When I first started working on this post, I thought about getting some video of Cooper to illustrate the problem… but then I realized just how annoying it would be to watch a video of him barking his face off.
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Demand barking.
It’s. so. annoying.
And, I know, many of us are faced with this behavior. So, what can we do about our dogs’ demand barks?
First, what is demand barking?
Your dog barks (and barks and barks) to get something from you: food, attention, play, to be let out, to be let in, and so on.
Cooper does this all the time. In fact, he made a spectacle of himself this weekend when we had company in town, and he insisted on barking at one of our friends for tortilla chips… of course, she kept giving it to him, so the barking continued. Cooper wins.
He also barks at Emmett and Lucas. He wants Lucas to play, so he barks in his face until he relents. He wants the toy Emmett is chewing on, so he barks in his face until Emmett gets frustrated, drops the toy, and walks away. He wants the bed they’re laying on, so he lays in front of the bed and barks until they get annoyed and leave. In each instance, Cooper wins.
Or, he sees something out the front window. It might be the UPS driver, kids at the bus stop, leaves blowing in a funny way… and he starts barking and barking and barking. The thing moves on AND our family isn’t attacked, so. Cooper wins again.
He consistently rewards this behavior all by himself because he barks and the thing he wants to happen happens. Annoying, yes, and super tough to curb.
So, I started doing a little research to devise a training plan to tackle Cooper’s demand barking.
The first step to stop excessive barking: management
This might be the easiest step in the process because it has nothing to do with working on the behavior.
Management means controlling the environment, and that gives you time to work on the behavior.
The biggest thing I recommend because it works well, it’s simple, and it’s cost-effective: window clings! This is the kind we have. You can cut it to any size you need, and it won’t damage your window. There are also fancy ones like this. You could also DIY something if you’re a crafty sort, but the idea is to block your dog’s view. (Yes, you can totally use blinds or curtains, too, but some windows can’t accommodate the right choice, some landlords don’t allow it, and some dogs–ahem, Lucas–will smash the blinds to get window access.)
Another option is to section off the areas that cause the most trouble, like the front door or a window that looks out at the mailbox. Adjustable gates like these work wonders. These are a perfect solution if your dog needs to be sectioned off into another room to keep him from barking at guests or from attacking the vacuum.
Okay, so you’ve found a way to control the environment, which should cut down on a ton of barking. Now we need to address the behavior!
4 Steps to stop demand barking:
- Don’t “correct” the barking with any verbal cues. So, no “no,” no “quiet,” no “seriously shutttt upppp!” Why? Well, it’s either rewarding your dog with your extra attention, OR your dog is like, “Oh, yeah! My person is backing me up and barking, too! Teamwork!” (Aside: This is REALLY hard for John. He always wants to shhh! him, so this will be the difficult part for him!)
- Ignore the demand and replace it with an incompatible behavior. When your dog is demand barking, you probably know exactly what he wants. He wants my chips? I’ll hand him a chew toy instead. Our go-to replacements for barking are the squeaky toys from BarkBox that we rotate monthly between the closet and the toy box to keep them fresh.
- Institute a pause. If your dog is barking to demand a thing–a treat, your food, whatever–implement a nice, long pause before you give the thing. That “nice, long pause” might only be three seconds at first. You’re working to build up your dog’s tolerance for waiting. If he starts barking again, that’s your cue to know you asked for too long of a pause. Once he waits for those three seconds, or five or ten or whatever you’ve worked up to, reward the silence with a treat, squeaky toy, or praise.
- Sporadically reward him for quiet. For example, if I’m eating carrots at my desk and he barks at me for a carrot, I’ll do step one (sometimes paired with step two, like asking him to go on his bed with a chew), then wait for a few seconds of silence, then give him a carrot. This has to be very random because we don’t want to risk setting up a chain reaction where: barking for a while + not barking for a while = treat.
Seems simple enough, right?
Be prepared for an extinction burst
Your dog was successful in getting what he wanted by barking at you for a very long time. Now that you’re stopping, he’s going to be super confused! It always worked before… what the heck is going on? Perhaps they didn’t hear me. So he’ll bark at a greater intensity: longer, louder, more frantic, etc. It’s critical not to give in at this point because otherwise you’re setting your pup up to think, “Okay, now I have to bark at THIS level to get what I want.” So, hold strong!
I’m actually curious to see what his “extinction burst” is going to be like…
That’s our plan! For now, anyway. The great thing about plans like this is that we can remain flexible and adjust as needed, as long as we keep the goal in mind: Extinguishing demand barking!
Does your dog do this? Have you tried a training plan to extinguish the behavior? Any tips or tricks? Anyone want to attempt this plan along with us?
For more on this topic, check out:
Demand Barking: What is it and how to curb it: This post is a one-year-later look at attempting the steps above…
How to Get Your Dog to Stop Barking on Cue: The “Cooper, enough!” cue used in all barking scenarios other than demand barking (with a video example)
Images: Cooper, the white and brown short-haired dog by Isabel Vittrup-Pallier on Unsplash
Had similar issues with our pup. He was a puppy mill dog and about a week or so after we adopted him he knew what it meant for a human to be in the Kitchen. it meant FOOD is afoot! HA HA. It was right around that time we heard him bark for the FIRST TIME! He’d stare at my husband (cooking) and do a low “ruff” almost like he’d been smoking a pack of marlboro’s and drinkin scotch, I didn’t even think it was an actual BARK. We knew at that point DO NOT GIVE HIM ANYTHING. Instead I’d go over coax him away by using myself as a barrier and moving him away from the kitchen (he didn’t know any commands at that point)and give him pets or training. He still tries once in a while but he quickly gives up the request. Hang in there, you just have to be more patient and stubborn than the pup! No EASY TASK, for sure!
Thanks for sharing your experience! And you’re spot on – it’s SO hard being more stubborn than a very determined pup! 🙂
My dog is a demand whiner (she has never barked, and when she does she scares herself) I will have to try this method. Thanks for the great info!
Let me know how it works for you, Anna! And the scaring herself thing made me giggle! 🙂
Hi! I did this incorrectly with my puppy (16 weeks now) and would say “quiet”. He kinda knows the word but is in a behavior cycle where he thinks barking is what we want/he needs. I also live in an apartment so I’m wondering if you have any advice on a next plan, would be so appreciated
Oh, gosh… those behavior cycles are tough. I would suggest stepping away entirely from your current “quiet” cycle and starting fresh. Pick a new cue and train as if your pup has never learned how to bark or not. Begin at the beginning and create a fresh start (no more using quiet)! Good luck!
Same for my dog
Sounds like a good plan! Good luck with it; I am sure Cooper will learn to succeed with these new strategies.
Pyrrha is a remarkably quiet dog, but we are currently sitting a dog who is kind of a demand-whiner (as Anna above writes). We’ll have to try some of these tactics with him over the week!
Give it a whirl! Emmett’s super quiet, too. When Cooper’s really getting into his barking, I swear Emmett just stares at him like “What is your problem, dude?” Too bad he didn’t learn quiet behavior from Emmett as a pup!
Titan does this sometimes. I end up laughing at him, which annoys him more, so he barks more. I’ve found walking out of whatever room he’s in gets him to shut up. 🙂
Yeah, that’s a great idea! One of Cooper’s “barkiest” moments is when John gets home from work. Cooper wants all of John’s attention, so he blocks out the other two while barking his head off. We’re working on having John turn his back and stand still until Coop stops. Sometimes it takes quiet a while…
Does it work though? Sometimes it’s hard for me to just walk away from Titan but his bark is so deep and could chop your bones in two. 🙂 I’ll fess up though, sometimes I bark like an idiot back at him! LOL
This is good to read. Sometimes Miss M gets so excited to meet someone, she does the ‘hungry gremlin noise’ which is not always so well received. I wonder if some of this would work with her also.
To me, it’s the worst when they do it to someone else because it’s sort of embarrassing! That may work for Miss M, or like Bren’s idea to have them leave the room or turn their back. Let me know what you try and how it works!
I LOVE having a name to call this behavior now! Charlie does this sometimes – I call it a bratty bark, but it really is more of a “demand” bark. Usually happens when I get home from work or have been working on the computer too long… the demand bark is her way of letting me know she needs attention. Sometimes she does it when I’m in a conversation with someone else though – and I agree, it’s totally embarrassing! Typically her demand bark is my own fault because she needs exercise or mental stimulation and I haven’t given her enough of my undivided time/attention. If it’s just not an ideal time to take care of her needs the “right way” (i.e. go play ball in the backyard or go for a long walk), I tell her “TIME OUT!” That’s her cue that the barking behavior is NOT going to get her what she wants. She gives me the “wounded look” – a surprised/defeated expression – and lays down on her bed. I usually try to reward her good behavior with a chew toy or a quick game of fetch within a few minutes. Good luck with Cooper… I can’t wait to hear the follow-up on how it’s working out for you!
Bratty bark is a great name! Sorta sums up the behavior… It sounds like you have a good plan in place. Maybe we’ll try integrating a time out of some sort. Thanks for sharing your experience with Charlie!
Ray has never been a barker, so when Julius came to live with us, we were shocked by the barking. Julius is definitely a demand barker. I’m very happy to read these ideas and to try and incorporate this with our plan of physically ignoring him. If I have something and he barks in my face for it, I get up and make a point of either giving it to Ray or putting it away. We’ll see…
Let me know how it goes, Debra! Here’s hoping for success!
Since I started lavishing attention or treats on Ray whenever Julius barks, Julius quickly learned that quiet dogs get stuff. After just a few days I’ve noticed a marked decline in how often or how long J barks. I’m feeling pretty positive so far.
Maggie has many ways of letting us know when she is impatient. They are mostly subtle (how many times must a dog re-sit nicely in front of the couch to get the attention she so politely sat for – type behaviors) and not disruptive so it’s never been a behavior issue we felt the need to work on. Hurley’s whining on the other hand? I hate to say it but I think we’ve landed squarely in the if you can’t beat em, join em category.
However….when a certain black dog dances for her breakfast instead of maintaining that sit, a certain dog mom may or may not then dance and sing Dancin in the Streets to all 3 of her dogs before feeding them. They in turn may not find the breakfast delay amusing and, I”m anthropomorphizing here, may have given dog mom dirty looks as she twirled around the kitchen with their bowls of food. Is this a good training methodology? Well, we’ll see if anyone decides to dance for breakfast tomorrow morning!
HA! How’d it turn out? Funny thing, though, is that I swear I get dirty looks from these guys on occasion. I know it’s not encouraged to anthropomorphize… but when you know, you know!
Both of our Beagles do this, but not to the extreme that Cooper does. Kobi barks when we’re dishing out his meals….so it ends quickly once he’s eating. Cricket does it when she wants her ball thrown. Occasionally I’ll be bending over to pick up the ball, and she’ll bark right in my ear – OW. We’ve never really tried to train them out of it, but I know I’m bad just throwing her ball after she’s demanded me to. Sometimes I’ve tried making her sit before I’ll throw it, but usually my patience runs out before hers and I just give in. I will be curious to know how your plan works for Cooper….good luck!
LOL! That’s totally my problem – my patience ALWAYS wears out before his! 🙂
Shelly is a very stubborn 13-year-old (almost) shar pei. She barks if we make her stay in her crate with our other dog – we avoid locking them in, but if we do, they go mad when we enter the room. The worst bit is Shelly’s incessant barking/whining for her food, while we are trying to eat ours. If we leave the door open so we cab see her, she does it in her bed, mainly. If we shar her in her crate, I guarantee that it would be worse. Shutting them in the kitchen, with the bed but no visual, she paces, something she does quite often, including at night. And she is very heavy footed, so that’s equally annoying. She can’t manage long walks and only works for food. It could be said that she was food obsessed. Help, please!
Has Shelly been checked out at the vet recently? The barking/whining combined with the pacing – especially at night – at 13 might signify an underlying health issue. My first suggestion would be to take her in and have a comprehensive senior wellness exam before anything else. Otherwise, could you try timing her dinner with yours so that she’s kept busy eating while you’re eating? It might be enough to distract her to get through a quiet dinner. Good luck.
Thanks for some of the tips regarding this problem with dogs. My dog Jasper has started this type of behaviour since he has gotten older. Barking in a demanding way for food when I am eating my food. If he doesn’t get any he jumps at me to let me know he is not going away until he gets some. I have tried feeding him after my meal at night but he will still bark at the table for food. But I will give the feeding comment at the same time as my meal a try to see if that helps.
I know this is an old blog post but wondering if you had any luck. We adopted a rescue at 6 months. She was a demand barker from day 1. We can’t seem to stop her. She demand barks for food, our attention (especially mine), her doggy sister’s attention, dogs at the dog park… you name it. HELP…….
Debi
I have a brand new puppy. I have had him for about a week and a half. Lately whenever my husband or I feed him his puppy food he will start barking and whining until we set the bowl down. I know we are not supposed to feed into this behavior as I do not want him to think this is okay when we are about to feed him but how do you prevent it when it is his puppy food and not table food? Any advice would really help.
I have a king charles cavalier who is an adult, I’ve had her for about 7 years now. She gets fed every morning, never before 9am and never after 11am.
I don’t remember exactly when this started happening but she has a habit of barking aggressively for her food. Every morning she usually is waiting by the kitchen door looking like she’s ready to explode with excitement, and I’ve no idea how long she’s been sitting there. Then when I come in she’s maybe groaning and circling around my legs as I start making coffee for myself, nothing too disruptive yet, it’s normal I guess. But then as soon as I pick up her bowl and go to grab her food she loses it and starts barking to the point where I get startled and stressed out first thing in the morning. It’s so loud it wakes the house and everyone just gets annoyed about it and knows she’s being fed, because she usually doesn’t bark like that at any other time. It’s like a morning alarm but a very annoying one.
I tried a method once about how whenever she begins barking to make sure she sees me place her food aside and go on about my business. Go to feed her again and if she barks again to repeat the process until she learns to stop. But this took literally more than an hour, and she wasn’t understanding at all. If anything she was getting majorly stressed and I felt awful. Plus, I had to go to work, so eventually I gave her her food and she learned nothing, only to hate me for making her wait maybe.
I’m at my wits end at this stage. It’s every morning and really impacts me having a good start to the day. I’m someone who loves a peaceful morning, and I love my dog so much, I just wish she had never started this habit.
It might be worth mentioning that she gets fed once a day, with a treat here or there. This is vets orders as she has a slight heart condition and cannot risk being over weight. She also has a problem with escaping into our neighbors garden (despite numerous efforts to stop her including building a fence) and picks up scraps of food from their dogs so we don’t want to add on top of that.
She’s an adorable dog who’s very loveable but so hard to keep under control.
Thank you!
Thanks for the insight, top to bottom.. We have a rescue pup who we got at 10 weeks, she’s 14 weeks now. First week, didn’t even know if she had a bark in her. Scared/trembly, needing confidence. We gave her plenty of attention and support and she’s great, smart, with big-time energy and spirt.
But she’s also making up all that lost barking) time, at least when it comes to food and her meals. To be fair, we kept a pretty good regular schedule, and the times we were (a bit) late with it, she let us know )and maybe for us to put her in a position to have to “ask/beg” isn’t wise). Anyway, that schedule involves her going the purpose/poop first thing when she gets up, ad then her breakfast when she’s back, about 7:30 am.
Thing is, bout 2-3 times over last week, she got up at round 4:00 am, had to go outside. Afterwards, no bone would do, and barked for breakfast relentlessly, of course wanting to start her daily routine hen and there (eat, play hard, etc., rather than back to sleep).
What I had to do to stop the pattern was to “pretend” to interpret her bark as a demand to go out again. Each time she did it, I got up, put the leash on and took her out. By the third time, she was tired out and fell asleep until 7:30 and we were back on schedule.
Wasn’t I wasn’t thrilled with having to take those 2nd and 3rd walks, pretty sure she wasn’t either… so far, seems like it threw her enough of a curve to keep her demand bark at bay. Maybe she’ll try to come up with a separate food-specific demand, but for now, it worked.
My 4huskys howl everyday when I’m preparing their food.non stop.soo loud..how can I get them to shut up and wait..it’s soo annoying and I’m fed up with the loud howling.they are now 4 months old and the howling is worst…plse help…they are making me soo nervous. .
Hi, Beverly:
I’m not familiar with the husky breed beyond how beautiful they are–and that they have a propensity for howling! I suggest googling for breed-specific resources or finding a local positive reinforcement trainer who can help you. It could be as simple as preparing their bowls in advance or when they’re outside so they don’t have time to build up the anticipation, though that’s just one thought off the top of my head. Best of luck to you and your sweet pups!
How do you break a dog from trying to hump other dogs. My dog has been fixed and he is 3-4 years old?
My dog started doing this about six months ago I do not know why I’ve had her over five years she is now 15 it’s hard to curb because she’s deaf and I can’t tell her no and she doesn’t play or chew on any toys so I can’t give her something to distract her so instead I find I just ignore her and most of the time it works but very annoying. Lol
Awww!! Thanks for sharing, Shelle. Was she born deaf or did that come later in life? She might simply be disoriented and using her bark to find her place in space.
I’m glad ignoring it works for you and your girl!
My 12 week old puppy is only a demand barker at other dogs when he wants them to play with him, and it just gets worse when the other dogs ignore him. I don’t want to take him away from the other dogs because socialization is so important at this age! Any ideas on how to get him to interact with other dogs without demand barking? It just makes the other dogs not want to interact with him!