# Desensitizing sounds



## snow0160 (Sep 20, 2016)

I have profound hearing loss in one ear and my dog's used to bark at the sound of phones, buzzers, door bells, alarm, knocking. I used to think it was a great thing but it has gotten out of hand. They bark when they hear these sounds from the TV and they get very angry like there are intruders. Hearing dogs are not suppose to bark but take you to the source of the sound. This is what Lucky does but he also barks because he learned this from my older little dogs. So what is the best method to stop the alert barking?


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## lily cd re (Jul 23, 2012)

Oh good luck with that. I will be interested to see if anyone has a good strategy here since I have never had any luck reducing alert barking and my obedience trainer also says her dogs bark a lot at home.


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## Liz (Oct 2, 2010)

Yeah, it's a tough one, especially if barking/reacting was encouraged. I've found two things that help:

1) I'll use a knock on the door as an example. Stand outside the front door, with the door open, and knock on the door. Dogs will go nuts. Do this a few times until they realize it's you making the noise, and the going nuts has reduced to barking once or even better, cocking the head to the side. Now partially close the door and repeat. Eventually, close the door, repeat. Eventually close the door, wait a few seconds, and repeat. I can usually get this far within a few minutes (hurray for smart dogs).

Now repeat this, every day, possibly for the rest of their lives - I'll let you know when I am able to stop, with every noise that sets them off. Good luck.

2) When they're mostly desensitized to a noise, and instead of running t the door/window in a frenzy, they just lift their heads from the couch and lazily bark once or twice, make sure to give calming signals - yawn, act sleepy, blink, relax your body - so that they realize that you're not worried and they don't need to be either.

Finally, to anyone with puppies out there, with my next dog I intend to work on the following from Day 1: the relaxation protocol, a settle command, and noise desensitization.


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## Caddy (Nov 23, 2014)

Oh I hear you snow, I was just saying to DH last night "we have to try and do something about this frantic alert barking", but we didn't know what. I found when there was just one you could sort of get a hold on it, but with two they feed off each other it seems. Liz, I have tried the desensitizing similar to what you do, but admittedly, I've been very sporadic with it. Abbey & Dolly will react to some tv sounds too, and it can scare the heck out of me sometimes. I may I to get serious about your training Liz.


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## Skylar (Jul 29, 2016)

Your problem is the dogs reaction to the tv and not to the doorbell or other noises so I would imagine you need to train them to extinguish barking only in relation to the TV which will be tricky. I'm wondering if you can do something with the sound on your Tv, maybe only watch it with earphones which would be annoying but the dogs wouldn't hear the sound and react. 

I have a similar problem with my dog. She will watch the TV and react to action and sound from the TV and sometimes we have to turn it off or watch a show later when she is sleeping late in the evening. I'm lucky that she only barks when there's aggressive action but she always runs to the door when she hears one on the TV.


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## fjm (Jun 4, 2010)

Yesterday lunchtime the dogs alert barked on and off for 30 minutes. I went and looked out of the front door - nothing. I asked them to hush. A few minutes later more barking. After several repetitions I was doing the absolutely worst thing and practically yelping myself in frustration. Then I prepared to get the car out for a hairdresser appointment, and discovered that the road mending gang were round the corner, blocking the drive leading out of the estate as they resurfaced the area dug up after a leak last week. Sophy's ears said Told you so! very clearly...

I find the key is to acknowledge and if necessary investigate the potential cause of the barking, then be very, vey quiet and calm about asking for quiet and calm. Unfortunately very often the barkfest happens while I am in the bath, and investigation is nigh on impossible, or my patience is already stressed and yelling back is so much easier. Some day perhaps both the dogs and I will improve!


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## Dechi (Aug 22, 2015)

I've read that teaching them to bark on command, and then stop barking on command, works. I never tried it but it seems like a good option that might work.


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## snow0160 (Sep 20, 2016)

Dechi said:


> I've read that teaching them to bark on command, and then stop barking on command, works. I never tried it but it seems like a good option that might work.




I've been doing this with one at a time but they reinforce each other when it isn't training. The one that is the instigator is the Pomeranian. I forgot to mention that my parrot actually barks as well when she hears a door knock. It is all learned behaviors. When I tell her to "be quiet" she says it back. I think the ups man must think we have a zoo in here. I'm probably going to dig my manners minders treat dispensers out of storage. 


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## Dechi (Aug 22, 2015)

@Snow Ha Ha Ha ! That is just too funny ! I have a parrot too but she doesn't bark. I'd prefer that, she just sreams her head off when we leave the house or come in...


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## Charmed (Aug 4, 2014)

Dechi, you may have something there, about training the "speak" on command and then the "no speak". My oldest boy and long-gone girl both learned to speak on command first. They were never problem barkers ( well, at least, until senility at 15). I did not train Wilson to speak on command, and he does have a problem with inside alert barking. No matter what I do, he has to let loose with a few grumbly barks. I am grateful that they are no longer volleys with a building crescendo.


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## Poodlebeguiled (May 27, 2013)

Do you have the book Culture Clash, by Jean Donaldson? She has a method that I used for my Chihuahuas quite a number of years back. I may have even posted it on this forum somewhere at one time. But it does involve training the cued bark and cued quiet, volleying back and forth. There is more to it than just that, so you really should read the book...and specially, the chapter on bark training. If you do just what she says, it should work as long as your dog does not have a socialization, exercise, mental stimulation "deficit." (as she describes) It worked well with my Chi's. I used it on some other dogs too. My girl Chi, Chulita was especially yappy but she'd get Jose`, who wasn't so yappy going. lol.


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## ericwd9 (Jun 13, 2014)

Alert Barking is a natural instinct. I have found that training any dog in line with their instincts is easy. To Train against their instincts is somewhere between hard and impossible. My own method is to investigate any alert with the dog and praise or admonish accordingly.

Good luck to any of you who try to correct this problem. You may have to live with it.


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## Caddy (Nov 23, 2014)

ericwd9 said:


> Alert Barking is a natural instinct. I have found that training any dog in line with their instincts is easy. To Train against their instincts is somewhere between hard and impossible. My own method is to investigate any alert with the dog and praise or admonish accordingly.
> 
> Good luck to any of you who try to correct this problem. You may have to live with it.


Lol, DH said as much to me.


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## Poodlebeguiled (May 27, 2013)

It's a natural instinct to warn the family of intruders and such. And while you can't train away an instinct to be non-existent, you _can_ train a dog to stop when you ask. You can't or wouldn't want to train a dog to _never _bark. That is why admonishing for barking is not good training. You don't admonish something that you accept or appreciate your dog doing sometimes but not other times. When you punish a behavior, that means to never do it. The point of punishing/admonishing is to cause a behavior to become extinct. Well, since it is accepted that we all should appreciate our dogs barking at intruders and accept that they will on account of instinct, why would you want to attempt to extinguish the behavior? So, as you say, that's unrealistic in the case of an instinct such as barking. *But* a dog is _quite_ capable of learning to start and stop on cue, as a game. And that's what I did with past dogs successfully by using the method I mentioned. My dogs barked, I cued, "enough" and they stopped. It doesn't mean they didn't bark at another time...another incident, just not _that_ one. 

There are other methods as well that work. I think I saw a pretty good one on a website called Clicker Solutions. It's been a long time.


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## snow0160 (Sep 20, 2016)

I just need to train the worst barker (probably my Pomeranian) to stop first. He is one of those stereotypical little dogs who will sound off at my telephone. He is a poster child for "yappy small dogs." I wish he didn't get so angry. Lucky by comparison barks to alert you. He would bark twice to let you know someone is there. It is usually a deep "woof" and he only barks at people at the door. This is fine imo but the nonstop yapping is a bit much. I think the Pomeranian is teaching others bad behaviors. For instance, when the bird barks, it is the exact voice of the Pomeranian rather than the others. 


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## Click-N-Treat (Nov 9, 2015)

Counter conditioning your dog to stop barking is going to take awhile. You know my favorite training game, Look at that? You can play, what was that? Start with a noise you can control, like a beeping sound on your phone. Before the dog gets barking, click and treat for a head turn toward the sound. 

Depending on how sound reactive your dog is, you might need a whispering level sound. Enough to get your dog's attention, but not enough to trigger a barking spasm.

What was that? Turn toward the sound, click/treat. 

What's fun about this game is it gives your dog something else to do other than have a barking spasm at a sound. Wow, I heard something, and now I'm staring at you for a treat. 

Interrupting barking spasms, in our house anyway, involves a highly rewarded recall away from the trigger. So, if they are on the couch, barking at things through the window, I call them to come and we play sit/down/sit, or some other game.

Another thing I have taught my dogs is, "Tone it!" The gesture is a single raised finger. Sometimes I can stop a barking spasm before it starts just by raising my finger. We started training Tone It using barking dog videos on YouTube. I think YouTube has 3 hour long barking dog videos. I started the video at a low volume, and gradually turned up the sound. When Noelle and Francis barked, I paused the video, held up my finger and said, "tone it" waited for the barking to stop, counted five and rewarded. 

Now they both know that tone it, means shut the #$% up! It took about a month to get Francis to shut up. It took Noelle 2 weeks. However, there was a strange dog visiting our neighbors. He liked to bark at Noelle, who barked through the fence right back at him. I spent the weekend saying, "Noelle, Tone it! Leave it! Come."
It was a long, long weekend.


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