. . .is not a behavior I like.
Evil Demon Dog who I am house-sitting does this obsessively. It's not a behavior I'm fond of, since I can't stand barking. Can I have some help with training him out of this or at least working on it this week while I'm here? I have a few ideas but I'm not the best trainer, so I'm hoping for a tried-and-true sort of method.
Here's what Freddie does: he drops a toy in your lap (or if I happen to pick it up) and then gets super excited about the idea of me throwing it for him. He'll wiggle all over for a sec, jump around, and occasionally listen to "sit" or "down." After a few seconds of all that, then he gets frustrated because you will not throw the toy for him right that second and he growls and barks. No matter what you do, the barking escalates. Setting the toy somewhere, holding it in the air, dropping it back in your lap, etc doesn't work - he's still focused on the toy and freaking out over it. Only hiding it works to stop the barking, but he usually attacks the hiding place.
I have tried ignoring him, but he continues barking for minutes on end I doubt he'll stop. He just gets himself more worked up. I wont throw the ball for him when he does this, because I don't want to reward him for the behavior, but what do I do to work on minimizing this?
Evil Demon Dog who I am house-sitting does this obsessively. It's not a behavior I'm fond of, since I can't stand barking. Can I have some help with training him out of this or at least working on it this week while I'm here? I have a few ideas but I'm not the best trainer, so I'm hoping for a tried-and-true sort of method.
Here's what Freddie does: he drops a toy in your lap (or if I happen to pick it up) and then gets super excited about the idea of me throwing it for him. He'll wiggle all over for a sec, jump around, and occasionally listen to "sit" or "down." After a few seconds of all that, then he gets frustrated because you will not throw the toy for him right that second and he growls and barks. No matter what you do, the barking escalates. Setting the toy somewhere, holding it in the air, dropping it back in your lap, etc doesn't work - he's still focused on the toy and freaking out over it. Only hiding it works to stop the barking, but he usually attacks the hiding place.
I have tried ignoring him, but he continues barking for minutes on end I doubt he'll stop. He just gets himself more worked up. I wont throw the ball for him when he does this, because I don't want to reward him for the behavior, but what do I do to work on minimizing this?