Barking Dogs
I was reading a blog post earlier about dogs barking when playing agility. Obviously relevent to my interests!
I blogged a long time ago about Kim’s barking habits, but in summary:
If I have a quiet Kim on my hands at agility, I’m worried. I want her to bark. I have a dog who isn’t always hyper-motivated (or even slightly motivated!) to work, and one of my sure fire ways to get her revved up is to ask her to “speak”. The issue with Kim isn’t that she’s barking and I can’t stop her, it’s that she’s barking and I don’t want to stop her. (Well, at agility. I can’t stop her at flyball, but I still want a barking dog!). It tells me that she’s happy and enjoying herself, and that she’s going to run at least one or two of her socks off, if not all of them. She’s a very vocal dog at home, which is incredibly annoying but it’s just part of her personality.
Dylan is a bit of an odd one. He barks when Kim or Mollie are training, but not when he’s training himself. For a long time as a puppy, the quieter he was, the more excited he was. He still goes through phases of that but he does bark more often now. The nice thing about Dylan is he’ll shut up if you ask him to!
Mollie barks constantly at training or competitions, she just finds it all really exciting and it’s hard to persuade her to shut up (unless you hand over a toy for her to wreck). She howls and sings a lot as well.
I know a lot of agility competitors find barking dogs really annoying. I guess I don’t because I’m did flyball first, and anyone who has done flyball knows that barking is inevitable. I think that probably has changed my attitude to barking as well; dogs bark at flyball because they’re excited. I want my dogs to feel as excited about agility as they are about flyball, so I let them bark.
How do you feel about barking dogs?
4 Comments
Cat
You’ve seen how miserable Marley can be, the only reason I actually taught him to speak was to get his confidence up. Same as Kim, when he’s barking he won’t shut up but it’s good because it tells you he’s happy. He doesn’t bark whilst he’s working but he’ll bark watching other dogs, (although it always depends WHAT dog, he doesn’t bark at some but will bark at others etc), and he’ll bark if I’m waiting & not playing with him. He’ll also go insane if he’s tied up, which involves chewing/digging/sometimes howling but only if I’m working Gyps. If he’s just tied up on his own, he’ll just give out little barks of disappointment that he’s been left. He’s so fragile and pathetic though that it’s exciting when he barks at other dogs running, because it really shows me he loves agility – he never did this with flyball because he didn’t like it.
Gyp on the other hand will bark whilst working but other than that is ALWAYS quiet. The only time she makes a sound is if she’s excited to see me, she doesn’t like a dog & she charges up to it, or she’s weaving. When she’s actually running she makes a growly/out of breath but having fun noise. I’ve noticed Lucy’s Pie does it in a couple of videos!
Indoors, Gypsy doesn’t peep and Marley likes to bark at anything he thinks necessary. Usually strange men entering the house, and he will always do a “arrrarararooo” noise when you wake up and come and see him.
Goodness I probably should have posted this in my blog rather than made it a comment, but oh well lol! But yeah the only tiem I don’t like dogs barking is when they’re crazily barking & the owner is quite happy to stand right next to you. It’s not a problem with Gypsy, but they don’t always consider how much this completely knocks Marley’s confidence away.
On that note, Kim has literally been the only dog he’s ever met to have been noisey, playful and interested in him and then him to actually want to play back even whilst he’s tied up. Well done to Kim! I really couldn’t believe it when he wanted to play back, I thought he’d just back away and panic like usual lol.
Leanne
That’s really interesting Cat! Kim luuuurved Marley, she thought he was fab. Which is quite unusual for her as well, she does love big leggy dogs as a rule but she doesn’t like Katie’s Chip at all, he’s too unpredicatable and puppy-ish for her.
This is pretty much where I draw the line too. I’m very conscious of Kim or Dylan when they’re being noisy and I always make an effort either to take them out of the queue and away from other dogs, or at least try and keep their noise focussed on me (if that makes sense!).
Vicki
Pip is the loudest one at home, and like you I find annoying but its her personality. She doesnt bark at the other dogs on the start line for agility (she might bark at me for treats) but she does bark her head off round the agility course. Theres a fine line between her being too gobby and getting it just right – too gobby and shes not going her fastest, but no barking and you know theres something wrong (I think shes only done that once and she obviously wasnt 100%).
Inca, on the other hand, does get excited at the other dogs working but when she goes around her self she doesnt bark at all. I wont let her bark on the line at agility – she can be excited and bouncy without obsessively barking at the other dogs. Its not the barking I mind so much but I know some dogs, especially collies, can get frustrated and snappy so I guess for me its just retaining a small element of control. The thing I hate is when someone is on the line with a frustrated lungy dog thats having a go at everyone elses dogs – and some people seem totally oblivious to it!! So I guess for me, its not so much to do with the barking but the control of the dog.
We’ll just have to see what happens with Diesel. If you throw a toy he always growls when he gets it. Hes quite vocal when he plays with the other dogs. And if you go to do some work with him he will start off quite hyped and whines with excitement. So far at agility hes usually quiet when he is working but occasionally has the odd bark. i guess we’ll just have to wait and see 😉
Emily~ DreamEyce
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I own Cardigan Welsh Corgwn, and have gotten used to barking. They are a driving breed, and barking while working is normal for these short dogs, while herding cattle. For me, barking during play is part of the breed, and I’ve come to almost enjoy their talkative antics even. I’ll admit though, occasionally I envy those with quiet workers 😉