Sunday, September 13, 2009

Barking All Night

Beckett's night time barking has only increased. Signalling that whatever we are or are not doing is not working. Last night, around 2am (since I was unable to sleep through the noise) I combed my go-to websites for dog training. Since Beckett seems to be adjusting during the day when we leave and it seems to me it might be more of an anxiety issue. I started playing the yo-yo game from the Karen Pryor website http://www.clickertraining.com/node/1556 I'm not sure that it was the best bet, but it was the best I could do with little sleep and not a bad choice considering it being 2am (not my optimal functioning time). It might have helped, but it seems almost impossible to work up to, since it requires me to stay awake all night. So probably not a long term solution. Of course everyone has suggestions, my favorite (and that is sarcasm) is how everyone who ever saw a dog whisperer episode thinks they are a dog trainer. I've read books, papers, taken a class, and there is so much I don't know. What I do know is two things, 1. I'm not a dog trainer 2. The idea of staring a anxious dog down or yelling is a bad idea and it being a bad idea is supported by scientific evidence. Tonight we will try duct taping the travel crate together and putting it upstairs and playing through a dog's ear (a audio cd for the purpose). Wish us luck.

2 comments:

  1. Its Monday, I'm nervous how last night went for you. Did the duct tape hold? Did he like the cd??

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  2. The duct tape didn't hold - I could hear him tearing at the crate, so we moved his regular crate instead, also we couldn't get a hold of the cd until the next night (I might not have been super motivated since I also wanted to test out just any old classical music)

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