Dear Matthew: Our 4-year-old Belgium shepherd has a common problem that hopefully you can help us with: barking. He is in a custom dog run that faces our street. He barks at the UPS truck, kids on bikes, the garbage truck, etc. After the truck or kids leave his view, he stops.
We've tried everything to keep him from barking at these things, but nothing works. We don't want him to stop barking completely, as that would defeat his purpose as a watchdog. We just want him to stop barking at trucks, kids and other everyday things.Any advice/help would be appreciated. -- Paul in Canyon Country, Calif.
Dear Paul: As you are learning, it's often quite hard to get a dog to bark at only the things that you want him to. How is he supposed to tell the difference between a delivery man he's never seen before and a burglar breaking into your house?
You need to provide your dog with consistent, regular training if you want to see any progress. The goal is to teach your pet to differentiate between the good and the bad, the guy on the street and the real threat.
The best way to do this is on a case-by-case basis. Is your dog barking at kids on the street? Put him on a leash, then invite a kid to walk by your house. When your dog starts barking, give him a firm corrective tug on the leash, and tell him, "No!" Try the same technique with anyone else your dog consistently barks at.
Your goal through all this is to make the appearance of kids, delivery men and other harmless people routine for your dog, and therefore not worth paying attention to. That way, the suspicious ones will stand out like sore thumbs, and your dog will spot them immediately.
While you probably notice any results right off the bat, persistence pays off. Good luck!
Dear Matthew: We have a 4-year-old American bulldog/terrier mix male dog. We adopted Muldoon from the local SPCA last year. He was beaten by his previous owner.
He is a wonderful, affectionate animal. He loves to be with my husband and myself.
The problem is he becomes anxious when we leave him alone in the house, and then he becomes destructive. He has ripped and destroyed our chair cushion, dolls, books, etc. We tried caging him in an extra large, heavy metal cage, but he bent the door and broke out of the cage. In the process, he cut his face and broke a tooth.
We then tried leaving him in the basement with a bed, food, water and toys. He chewed and scratched the door and molding.
The vet started him on tranquilizers, and these only mask the problem for several hours. He is sleepy but upset when we leave the house in the morning. Sometime at the end of the afternoon, he wakes up enough to scratch and chew at the molding. Now what? -- Donna in Germantown, N.Y.
Dear Donna: You're right about the tranquilizers; they aren't any kind of a solution to your all-too-real dog problem. And you're also right that, if Muldoon had a traumatic upbringing, that probably is contributing to his fits of destruction.
There are steps you could take that would make your dog more manageable to live with. The first question that pops in my mind is whether Muldoon is getting enough exercise. Do you take him for a run in the morning? Is he given a walk in the afternoon? A tired dog is much less likely to stir up trouble, as you can imagine. If you can't make it home for a lunch walk, seriously consider hiring someone to walk him during the day. Terriers are high-energy animals that require a fair amount of exercise each day.
Second, basic obedience training always helps in these types of situations. If a dog is taught self-control, it's much less likely to go berserk when you leave him alone.
Finally, be sure not to make a big fuss when you leave him in the morning. If you have long goodbyes and get him all excited, he's going to be full of energy -- and he'll end up taking it out on the molding.
Matthew Margolis is the host of "Woof! It's a Dog's Life," a dog-instruction series airing every Saturday on your local PBS station. Read all of Matthew Margolis' columns at the Creators Syndicate Web site www. creators.com, and visit him at www.matthewmargolis.com. Write him at 5777 W. Century Blvd., Suite 700, Los Angeles, CA 90045.