Help! Dog wont stop barking in the garden

krlyr

Please don't try the water pistol trick - not only can it backfire if the dog loves water ("Ooh, what a fun game mummy/daddy is trying to play! I'm so excited, barkbarkbark!") but you could be setting up the dog for longterm fear-related issues. These kinds of methods (water pistols, spray collars, shock collars, noise aversives like horns or rattles, etc) can easily be mistimed - you let doggy out into the garden, he barks, you sneak up with the water pistol and spray him...just at the same time he spotted next door's kid jumping on the trampoline on the other side of the fence. Next time, it's when the kid shouting.."hm, seeing kids, hearing their voice, these end up with water being sprayed at me..yikes, kids are bad things!". Replace kids for the neighbour cat, the sound of a car, a squirrel, etc. and you could end up making your dog scared of this object and you've got another problem on your hands.
Not to mention that using a punishment for a behaviour only works for as long as the punishment is worse than the thrill of the behaviour. Think of a naughty kid that's stolen a chocolate bar. For a while, the fear of being grounded or banned from TV is enough of a threat to stop him stealing food..but given time, there'll become a point where the temptation of the chocolate exceeds the fear of being punished. The waterpistol might bring results at first, but the dog may reach a point where it feels its worth getting sprayed with a bit of water to have the fun of barking outside. This leaves you with the problem of your next move being to up the punishment, and where do you stop?
Just like with children, you tend to get better, longterm results by making them want to behave. You don't punish the child for stealing the chocolate, instead you encourage it to behave and reward him with a chocolate bar. OK, you don't really want to reward the dog with the opportunity to bark but you could create a situation where his reward for being quiet is 5 more minutes in the garden, or a game of fetch. Keep him on a lead when you let him out and as soon as he barks, lead him back indoors without so much as a word. Try again, either straight away or in a few minutes, again, if he barks, straight back in. You'll soon find that he twigs on and realises that a bark ends his garden trip, silence allows him to be out there longer, and you can increase the reward - from being allowed to stay out there onlead, to eventually being allowed out loose. You're much more likely to do something because there's a reward to it than because there's a punishment if you don't!
Another thing that can help with barking dogs is to actually teach them to bark on command - but at the same time, teach a "quiet" command. Once the dog understands the concept of barking and shutting up on command, it gives you a bit more control over unwanted barking. It's worth checking out Youtube for videos on how to teach "speak"/"quiet" - I recommend the Kikopup and Pamelamarxsen channels for easy to understand video tutorials

If you're really struggling then a behaviourist who comes into your home may be worth a try - they may even figure out a reason for his barking that you haven't noticed! If you look up the APBC, this is an organisation that gives certain policies out for its members to follow, and this includes using fair, kind modern methods on the dog - no hitting, kicking, etc. allowed.