Barking for other dogs
Hi, I've been reading the community for some time but never posted before. I have two lovely miniature schnauzers, the younger one is about 6 months old and is the source of the problem. I know schnauzers are easy to bark and have tried taking that into account when training both of them. My elder dog Gizmo does some guard barking but only little so I've let her have her fun, the younger one doesn't ever bark inside.
However when we're outside the younger one Yoda barks at other dogs whenever he sees them. When they are on leash we never go see other dogs, except a few in the neighbourhood whose owners have become my friends. The dogs know who they are and never bark at them. I also take them on a dog forest near me and sometimes on a dog park to sosialice them. Yoda isn't at all agressive when going past the other dogs, I think he would just too badly want to go meet the dogs, which I don't want to do.
So a couple of months ago when this started, I begun to train them both to take eye contact when they see another dog. His the greediest little boy so this worked well and now whenever he sees other dogs he takes the eye contact and keeps it. But he still keeps barking... He stares at me and barks. Then Gizmo who is a bit eager to guard us thinks there's something about the other dogs and if we go past them from too close she tries to snap at them. If Yoda won't bark, she can go past the dogs close and not mind them.
So any ideas about how I can teach Yoda to understand that he should not bark? Telling him no won't help as I don't think he understands what I'm saying it about. I've tried to reward him every time his quiet but it don't seem to have any effect on how much his barking. I also don't want to make the passings a huge number so Gizmo don't think there's anything wrong. She has had some passing problems when she was younger and I thought I had trained her out of them when I took Yoda, so now I'm afraid those problems will come back.
However when we're outside the younger one Yoda barks at other dogs whenever he sees them. When they are on leash we never go see other dogs, except a few in the neighbourhood whose owners have become my friends. The dogs know who they are and never bark at them. I also take them on a dog forest near me and sometimes on a dog park to sosialice them. Yoda isn't at all agressive when going past the other dogs, I think he would just too badly want to go meet the dogs, which I don't want to do.
So a couple of months ago when this started, I begun to train them both to take eye contact when they see another dog. His the greediest little boy so this worked well and now whenever he sees other dogs he takes the eye contact and keeps it. But he still keeps barking... He stares at me and barks. Then Gizmo who is a bit eager to guard us thinks there's something about the other dogs and if we go past them from too close she tries to snap at them. If Yoda won't bark, she can go past the dogs close and not mind them.
So any ideas about how I can teach Yoda to understand that he should not bark? Telling him no won't help as I don't think he understands what I'm saying it about. I've tried to reward him every time his quiet but it don't seem to have any effect on how much his barking. I also don't want to make the passings a huge number so Gizmo don't think there's anything wrong. She has had some passing problems when she was younger and I thought I had trained her out of them when I took Yoda, so now I'm afraid those problems will come back.