Excessive barking, excessively nervous

[deliciousyorkie]

When I first got my dog, I was quite shocked at how quiet and calm she was (got her at 3 months from the breeder -- she was living with her parents). As time went on, I am finding that our dog is getting more and more nervous and anxious towards any noise. For instance if she's sleeping on the couch and I accidentally drop a pen/remote or other similar object bolts upright and she looks at me extremely nevrously.

When she sees the neigbours cat she goes absolutely bonkers. Same when a light breeze rustles the leaves. Our property backs out into a bush so there's all sorts of critters (hedgeogs etc) out there - if she hears ANYTHING she goes into a barking fit and won't quiet down till I yell at her.

It's started happening at night also now. I'm not able to sleep properly because I'm constantly on edge about being woken up in the dead of night.

Is there anything I can do to reassure her that the above things are not a serious threat?

I don't mind her barking if a stranger comes to our door or simliar (since this is actually useful behaviour); but I could do without the piercing bark every time a leaf moves on a tree in the neigbours harden.

[yorkietalkjilly]

First of all get a vet exam, thorough check up. Any sudden behavior change requires that.

If she's not ill, injured or in pain, ask for a light sedative for her for a few days use to help calm her for now and buy a Thundershirt and a white noise machines to play 24/7 for the den and one to use in the bedroom at night to drown out ambient noises some and make her life easier for now. Try not to soothe her during her periods of acting nervous - she will interpret that as your agreeing with her nervous reactions and only escalate. Distraction with wild, fun play sessions with a ball or tugowar or foraging toy filled with luscious treats can also work to distract an anxious dog.

Start working with her to teach her "Watch me" - to focus on your eyes for longer and longer periods of time, teaching her how to control her impulse to move and look away, for a quick bite of boiled chicken and your instant praise when she's able to hold her focus a bit. Keep increasing the time she must "watch me" to get her treat and praise until she can control herself and focus on your eyes for as long as a minute at a time. Being able to get a nervous, anxious dog to learn how to control their reactions that way is huge and if you make it a fun game that she wants to learn how to do for her rewards, she will love it, growing in confidence as she's able to focus longer times for your joy in her and her paycheck treat.

Life enrichment toys, games and activities will help her gradually learn how to accept and deal with stresses and new situations while having fun playing. Always keep her busy working, start her on daily short, frequent obedience training sessions 2-3 x daily, no longer than 5 mins. at a time and frequent, short walks so that she doesn't have time to work herself into a long fear session.

Have sessions that teach her how to build her self-confidence while dealing with new things by encouraging her to approach them and touch them, gently teaching her there is nothing to fear in new, odd things. Sit on the floor with her every day with a pile of new things - an old-fashioned alarm clock that ticks, a pot from the kitchen, a book, a stick from a tree outside and a piece of paper you rattle a bit. Each day add something new and take away something old, adding one things that is jangly or noise at times. Bait and encourage her to approach each thing and touch it with her nose using the word "touch" or "bump" it. When she does, lots of smiles, praise and an instant, special treat. This exercise teaches a dog not to fear, builds enormous self-confident and reassures an anxious dog about their world.

By the time you've worked with her in these things for a couple of months, she should be less nervous and anxious, enjoying her life a lot more and lots of busy activities will keep her body and mind busy moving and working to control that stress level.

[Lilah Charm]

You always have such good training advice Jeannie that Tibbe is a lucky boy thank you for your wealth of information and support and is such a great asset to the community. Deliciousyorkie, good luck with your sweet little pup there are some pheromone based products that might help out too- they mimic the mama dogs pheromones- you can use the spray on her thunder shirt and there is a plug in too. Also there are several daily natural anti anxiety chews (chamomile, tryptophan) that might help too.

[Juliealfies mum]

Great advice Jeannie, you should do training sessions,

[yorkietalkjilly]

Some further help for her will be socialization with other dogs and people when she's more confident, assured and settled from a few weeks of the above program. Take her with you to places where dogs and people are for very short trips into a store and right back out again if she acts nervous, longer if she seems to enjoy it but keep the visits under 3 -5 mins at first, even if she is acting okay, so that she never feels she's got to endure a long stay at first. Unless she goes into a state of abject panic, these trips in your arms into a pet store where other dogs might be will desensitize her further to new situations and they will be so short - in and out - that she won't have time to go into a full fear mode and your calm bearing will show her she's still safe in your arms. Don't soothe her with your voice - just allow her to feel and deal with the short time of sensations she experiences and then back out. Repeat repeat repeat every chance you get - one day she will begin to accept being around new friends as second nature. In time, she'll come to realize that though she may be scared at first, it never lasts long and she'll come to learn that strange noises, energy and new things are not something she needs to fear as they never hurt her. She'll have your arms keeping her safe but she'll learn to deal and accept the whole experience in her own way - a little at a time. If she's absolutely terrified during her first few visits, I'd wait until she's very hungry and take a warm, freshly boiled piece of chicken meat with me, to produce the moment you two go into the petstore - held in one of your fists. The wonderful smell of fresh meat to any hungry dog will fight with her fear of the unknown for focus of her brain and keep it from absolutely honing in on just her worries - a kind distraction to help her learn not to intently focus on just her fear for the 30 seconds you are in the store and out again. Once she's calm enough when back outside, and she needs to be calm when she gets her reward, let her have her lovely chicken, together with a big smile. She'll come to understand that her calm state has pleased you and warrants positive reinforcement of that state of mind.

Take one of those pens that scare her when they drop and set her beside you on the couch. Drop the pen in your lap and instantly treat her. Repeat 10 times - drop, treat, drop, treat, etc. Once she's accepted that as a fun game she's playing, watching the pen drop for food reward, drop the pen on the couch, treat. Repeat 10 times each session and a nice treat every time the pen hits the soft surface.

When she's thoroughly enjoying that game, with the white noise turned up, TV on, bait her with the pen - fly it around her with your hand, saying "Get the pen - get it!" and keep in up and moving so that she tries to get it and up and down and around - make her really want it - a game of trying to get it and then, drop the pen from an inch above the floor and shove a treat in her mouth as it drops and makes a noise. Repeat - really gin her up into wanting to get that pen so that she's jumping around for it and then again, drop it just from above the floor, instantly treat. Repeat that 8 more times that session.

Increasing the height of dropping the pen and causing a sharp noise while a game is being played and her sense of competition aroused and a treat dispensed after the fall of it, your pleasure in her showing when she doesn't get scared, will begin to slowly desensitize her to something that previously scared her. Use this same tactic to desensitize her to other things she's afraid of - things that now send her into the shakes. Make a game of it at first, engage her sense of competition and make the noise softly at first, treat/praise if she stays engaged and happy and repeat up to the count of 10. Short, sweet, nothing scary and gradually increase the sudden sounds and if it's all kept competitive and fun for her, she should learn that sounds are really nothing to fear.

Chance are a dog that is having this type of anxiety and reactions to noises or objects now will always have repeat bouts all along during her life, even after a year of nothing happening but you can work her through those each time. Many dogs are subject to bouts of unreasonable fear of things suddenly and for no reason we can understand. Google "My dog has developed a sudden fear of...." and see the millions of pages of responses. It can be a sudden smell or pain from gas or anything bad they associate with a given objector sound, smell and they begin to fear that thing or a person, another dog, etc. When you see the fear, trying to distract the dog with a competitive game, some activity that gets them moving forward and distracted on food she really wants - even a piece of the prime rib you're making for dinner held in front of the dog's nose as you walk them around through the house - whatever it takes to snap the mind out of that fear - can help redirect her attentions to other things during that time - even if she's got a tummy that won't allow her to actually eat the prime rib - you can use it as a distraction and at the last minute switch it to a treat her tummy can tolerate and feed it to her. A quick leash up for a walk outside, a car ride, a game she enjoys playing with you, playing a recording of a cat yowling - things like that - to re-orient the dog can get their mind going in a different direction and help them get past their current bout of the shakes. Just keep working with the dog at quick distractions any time you see fear and usually dogs come through these times in one day to up to a couple of months for those with pretty fragile psyches.

The worst thing you can do is feel sorry for and soothe the dog, saying "Good girl, don't you worry, it's all okay", reinforcing her fearful reactions and making her think that what she's currently feeling is a good and proper reaction, approved by you. Dogs engaged in that way often escalate their fear to neurotic behavior in time, become aggressive, nervous fear-biters. In the wild, free from human intervention, dogs don't nurture fear but ignore it in another dog, usually going about their business until the scared dog joins in with the group activity of the moment, whatever it is. Dogs don't rush up to a scared dog and soothe it, lick and cuddle with it. Weakness is not tolerated at all and nervous dogs quickly snap out of it and carry on with life for fear of pack retribution.

[SirTeddykins]

Much like yorkietalkjilly (who is so amazing and right on w/advice) has said above, I read some research yesterday about dogs going through a second 'fear phase' at around a year and a half.


Teddy is around the same age and, although always anxious, some days are worse than others. However, over all he has improved immensely after lots of training which involved me not allowing him to bark inappropriately. For example, when everyone (but me) leaves the house on Monday's, he would be anxious until they returned since he'd hung out with them all weekend. So, he'd bark at the click of the thermostat, the mail, people talking outside, the phone etc. The barking would decline when everyone returned in the evening as well as when the next weekend would approach. However, it was so annoying and nerve wracking M-Thursday that I had to figure something out!


So, the only thing that worked for me was telling him QUIET when he barked at the above mentioned things and praising him/giving him treats when he stopped barking. This has taken a few months but there has been a major improvement.


I think he has benefited from realizing that he does not need to be so alert to every noise because I control the environment. These dogs are alert, by nature, so I believe that if they feel that someone is not controlling things - they will take the lead and they lead by barking.


I haven't used bark collars or anything else.. I've just used my voice and some organic treats which have worked great. BUT, I have had to be patient. Whoever said raising kids was hard never had a dog..ha!

[gracielove]

All yorkietalkjilly says is very good. My question would be about your dog's environment. Is there anything or anyone in your home that could have brought on this condition? You say she started out very calm. I would investigate what has brought about the change.

Is her vision failing her? How is her hearing? Is there anyone who visits your home that might be bothering her and causing her to become insecure? Has she been checked out by a vet in the very recent past?

Something has caused this change in her temperament and I would be very concerned to find out what it is.