Practice Makes Perfect

Cotton is quite a yappy dog, which is unfortunate.  I love him, but I hate the sound of yapping dogs, especially high pitched ones like him.  We have always had something of a battle going on, because I've got very little tolerance for it.  When we're at home, it's easier.  When the weather's colder and the windows are closed, he's oblivious to everything going on outside and generally pretty quiet.  If he wants to go outside, he has to stay quiet.  Simple as that: if he barks he comes back in.

The problem is when we're on walks.  Cotton tends to see dogs from a distance, fire off on a yapping spree, and then it's next to impossible to get him to stop.  This has been such a problem that I've often considered not bringing him on walks at all.

This spring, he was terrible.  I was *this* close to leaving him at home while I walked Tula, but I decided to try something new.  Anytime he barked, he and Tula had to sit for 20 seconds before we'd carry on.  If either of them barked or got up, the clock started again.  The first night, it took us four and a half minutes to get off the driveway.  But eventually it got better.

The trick to this method is quite simple:  the Dude can't  multi task.  He can't bark and sit at the same time, so he always stands back up before he barks again.  If he stands back up before his 20 seconds are up, I catch him before he fires and put him back into a sit.  Most of the time, this lets me wait him out long enough that he calms down (or whatever he's been barking at has moved on).

This method has been amazingly successful to date, and for the last few weeks, walking has so much less of a chore.    I don't have to have my eyes peeled for dogs that he might see, cross the street or change routes all the time; and when we do encounter somebody, the battle has shortened from 2-3 minutes of me trying to settle him down to a quiet reminder to be quiet and praise when he is.

Having him sit on command to get his attention has become my go-to command.  Barking?  Sit.  Pulling on the leash? Sit.  Growl at the cat? Sit.  Bugging me to pick him up when I'm busy?  Sit.

The dude's been spending a lot of time with his butt on the ground.  He's getting really good at the sit.  Except, maybe he's getting too good.    Tonight, when I was walking him around the block, he saw another dog and started to bark.  I told him to sit, which he did and then he started to bark while remaining seated.

The dude has gotten so good that he's learned to multi task.  I'm going to have to come up with another plan.