Barking is my problem. I have two Australian Shepard’s, one 13 weeks and the other
3yrs. The pup will bark repeatedly when you are playing with the older dog and not
him (out of jealousy). I have told him enough, no, gave him a toy, got up and walked
away. His bark is so high pitched it hurts your ears, any suggestions? Someone
mentioned a squirt bottle.
Thank you, S

Hi S,
That high pitched barking can really be hard to handle, although your puppy is not actually barking from jealousy. Behaviorists say dogs do not feel jealousy, even though they certainly sometimes seem to act jealous. He is probably just really excited and a bit anxious that he will be overlooked during the playtime.

We tried clicker training - we rewarded our puppy every time he was quiet while we played. We went through a lot of treats at first, but eventually it took. He still will bark if he gets overly excited, but we will say “enough” to remind him to be quiet and he will stop. (Of course, when he stops, he immediately gets rewarded with a click and a treat.)

When he barks, stopping the playtime is an excellent negative response. In fact, you may want to take it a bit further and stop playing immediately without handing over the toy. He may consider the toy to be positive reinforcement of some form.

Squirting a dog isn’t really recommended anymore, although I have heard of a trainer who squirted her dog once with a scented spray and then sprayed the scent on things she wanted her dog to stay out of. Let us know how he does.

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