barking

ORIGINAL: sigmaguardinstructor
Whenever she barks I squirt her with water and say Hush. Now all I have to do is pick up the squirt bottle or say Hush and she quits barking. 

 
Yeah, I have a few warnings about this technique though.
First off, I tried this at my house, and my family members abused it. When I would squirt the dogs for barking, it would be like the water "came out of nowhere," hit them in the face, and they would look for who did it (dogs aren't stupid... lol). If I hid the bottle, they had no clue. I would always keep the bottle from view. Well, my family members started showing the dogs the bottle as a threat, to make them stop!!! They'd say "quiet!" and if the dogs weren't quiet, they'd shake the bottle at them. After that, the dogs started just running from whoever had the bottle, still barking! Like I said, dogs aren't stupid... []
Of course, this will work for some dogs, but uncontrollable barking has a lot to do with underlying behavior... for example, the fact that your dog can "control" you by barking... you put her outside, you give her what she wants, etc. EVEN IF you were already planning on doing that.
 
Also, what happens when you don't have a bottle handy? My dogs have learned that if nobody is pointing a bottle, they can bark while mom goes and gets it! What kind of lesson is that??? And if nothing else, they can still run to a different room and bark (which, when are Jack Russells actually standing still anyway?)...
 
I'm still working on barking with my pack. Jacks were literally bred to bark and I have two from strong hunting lines, so I pretty much screwed myself over as far as barking is concerned! But we try...

ORIGINAL: glenmar

...when you start putting your coat on if she starts carrying on, take it off ...

i might even try leaving your jacket on at this point. maybe she would start to think that just because you put your jacket on doesnt mean you are taking her outside. (just a thought)[]

good advice, thanks everyone )

hi jaye i know exactly what you mean about your dog i have the same thing from my yorkie jerry.... he does not have a big obedience problem its just when i go to take him out as soon as i touch a lead or his coat he goes mad barking and wont stop till hes out the house and it starts again if he sees someone interesting, its not nasty he just wants to say hello, but its very irritating especially when i get the lead as i have 3 dogs and i prefer to use harnesses, plus in cool weather jerry has to have a jumper and coat so you can imagine by the time iv put his coat on, got all 3 in harnesses and attached leads and got out the door hes been yapping for some time, iv tried carrying his harness around with me, after a while he did shut up but i soon discovered he still barks as soon as he knows hes actually going to be wearing the harness. i must admit i don't like the idea of squirting my baby with water but could do with some kind of command to distract him so any tips on how to go about that would be really appreciated.

If one of mine starts to carry on I simply say "too bad" and put the leash away if they don't instantly respond to the QUIET command.

Hi Jaye,
try putting on your coat several times a day not only when you really want to go out. Make it just normal for emma so that she never knows wether you are really going out or not. Whenever she starts barking you can either leave your coat on or put it off but go back and do not go out.
It will sure take a time till she learns that you are not always leaving with or without her but I think sooner or later she will get bored of always running to the door and barking.
Its very important that she does not succeed in her eyes so it might be uncomfortable for you to go back when you just wanted to leave. But if she succeeds once she will learn that next time she has to bark a little longer.
 
And I would not get loud with her especially if she doesnt know what "no" means for it will look like your "barking" with her in her eyes.
 
My opinion is that an alternative command only makes sense when her general obedience is already established, so in your case you should try to ignore her when she does that. It is normal that she will bark angrier and angrier first but if you can stand this process she will finally learn that will not succeed by barking.
 
I`m not sure if I wrote anything correct, I`m from Germany

susa dont worry you made perfect sence, im fron england and you make more sence than i do lol.