One of our shelties was taught to bite into her squishie ball when she wanted to bark out back. For example, if she saw a bird or a squirrel on the fence she would grab her ball and bite that thing like crazy. We always praised her and said "good girl!!!!" which was sometimes followed by a treat.
Lucy is by far the noisiest of our shelties. She was an outside dog in her former life and after we adopted her I took her to obedience class. If I stood up from my desk Lucy would bark like crazy, setting off her troops who would bark too.
One day when she started barking like that I simply sat back down and ignored her. After about a minute I stood up again and the barking started. Immediately I sat back down. By the third or fourth time Lucy was letting me get farther and farther down the hall before the barking would start. If I was standing up and the barking started I would turn away from her with my arms folded. She *hates* that, Lucy demands attention! She stops barking when I do it and after a few seconds I head back down the hall.
It took a couple of days of me practicing this before she finally knocked it off. I can get up now and head to the kitchen without three screaming maniacs after me.
I am now working on her barking at hot air balloons (they take off and land in our neighborhood). She makes progress but there is still a lot of work to be done!
The beautiful thing about having shelties is their incredible intelligence. It only takes a few times before they start to get the hang of things. Someone posted earlier about shelties needing a job to do, they REALLY do! Remember smart dogs need to work out their brains too. Playing find the treat gives my girls a healthy competitive brain game, so does hide the toy and teaching new tricks. The girls love new toys where they have to take them apart to get a treat or unhitch something for their reward, it's adorable to watch their little brains working out a task.
Get creative and assign them some tasks, keep them as active as possible and hopefully in a bit of time you will have some success.
Lucy is by far the noisiest of our shelties. She was an outside dog in her former life and after we adopted her I took her to obedience class. If I stood up from my desk Lucy would bark like crazy, setting off her troops who would bark too.
One day when she started barking like that I simply sat back down and ignored her. After about a minute I stood up again and the barking started. Immediately I sat back down. By the third or fourth time Lucy was letting me get farther and farther down the hall before the barking would start. If I was standing up and the barking started I would turn away from her with my arms folded. She *hates* that, Lucy demands attention! She stops barking when I do it and after a few seconds I head back down the hall.
It took a couple of days of me practicing this before she finally knocked it off. I can get up now and head to the kitchen without three screaming maniacs after me.
I am now working on her barking at hot air balloons (they take off and land in our neighborhood). She makes progress but there is still a lot of work to be done!
The beautiful thing about having shelties is their incredible intelligence. It only takes a few times before they start to get the hang of things. Someone posted earlier about shelties needing a job to do, they REALLY do! Remember smart dogs need to work out their brains too. Playing find the treat gives my girls a healthy competitive brain game, so does hide the toy and teaching new tricks. The girls love new toys where they have to take them apart to get a treat or unhitch something for their reward, it's adorable to watch their little brains working out a task.
Get creative and assign them some tasks, keep them as active as possible and hopefully in a bit of time you will have some success.
