seems to be just getting her to bark once and if she learns to bark on command, maybe that could somehow be applied to what she already knows in terms of searching. This is all just speculation on my part, I'm sorry if it's not very helpful.

Oh I didn't mean it that way! A friend was tryin.g exactly what you said, lol Libby looked at her like she was nuts. She kept repeating the command, but Libby had no idea.

 

[mashlee08]

I may have been confusing. I need the dog to bark as an alert for detecting human remains. Eventually.

I haven't used the command giblout (sp?) yet. She wont offer any noise. The only time she even growls, is in an intense game of tug.

Any noise she would offer at this point I will reward lol. I can put it with her sit alert once she learns a bark. Never had a dog that was difficult to teach this to.

I have found the tug thing extremely helpful with my terv. I had never heard her growl and I was trying so hard to get her to make any noise at all. So I stood there with the rope tug in my hand and her pulling on the other end. I didnt play, I just stood there holding on. It took a while, and my arm got pretty sore but eventually she let out a growl because she was frustrated. We aren't on a barking level yet but she is a lot more vocal now that I have Been doing this with her so I am hoping I can get her to speak soon. Just thought id share, sorry if it's not much help! Good luck

 

[trainingjunkie]

I had a very quiet dog. She wouldn't even bark for a doorbell To teach her to speak, I wound her up around other dogs who would bark on cue. Then, I used her laser light. I would tease her up with it. Then, any active thing she did earned her a "yes" and the light. After a few seconds, I would stop the light and wait for her to offer active behavior, like jumping, spinning, charging the light, ANYTHING with motion. Then she would get the light again. Repeat, repeat, repeat. Then, delay the light. Ask for more and more crazy behavior. If your dog really loves the light, frustration will set in and you will get a bark or a YIPE, and then instantly give the light back. Now, she barks when it's light time. I had no trouble putting it on cue. It was just getting it to begin with that took some effort.

Because she wouldn't bark, I rewarded motion. Motion became energy. Unreleased/unrewarded energy caused frustration. Frustration led to barking.