# Attention barking confused with toilet barking



## Livesey (Sep 28, 2011)

hello, need some advice ref our 4 month old BC. he was fully housetrained about 2 weeks ago and would make some form of noise either a cry or a bark for the toilet, but this week he has started attention barking. So we started to ignore him however this has become confused with barking in general and he has done some wee's in the house as we have ignored his barks.

We were thinking of putting him of the lead everytime he barked regardless of when he'd last gone out but I wasn't sure if this was giving him attention in some form or not. Any advice? as we don't want him to stop barking for wee's


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## ClaireandDaisy (Jul 4, 2010)

Why not just put a dog flap in? 
You might also find a book on dog body language helpful. My dogs never bark to make me do something - a look is usually enough.


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## newfiesmum (Apr 21, 2010)

One of my dogs used to bark for everything, same bark every time. And he never went to the door, just sat in front of me barking. You just have to assume he wants the toilet; allowing him to ask to go out, then having to go elsewhere, is just confusing him.

He clearly wants something and if it is attention, so what? If my dogs want attention, they get it, even if only a quick stroke.


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## smokeybear (Oct 19, 2011)

One of the very reasons I never teach my dogs to "tell me" when they want something. 

I tell THEM! 

I am not their butler or maid, so they go out at times decided by myself.


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## Livesey (Sep 28, 2011)

newfiesmum said:


> One of my dogs used to bark for everything, same bark every time. And he never went to the door, just sat in front of me barking. You just have to assume he wants the toilet; allowing him to ask to go out, then having to go elsewhere, is just confusing him.
> 
> He clearly wants something and if it is attention, so what? If my dogs want attention, they get it, even if only a quick stroke.


Surely that's conterproductive? I don't want to teach my dog that it's acceptable to bark every two minutes for my attention, he's still young and i'm pretty sure that it'd be alot and a quick stroke would not surfice.



smokeybear said:


> One of the very reasons I never teach my dogs to "tell me" when they want something.
> 
> I tell THEM!
> 
> I am not their butler or maid, so they go out at times decided by myself.


We didn't teach him to bark for a wee he naturally started that by himself, we do take him out every 30 - 45 minutes anyway.


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## Sled dog hotel (Aug 11, 2010)

Livesey said:


> hello, need some advice ref our 4 month old BC. he was fully housetrained about 2 weeks ago and would make some form of noise either a cry or a bark for the toilet, but this week he has started attention barking. So we started to ignore him however this has become confused with barking in general and he has done some wee's in the house as we have ignored his barks.
> 
> We were thinking of putting him of the lead everytime he barked regardless of when he'd last gone out but I wasn't sure if this was giving him attention in some form or not. Any advice? as we don't want him to stop barking for wee's


To be honest at just 4 mths its not unheard of for pups to have a relapse.
They are still young. What also happens I think and as I have said before I was guilty of too, that when they do seen to appear to be totally clean we can tend to be a bit lapse in watching for signs and getting them out when we should. Like you also have said some barking wasnt attention obviously he was trying to tell you he needed to go.

I would go back to taking him out and doing a re-fresher crash course for a couple of days, the whole cue word when he starts to go, and the praise and treats when he finishes. Keep a note of roughly how long between actually needing to/ peeing and times he tends to poop. If he is fed regular time meals you should find he will defeacate at pretty regular times too. If you get an idea of frequency of times he really does need to pee that should give you an idea if its a toilet bark or not.

In the meantime while you are doing toileting re-training and rather then risk a puddle, you could give him the opportuinity to go outside if you are not sure about the bark, dont acknowledge him, let him out, give him a minute or two if he doesnt perform, then call him in and totally ignore him. He only gets praise and a treat if he does toilet, and nothing for a false alarm.


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## Livesey (Sep 28, 2011)

Sled dog hotel said:


> To be honest at just 4 mths its not unheard of for pups to have a relapse.
> They are still young. What also happens I think and as I have said before I was guilty of too, that when they do seen to appear to be totally clean we can tend to be a bit lapse in watching for signs and getting them out when we should. Like you also have said some barking wasnt attention obviously he was trying to tell you he needed to go.
> 
> I would go back to taking him out and doing a re-fresher crash course for a couple of days, the whole cue word when he starts to go, and the praise and treats when he finishes. Keep a note of roughly how long between actually needing to/ peeing and times he tends to poop. If he is fed regular time meals you should find he will defeacate at pretty regular times too. If you get an idea of frequency of times he really does need to pee that should give you an idea if its a toilet bark or not.
> ...


Thank you! I think that is likely what has happened, we have just talked about it and I think we have relapsed a bit and in the meantime he's barking for our attention to play. We will go back to basics for the next couple of days on the toilet training and see how we get on!


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## Sled dog hotel (Aug 11, 2010)

Livesey said:


> Thank you! I think that is likely what has happened, we have just talked about it and I think we have relapsed a bit and in the meantime he's barking for our attention to play. We will go back to basics for the next couple of days on the toilet training and see how we get on!


It is a common mistake especially with a first pup or if you havent had a pup in awhile you soon forget things. You do need to still remember for them at times, they are as I said still young, havent often got tons of capacity yet,
and still get involved with things and distracted so dont always realise the need to go at times or more likely realise too late.


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## Burrowzig (Feb 18, 2009)

Sled dog hotel said:


> It is a common mistake especially with a first pup or if you havent had a pup in awhile you soon forget things. You do need to still remember for them at times, they are as I said still young, havent often got tons of capacity yet,
> and still get involved with things and distracted so dont always realise the need to go at times or more likely realise too late.


That's right. You can't afford to get complacent, you have to keep on top of the training. With my pup, I noticed that increased need to go out and pee seemed to coincide with growth spurts. .
In your situation I'd take the pup out every time she barks. If she's barking for something else, she should come to realise that barking won't achieve those ends.


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