# Noisy 7 month miniature poodle



## snowflake (Nov 19, 2021)

Hi
I am new to this forum and a new poodle owner, though a long time owner of various other dogs! My other dogs are a 14 year old rescue girl from Crete (I met her while on holiday), and a 4 year old Miniature Schnauzer. I enjoy dog training so recently I bought a miniature poodle puppy who is now 7 months old. He is very handsome and so clever but also very strong willed and lively. We have started obedience lessons and he is finding the exercises very easy, I started doing bits with him from early on. My problem is that he is so noisy! As soon as I started taking him out on a lead he was barking madly at other dogs - that is a bit better now with distractions etc. However a few weeks ago he started attending obedience classes, he is spot on at home, very quick and clever. At the classes he is certainly very good but as soon as I get him out of the car to go into the hall, he starts hysterically barking and on and off throughout the lesson he is barking loudly (with excitement I think) which makes me feel so embarrassed. I would like to progress as I have always done obedience training with my dogs over the years and he is more than capable! Any suggestions as to calming him (and quieting him down would be much appreciated!


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## Johanna (Jun 21, 2017)

Teach him the command "quiet". When he is barking inappropriately wrap your hand around his muzzle and say "quiet". Reward a correct response with praise and, if possible, a treat. At your class site, tell him to quiet and, if he does not comply, put him back in the car. Again, reward good behavior.


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## cowpony (Dec 30, 2009)

When my two adolescents are in class I find they need to be kept working and focused. A Bernese Mountain dog might be content to sit there and wait while the instructor is explaining something. My boys need to be kept busy busy busy. As soon as I drop my coat on my chair I start asking them to perform different tasks. Touch, sit, Look at Me, down, gimme a paw, spin, wave, back up, heel, lie on your mat- anything I can do to distract the dog. I also installed silent hand signals for my most common requests. This way I could quietly cycle the dog through a series of tasks without interrupting the instructor. 

My older boy has mostly grown out of barking at the other dogs; he still demand barks when he is bored and wants a treat. I am now training my husband (who is handling him in the current class) to not let the dog get bored; the barking is much reduced. My 9 month old is still a work in progress. He enters the room shrieking with excitement and lunging at the other dogs. Again, I deal with him by cycling him through the tasks he knows, so he is paying attention to me instead of the other dogs. I reward his focus on me with slivers of cooked meat (a treat he only gets in training class.) Each week he's calming down more quickly, focusing on me better, and is tolerating more distractions.


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## WinnieThePoodle (Sep 1, 2020)

I too wrap my hand around Winnie's muzzle and say quiet. Although I have found that she became less noisy as she got older so don't need to do this much. She is almost one and a half now.


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## snowflake (Nov 19, 2021)

WinnieThePoodle said:


> I too wrap my hand around Winnie's muzzle and say quiet. Although I have found that she became less noisy as she got older so don't need to do this much. She is almost one and a half now.





WinnieThePoodle said:


> I too wrap my hand around Winnie's muzzle and say quiet. Although I have found that she became less noisy as she got older so don't need to do this much. She is almost one and a half now.





WinnieThePoodle said:


> I too wrap my hand around Winnie's muzzle and say quiet. Although I have found that she became less noisy as she got older so don't need to do this much. She is almost one and a half now.


Thanks that is very helpful and I will definitely try your suggestions!


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## cowpony (Dec 30, 2009)

WinnieThePoodle said:


> I too wrap my hand around Winnie's muzzle and say quiet. Although I have found that she became less noisy as she got older so don't need to do this much. She is almost one and a half now.


I haven't had good results with wrapping my hand around Galen or Ritter's muzzle. When they are barking out of agitation a hand around the muzzle seems to amp them up further. I experimented a bit with teaching Galen to bark and air snap on command. (Galen naturally uses his air snap as a muted bark; I simply captured and reinforced the snap when he was doing it.) It seemed to help a bit, but only if I could retain his attention.


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## Skylar (Jul 29, 2016)

*Why is he barking? Is he overstimulated?*

Work on keeping his attention on you in class. Treat him for looking at you in class and as Cowpony recommends, keep him busy with sits, downs, touch your hand etc. Vary the commands as poodles get tired after 3 or more repeats.

Ask your trainer for some help. It maybe that you need to put some distance between you and the other dogs. Can you move off to a far corner of the room. You might try working behind a gate which can block some of his view, or throw a sheet over it to completely block the view. The goal is to get him to an area where he’s not barking so you can work. Once he can settle down then you can work your way closer to the other students.

*Is he demand barking because the treats aren’t coming fast enough? *

Are you standing around in class listening to the trainer mostly and not looking at your dog? I only look at my dog as I’m working to connect with him. In other situations this would be rude, but in dog training It should be your goal. Give him commands and treat while listening to the trainer. This way he won’t demand bark while trainer is talking. At other times,when he is demand barking, turn your back and ignore him to punish him for demand barking. He is barking for your attention and treats, withdrawing them gives him feedback that demand barking is not the way to go.


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## Michigan Gal (Jun 4, 2019)

Hold a food treat to his nose. He can't sniff and bark at the same time. Tell him, hush, then give treat. Work up to longer waiting times. You can also reward him by bringing him to the other dog and letting them sniff. Hush, get to say hello and/or get treat. No hush, no hello and no treat.


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## Spottytoes (Jul 28, 2020)

This thread is one I am following as Joey, who just turned 20 weeks, is starting to bark more. So far, he’s pretty good on our walks but he is barking more during puppy class and he barked quite a bit during last week’s class. We are starting Obedience next week so I am a bit worried he will bark too much. I am able to get him to focus on me as long as I keep asking him to do things but he definitely can’t just sit quietly or settle at this point. He’s much more barky than Bobby was at this age so I know it’s something we will be working on. Bobby was highly distracted when he was young but not barky and we used a barrier for quite awhile and that helped tremendously for helping him to focus. As he matured we no longer needed the barrier. We are training at a different facility with Joey due to more availability of classes and schedules and I didn’t see any barriers or gates but perhaps it will be different for Obedience.


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