Cooling Down a Hot Dog

Early morning. The sunrise casts an orange-pink glow across my room. Time to get up and walk my dogs. As I roll over and prepare to sit up, Baruch, my mini-wire-haired doxy, a cloud of long, soft black/gray hair, rolls over to nuzzle me.
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I rescued Baruch as a puppy, six years ago. Then he was afraid of everything, and had difficulties with fear-biting. Walking him has always been sketchy, as he was ready to nip every person who approached us. From Baruch’s perspective, these looming human figures, five feet above his head, could be ready to attack him. He had to defend himself (and me, too).

And other dogs we passed, also on walks? Baruch’s macho nature was triggered. He lurched, pulling his leash, growling and barking. He did not see himself as a mere fraction of the size of dogs we passed. To protect us, I learned, early on, to stoop down and pick him up whenever we approached anyone else. Although awkward, he never barked from my arms.

My concerns for dogs and their walkers, and my concern for my shoulder which was sharply pulled when he barked, led me to resolve to train him. Remembering back to my days in special education with severely impaired students, I turned to the strategy of positive reinforcement. This means ignoring the negative behaviors, instead, praising profusely for the behavior you want. 

Wanting to eliminate his barking, I selected the label, “Quiet mouth.” I began by praising Baruch over and over when he was not barking. “Good quiet mouth.” I crooned over and over. At first I praised him in the house as he was sleeping. He probably did not even know exactly what I meant by “Quiet mouth”, but loved any praise I meted out. 

Once we established quiet mouth, I brought the words outside with us. We walked along with no dogs or people in sight. I stopped regularly to praise him for his quiet mouth. A dog appeared, and he barked. I continued, at the beginning, to pick him up, then, but said nothing about his barking. As soon as the dog, or person passed, and he was not barking, I put him back on the ground again and reinforced, “Good quiet mouth.”

I also began my chant, as we approached other dogs, before he barked, “Good quiet mouth.” It took months for Baruch to begin to change his barking patterns. Eventually I felt I had enough control, and I could stop picking him up. Maybe by my chanting “Good dog, quiet mouth also helped passers-by to understand this was not a dog to interact with. 
We first mastered the non-barking when we passed dogs on the other sides of fences. Somehow, Baruch saw how silly he looked lunging at dogs he could not even see.

Dogs walking down the street were harder. Sometimes they wanted to bark at us. Baruch certainly felt threatened. I began to stop several hundred feet before we passed another dog, pulled Baruch closer on his leash and chanted “Good dog. Good quiet mouth!” as they approached and passed. By now I was not picking him up. He growled sometimes, but this was under his breath.

Walkers we passed regularly recognized us. They pulled their dogs closer and walked by on the other side of the road. As Baruch’s responses to these dogs lessened. the owners smiled, and Baruch’s barks grew more muffled.

This process has taken a year. Maybe Baruch will always bark at one dog, the husky behind the fence across the street who starts howling as soon as we approach his house. He howls as we pass, and Baruch cannot seem to resist.

Otherwise, we have progressed! This morning we passed five “regular” dogs, ones we knew. Baruch did not bark at any of them. We did not even have to stop for them to pass. One owner gave me a thumbs-up sign. But the real victory was the dog we had never seen before. He began barking at us half a block before we passed. Baruch noticed him, did a semi-lunge in his direction, but did not bark. The other dog’s owner shushed him, and we passed by, Baruch walking proudly, tail dancing.

​Maybe Baruch is almost ready for a foray to Dead Horse where the dogs are not familiar? Can I plan on buying a pass for that park in September?