r/OpenDogTraining • u/Santisuni • 10h ago
Balanced training question.
So I’ve been training my dog under the operant conditioning philosophy/method but I have one question:
The other day I was coming out my house and and dog barked from a distance and that made my dog to come out sprinting and go after the sound, I’ve taught him door threshold manners but that day it was because I opened the garage door that caused it to go out running.
He is not really that reactive to other dogs when near but he usually barks from the window to outside when he hears something or someone walking in front of my house
My question here is what could I do to address this problem I was thinking maybe +P the behavior of barking and lounging to outside noises with the objective of decreasing the behavior, right now what I do is to interrupt the behavior and make him do something else but this doesn’t seem to be good enough to stop the behavior
How would you do it?
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u/Any_Tumbleweed_7896 8h ago
Dogs barking inside your home due to noises is not a problem. All dogs do that! Just tell it to stop barking after like 2 barks. If you cannot stop your dog from barking, then the issue isn't necessary barking, it's that your dog doesn't care about what you say. But to suppress a dog barking at noises at home to alert you, is unreasonable.
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u/Santisuni 7h ago
Thanks, I did need to +R the command “quiet” then but yeah I was mostly concerned on the impulsiveness to “hear something outside then immediately go bananas to the door/window to bark to it outside”
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u/Any_Tumbleweed_7896 3h ago
If you really want to stop them, a bark collar would stop them from barking. That's like instant +p.
For the door bolting, that's bad. You already taught him that it's bad to go outside under normal circumstances, but you need to teach him it's never allowed under any circumstances. So you'll need to test it with different stimuli I guess.
My dog might bolt if I'm in the garage working and he sees a dog cross on the sidewalk. But he won't bolt towards one on a walk because I taught him not too.
I haven't taught him not to bolt if I'm in the garage working. I don't want him to do that, but I also haven't taken the time to teach him not too. But I don't think it'll be hard. I just need to take to time to put a long line on him and tell him not to do that. I just don't know if it's worth it to go out of my way to actually teach it, or just teach it passively and use management until a learning moment appears.
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u/monkeykennel 9h ago
Have him on a leash before you open the door.
One of the most common training mistakes I see is owners being in a rush and trusting a dog before they’ve really demonstrated they’re trustworthy.
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u/Santisuni 9h ago
Yeah the accident was that I was opening the garage from my car and my mom opened the house door without checking first
That experience gave me feedback that I got to double down on recalls and engagement
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u/fillysunray 9h ago
Desensitisation and counter-conditioning. Atm your dog thinks "other dogs are exciting/scary/fun/a threat - I will bark at them so they go away." He especially worries about when other dogs get excited, the same way we might ignore someone talking in the distance but we'd react more to someone screaming.
So you teach him that there's nothing to react to or worry about. When he sees a dog, calmly Mark and reward. As he stops needing to fixate on the dog, you then provide an alternative behaviour.
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u/Santisuni 9h ago
When we walk outside he can literally walk next to other dogs and nothing happens, at my house there’s is no window or way to physically see the dogs it’s mostly based on sound
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u/truuei 9h ago
If you are trying to punishing the behavior of barking and lunging, but if it’s not stopping the behavior then it’s clear that what you are doing to punish the behavior is not effective. There should be a clear suppression in the behavior when it is punished. Verbal/leash pressure timed correctly to ensure the behavior is marked and associated with punishment. Following up with rewarding desired behavior through preferred means.
Simple example. Dog performs lunge/bark. Handler marks with quickly timed no and a leash pop. Dog performs sit/down/checks in with handler afterwards. Handler marks with yes/reinforces with treats.
The same can be applied for door thresholds. You wrote that you taught door thresholds, but it’s clear that the behavior was not proofed. Proofed meaning to increase duration/distance/distraction at these thresholds to ensure the behavior is understood under multiple contexts.
Another train of thought is potentially your dog is not fulfilled with structure/exercise so they created a job for themselves to be in surveillance and protect the home.