Puppy barking at everything on walks

[elouber]

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Hi all,

I have a 16 week old male miniature schnauzer puppy.

I’ve had him since 8 weeks and during the wait for his 12 week jabs I tried my best to socialise him as much as possible. Took him out in a sling on walks, to the park, to coffee shops etc. He visited family, and overall seemed fine.

Following his jabs I’ve been taking him on a short daily walk for the past 3 weeks.

He barks at everything. People walking past, even in the distance, other dogs, cats. He’s not too bad with cars, but barks at bicycles.

I’ve just started a weekly puppy training class with him, and he barks like mad at the other dog in the class. The trainer did suggest his body language gave off that he is quite nervous.

Appreciate he is still so young and still taking everything in, but I’m really struggling with this constant barking and nervousness around everyone on walks.

Does anyone have any advice/tips to help improve his confidence and tackle this barking?

 

[JoanneF]

I suspect he's in a cycle of being over-stimulated by everything, and getting himself worked up at it. It's all just a bit much for him.

I take it when he was in the sling he was calmer? Maybe the proximity to you was enough to reassure him.

I'd suggest drawing his exposure to other things right back. In fact, you might want to take a couple of days not going out at all, just to let him decompress and let his stress hormones dissipate. Then, take him out in his sling, and in a quiet-ish area with not too much going on, pop him on the ground for a bit. Then back in the sling a bit longer and repeat two or three times on your walk.

Don't let people approach him and pet him. Be polite but firm - 'he's nervous of strangers so sorry but no'. Your puppy is not public property. If someone asked to stroke your five year old daughter's hair, that would be inappropriate; so try to think of your puppy in the same way.

Socialisation is about exposure to new things and learning to normalise them, it's not about interacting with every person or dog he encounters.

Over a few weeks, depending on how he is progressing, you can reduce the sling time and increase the walking time and the level of distracting things he can see from the ground.

Go at his pace, you'll have this dog for many years so slowly and gently will set you both up for success.

Schnauzers can be a bit barky by nature so you may, later, want to teach him a 'quiet' cue. This series by Kikopup (who has lots of excellent videos) is on barking, episode four I think is about barking at strange things.

Kikopup Barking Series

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[JudyN]

I would also consider pausing training classes for now. If he struggles with seeing a single dog in the distance, a whole room of them will be overwhelming and he won't be able to learn a thing in that state. You can go back again once he is calmer around dogs in general.

 

[Laco]

Our miniature schnauzer was the same when we first adopted her, when she was about eighteen months. It took awhile, but with the help of a trainer, we worked on desensitizing her, IE: walked in a park, where I could control the distance from other people and dogs. I kept her at a distance that she was not overly reactive, then over time gradually, very gradually began to close the distances. Now we can walk on sidewalks and meet and greet other people and dogs, but it did take awhile. Schnauzers are very interesting dogs! They are by nature a very vocal dog, and I have been teaching her the 'QUIET' command. She is certainly not perfect, but so much improved and continues to make progress.