Dealing with Sudden (and Persistent) Nuisance Barking in the Crate
What do you do when suddenly, your once calm-in-the-crate pup decides they no longer want to be a crate dog? Here is a quick breakdown of things I do to troubleshoot this behavior.
Needs Being Met
Is the dog getting the appropriate exercise and decompression throughout the day? Long line walks, off leash time, time to dig, roll, be a dog.
If not, start here. Add more fulfillment in.
Time Outside of the Crate
What does time out of the crate look like? Is the dog constantly following the owners around/not comfortable without being constantly stimulated? Are they comfortable being back tied/on a station/on a place cot? This is going to be key in teaching your dog how to be independent.
If not, add this piece in.
Give good effort at implementing both of the above steps with some consistency, change can be hard and we run on dog time here! If improvement is not seen -
Bark Collar
If the dog is fulfilled and has the skill of being relaxed outside of the crate add in a bark collar at a low level to interrupt the barking. I recommend the Garmin Bark Limiter, set to 1 is usually enough for most dogs to interrupt the cycle. I like to introduce the concept of a bark collar once the dog has understanding on stim pressure, I generally introduce this through remote ecollar pressure to be in full control then switch to an automatic bark collar… Introducing the bark collar is best done with a professionals direct guidance rather than just slapping it on.
As with all my training, I always look first to if the dog is biologically fulfilled, then to other skills I can give the dog that would assist in the target skill becoming more achievable, and lastly to corrections for persistent undesirable behaviors.
