Talk Dog Hawaii

Well, believe it or not, there’s a guaranteed way to make your dog stop barking, and it’s totally humane.

First you have to understand why dogs bark, their psychology, and ultimately learn to become the pack leader.

“Barking is the No. 1 problem people come to me for,” says master dog behavior therapist Scott Argus of Talk Dog Hawaii. “There are dogs that will only bark when somebody walks by the house, and they bark for 30 seconds and stop; there are dogs that bark all day long; and then there are all the dogs in between.”

He says the two primary reasons a dog barks are fear and separation anxiety. But both stem from the dog thinking it’s the pack leader.

“A dog’s DNA is 99.8 percent identical to the gray wolf,” he explains, “and the importance there is the gray wolf is a classic pack animal – they work together and live together as an extremely tight-knit family. Their very survival in their minds depends on having a good pack leader. It’s literally life and death.

“So what happens is you bring a dog into your home, and after a couple of days, she says, OK, I’m a member of a new pack. I eat here and I sleep here. If I want to survive, I have to figure out who the pack leader is.

“Well, you behave like a human, and she thinks, uhoh, there’s no pack leader here, we’re all gonna die. So the dogs, by default, say if nobody else is going to do it, I will.”

As the leader of the pack, their No. 1 job is security, which explains the barking. They hear something outside and their responsibility is to warn the pack.

With separation anxiety, it’s not about feeling lonely, bored or abandoned, but rather about safety. “She’s barking because a member of the pack is wandering off, so the pack is no longer safe,” explains Argus. “I can’t be out there with you to guard you, and you’re not here to protect us if we get attacked, so by splitting up the pack, I only have two choices: I either have to get out and join you, or you have to come back and join me so we’re all together again.

“So that barking is the most typical response, ‘come back, come back, come back,’ and she’ll do it all day long. You can tell her not to, and she’ll look at you and say, ‘Are you crazy? We’re going to die. You have to come back,’ and she’s certain she’s right.”

So how do you become the pack leader? Well, in the eyes of the pack, the leader is the fastest, most competent and reliable person in the pack. To achieve this, the key word is anticipate.

“Anticipate what they’re going to do, correct them as they’re about to do it or praise them if they’re doing something right, and they go, wow, you read my mind, you’re a superhuman pack leader,” says Argus. 

“What impresses a dog is your timing. And the solution is to convince them they are no longer responsible for the security of the pack. They’re responsible instead for paying attention to the pack leader.

“And we teach you how to behave like the leader of the pack, to talk dog so your dog understands what you’re saying (by using sounds and tones of voice), and reward them by saying yes (rather than with treats).”

[Cesar-bashers are rolling their eyes.  Doesn't everybody know that pack theory has been disproven?]

Dog owners do need to be the leader of their home, not because the dog will become aggressive and take over but because these eternal puppy-like dogs need boundaries and a good parent.

Dog owners need to be good parents to their dogs just like they do for their children.  Spoiled children with no rules and parents that don’t set limits create the same kind of mayhem.  Dogs have to learn good behaviors and manners and their parents need to instill and make them follow rules.

It doesn’t really matter if you want to think of yourself as Alpha or parent, what does matter is that you set rules.

[so, sort of the same thing]