Having perused a couple of training books, my wife says she has failed to find anything on how to control barking, ie the quiet command. Any hints/tips folks ?

I'd suggest a puppy/dog school as the best solution, books are fine for some aspects but barking is for a reason and the solution will depend upon the reason.

Sometimes it can take a while to work out why they are barking, and its always best to understand it if you can - then you have a fighting chance of stopping it (if necessary). Luckily, Ellie only has two barks: Her protection/warning bark (only ever heard when we have a knock on the front door), and her play bark. She never barks at any other time (thank goodness) and neither of them I want to stop.

Ohh, the reason is usually the cat or another animal, or a moving object such as the balls we kick around the garden for her when she's in ballistic mode. Notably she never barks while playing fetch, or at cars going past, so she's generally quite good, I don't know if barking at other animals will lessen with maturity, as I don't want her barking whilst hunting.

Additionally, she's starting basic puppy classes as of the 29th. 

Well, Ellie doesn't "work" but she does Agility; and I have never heard her bark whilst doing that kind of work (unlike too many other dogs, and notably some WCS...:(). I think it probably will lessen with maturity, tbh.

I agree, I think it's something that will settle down as she gets older. Having said that, I know naff all about field work and how they have to behave, so I could be completely wrong, as like Stewart I do agility and so I actually encourage any off his trolley behaviour in Storm and so he can bark, growl, go loopy as much as he likes when he's playing. The thing I love that he does now when I let them all offlead and the collies go flying off round the park on an outrun, and Storm gets so frustrated at not being able to keep up, he sounds like Fido from The Flintstones yapping away behind them! heheeeee

Malxwal at October 21, 2010 at 7:56 AM

Having perused a couple of training books, my wife says she has failed to find anything on how to control barking, ie the quiet command. Any hints/tips folks ?

Try these for starters.

http://www.dogstardaily.com/blogs/quiet-please

http://www.dogstardaily.com/training/excessive-barking

Claire, I 've run my cockers in Field Trials. They aren't even allowed to make a squeek!! even if the dog were to yawn noisily they'd be out of the trial. My first cocker was prone to letting out a little squeek or two occasionally and it was always a worry that he'd do it when out on his run. I'm afraid it really is frowned upon to have a noisy cocker  

Why on earth do you want your dog to make as much noise as possible????

I don't think Claire wants him to make as much noise as possible as such.  In agility we often want the dogs to be wound up and excited and a bit loopy so that we can get maximum enthusiasm and speed out of them.  Often going mad and loopy (and it seems in Claire's case) making some noise goes hand in hand with this top adrenaline state so people don't actively discourage it.  If that makes sense.

I don't encourage Reah to make noise and like Ellie she is naturally pretty quiet.  But last night I was doing some weave training in the garden and I wanted to proof her so wanted her to be like she would be at a competition so I ran round the garden like a loon chasing her, throwing a ball, squeeking at her and stuff til she was nuts and then we tried some weaves.

Hope that explains it?

The very concept of a noisy Cocker is totally alien to those of us who use our dogs as gundogs with good reason, barking will alarm birds long before they should be flushed and a dog that continually squeeks on a peg is annoying to all within earshot.

I must admit that whilst I enjoy watching agility and flyball, I've never understood why the dogs need to make so much noise, they can be excited and quiet with it.  Still each to their own.  However please don't be tempted to take a dog that has been encouraged to bark on a shoot, I doubt it will be very welcome!

No doubt about that one Neill!!

It's odd as I don't wind Reah up at all before training for agility.  I work on focus and play with me rather than upping the excitement levels - she's there already!!  So not all of us do it.

My other dog is very laid back and quiet and needs me to hype her or otherwise she will stroll round a course - looking pretty!!  If I can get her tugging with me before then the adrenaline courses and she goes off much quicker.  So it really does depend on the dog.

Our wcs, Ollie (17 weeks) barks if someone rings the door bell - OK with this.  He will also bark and growl if he has his nose in a corner of say the settee, but only for a few seconds or if he is over tired (too nosey to sleep).  If I'm eating my tea on my knee on a different area to him he will initially bark, but after a minute he gives up or we give him something to distarct him.  We found it best to ignore or distarct. So far we don't have a problem.  Regards  Marc.

I'm between Neil and Jayne on this one (oo er missus).

Like Neil, I too fail to understand why some agility dogs bark their way round a course - total waste of energy, and of course for a cocker, work (of whatever sort) should be done quietly! I too, have no need to get Ellie excited, she can handle that bit herself.

But I do accept (grudgingly) that some dogs need "winding up" before they run, and this seems to bring out the worst in terms of barking.

Personally, I hate a barky dog. I don't think I have ever heard Reah bark either, Jayne... 

Jayne, I have done a bit of agility with an Irish Water Spaniel. Normally a slow laid back dog he was fast and acurate without any "winding up"   I took him along initially to try  and get him socialised a bit more. It was quite usefull for when we were out picking up though  He was good at jumping over fences and going through tunnels  to retrieve birds.

Sorry I seem to have gone off the topic

Ooh, looks like I've started  debate in the wrong section !! I'll try the method described in the links above, but it's not really a problem yet. As Neill says, a barking gundog is no use, might as well go running off into the cover. She's still very young, and I'm sure if I adopt some reasonable strategy now when in the barking situations, we'll get it under control.

Ruraich at October 22, 2010 at 6:57 AM

Jayne, I have done a bit of agility with an Irish Water Spaniel. Normally a slow laid back dog he was fast and acurate without any "winding up"   I took him along initially to try  and get him socialised a bit more. It was quite usefull for when we were out picking up though  He was good at jumping over fences and going through tunnels  to retrieve birds.

 

Sorry I seem to have gone off the topic

Retrieving through tunnels!  I've just had a vision of a WCS runnig out, over the see-saw, through the tunnel, weaving between the poles, then doing the same on the way back with a pheasant in its mouth:lol:  Have I invented a new sport, "Practical agility":D

It's not a debate, just a difference in training methods and sports. For me it makes interesting reading as it's nice to hear how things are done by other people and in a different dog sport.

All of my collies make a noise while watching/waiting for their turn at agility, but when working they go quiet. But I wouldn't mind if they didn't make a bit of noise. As I said, I know nothing about field work and so my view was from someone who does agility. The original post didn't say the dog was going to do gundog work, so I was just sharing what I do.

Because there is no problem with barking dogs in agility it doesn't bother me. At the moment Storm is still a puppy, so I want hype, hype and more hype. I don't do anything to flatten him while he's playing with a toy as I don't want him to start backing off them. I do know someone who bans all barking while training and her dogs, and she's got several, all plod round a course. She's taken that drive out of them. If they're naturally quiet it's different.

I spose for now my biggest fear is that Storm will lack the enthusiasm for agility, so I'm doing all I can to get him as mad as possible! Having said that, he does have an off switch too, which is something my collies don't! But going from border collies from working lines which are almost pre-programmed to be totally toy obsessed and completely off their heads from day one, to a wcs where I've had to work more on it, I guess that's why I've encouraged Storm to be loopy. I may end up regretting it though! lol

Neill, Trust me it has happened  And it was usefull at last years CLA in the scramble. not many other dogs would go over the rickety bridge or through the tunnel!

Claire

You need to remember that Storm has been bred to be a gundog and hence his instinctive behaviour will default to his inherited behaviour.  I'm sure he can be trained to do agility, but it may present challenges.  With his Hawcroft genes my guess is he will be quite steady, at least as steady as a WCS can be.  I've actually been told by one of my fellow guns (who regularly shoots at trials) that Ollie is the steadiest cocker he's seen, and bearing in mind Ollie and Storm are related you may have a nice controllable dog to train as you wish.

Personally I would not encourage a WCS to be anymore loopy than they already are, you could end up with a big problem.  I don't know anything about agility training, but if Storm were mine I'd let him develop at his own pace without any added hype.