Hi All,

I'm new to this forum so quickly heres a bit about me...

I am married have a 6 month old baby girl (Lucy), live in Tasmania Australia, have 2 dogs One 2.5 Yr old Liver and White English Springer Spaniel (Bella) and One 1.5 yr old Springer x Chocolate Lab x sharpei (Alfie) and 4 pet ducks (Mally, Mavis, Indiana & Twitch)

My problem is with Bella, She has recently (probably following the birth of our Daughter) started obsessively barking at the ducks. when we go outside she bolts down to their enclosure and circles it barking. I call her to come inside but she just keeps looking up at me looking very excited and then turns back to the ducks and continues barking

she seems to only do it when we open the back door to let her in (when she knows we are watching) and can stay there for over an hour barking and looking up at us. Ignoring her doesnt seem to work, the only way i can get her to stop is by walking down there and pulling her away for a few steps and then she happily comes inside. Even Alfie keeps looking at her as if he is thinking 'why are you doing that??' Its very confusing!!

We obviously don't have as much time to spend with her now with the baby having arrived but still walk her as often as before, the only thing which has changed is that she is no longer allowed in the loungeroom, so is not spending each night lounging next to us on the couch, she still sleeps inside etc etc...

Hoping i might be able to get some advice on how i can try to deter her from this obsessive barking before we get a complaint from the neighbours.

Attached Images

belalf.jpg (90.3 KB, 2 views)

Welcome to the forum!!

When we got our chickens my dog, Toby used to get very excited by them & every time he went in to the garden would run up to their coop & bark at them.

To stop this efvery time he barked at them, even just once then he was taken staright back inside. It was quite time consuming at the beginning but we had to be consistent so he knew that he would get put back inside (on his own, no toys or anything) every time he barked.

If you dog turns this in to a game of you coming to get him then him ruinning off then I would leash her & take her out. That way once she did start barking you could immdiately take her back to the house.

I would try to engage the dog in other activity, and teach an "Ignore!" command by high value treating at shoulder so dog must turn head.

That way you can go near (but not too near) the ducks and get the dog used to not barking at them.

If there's a rewarding activity & company in the garden to be enjoyed, then the removal for barking is more effective, as the dog wants to stay out there. That avoids the "game" danger pointed out by Cleo. Supervision in garden will however be required to break the habit.

If there's a certain trigger distance, then perhaps temporary enclosing the area near the ducks off, might help to. It worked for someone who's dog barkead at new neighbour in her garden, who unfortunately said she was dog phobic and unwilling therefore to become familir to the dog.

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For eager & reliable recall, be fun for the dog to come back to! Then often send them off right away to do what they wanted!
DT&B - Glossary of acronyms & jargon terms.
Encouraging good behaviours, whilst consistently avoiding practise of bad alternatives leads to extinction of the bad. So if dog sits 6/10 times it doesn't sit 4/10 times, encouraging with the right rewards (positively-reinforcing) enough for 9/10 times means it now fails to sit only 1/10 times, sit 10/10 means...