Have you ever experienced demand barking from your canine buddy? Isn’t it annoying? Well, it is not just annoying; it is actually extremely annoying, right? You can’t do your job in peace when you are at home; there are times when you are still making zero progress after four hours because of the intense and extremely annoying barking.
You cannot make a phone call inside your house because of the noise so you will resort in using your phone inside the bathroom or you will go outside your house to get rid of the unbearable noise.
Let’s start with that you know about demand barking. What is demand barking? Demand barking is when your dog barks and barks to get something from you which maybe food, your attention, to play, to be brought outside or inside, and many more things. It can be compared to a toddler who is throwing a bad tantrum to get what he wants.
Demand barking is a dog’s trait where he won’t stop barking until he gets what he wants. If he wants the food that you are eating, he will bark at you continuously until you give up and get annoyed until eventually, you will give him the food that he badly wants.
He will bark and bark at you until he gets anything that he demands and will leave you frustrated, it will feel like you have a spoiled child inside your home but the difference is your child keeps on barking!
Demand barking is incredibly difficult to stop and manage because it requires your 100% patience. The number one and most important thing that you can do is to completely ignore it. But ignoring your dog’s bark can be extremely hard and tough especially when you are in the verge of losing your temper and all you want to do is to shut him up so you will give in to his demands.
It is also hard since some dog owners do not have the strength to resist the demands of their canine companions since they love them so much and could not contain their cuteness. Well, if you love them so much you should learn how to silence them without giving in to their demands
Aside from completely ignoring your canine buddy, here are four easy to follow steps that can help you control and stop demand barking from your dog:
1. NEVER correct your dog’s barking with any verbal cues
Do not say words like “no”, “quiet”, “shut up”, and the likes because for your canine companion, that sounds like something rewarding therefore he will continue his barking because he might feel like he is capturing your attention – that’s his goal.
Remember to ignore him all of the time and to not give in to his demands because if not, you will be teaching him that he can be spoiled all of the time.
2. IGNORE your dog’s demand and replace it with an opposing behavior
Once you hear your canine buddy doing demand barking, you more or less know what he wants. He wants the chip that you are eating? Give him his chew toy. He wants to go to the garden to play? Be the one to go outside and leave him behind. This way he knows that he is not the one to be followed and his unacceptable behaviors will be replaced with something that he doesn’t want.
3. Establish a TIME OUT for your dog
When your canine buddy demands something from his other furry friends, that will be a tough call for you as an owner because you won’t be able to control your other dogs. So the solution for that is to remove the toy that your dog demands from his other fur friends.
This will serve as a time out for your demanding dog and he won’t have his fur brothers behind his back. Dog parenting can be really hard, huh?
4. Occasionally REWARD your dog for his quietness
Sometimes you should also try rewarding your canine buddy when he is quiet. For example, you are eating a snack then he starts barking at you, you can do Tip #1 or even include Tip #2, send him away together with his chew toy. Then after some time see if he is quiet, if he is, that is the time when you can share with him your snack.
But remember to be careful when you do this because he might get the rhythm of it – when he does demand barking then he will be quiet for a while that’s when he will get his treat. You should do this tip randomly as to not give him the idea that there is a rhythm to be followed.
The tips mentioned above looks simple and easy to follow, isn’t it?
But there is such a thing called extinction burst, this extinction burst happens when a behavior that is unwanted gets worse before it was ignored or taken action upon. For example, you tolerated and gave in to your dogs demand barking then all of a sudden you suddenly stopped and ignored him.
Due to this sudden change, he might think that “what went wrong? This always worked before. Probably they did not notice my barking”. So he will bark even louder and even longer which will be more chaotic for your part.
When this happens, it is very important and very critical to not give in to his demands even if the bark is irritating because your canine buddy might think that he should bark that loud (which is much louder than before) in order for you to address his demands.
So for those who are not yet in this worst stage, follow the tips on how you can prevent, stop, and control your dog’s demand barking so you both you and your canine friend can live harmoniously and peacefully. Hoping that this would help!
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