# Bark Alert



## Jared Martin (Jan 22, 2009)

Hi all!

I'm new here, if you haven't noticed. I'm currently a Firefighter/EMT in training in Texas. I have a 12 month old GSD named Riley. For the past few months, I've been doing foundation work for wilderness SAR, but have recently decided to try and go for a disaster certification. 

However, Riley is not particularly vocal. She barks at strangers and loud dogs but that's about it.

Does anyone have any advice for teaching the bark alert?


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## Jennifer Michelson (Sep 20, 2006)

Hi and welcome!!

It is good that your dog will bark at something. Basically you just need to give the bark a command and praise when she barks. If you can hang out where ever her stimulus is and when she barks, tell her your command (gib laut, speak, etc) and reward. As she gets the idea that the command means to speak, have her speak for everything--her toy, her food, etc. 

At first do the bark alert separate from the search work--have teammates get her to bark at them and when she really gets it, start with runaways again. Only progress up to the next step when she is really solid.

My guy is silent except at 'work'--where he barks like a fiend. I actually had to back tie and tease with the toy to get him to even utter one bark. You are lucky she will bark at something!!!


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## Lisa Preston (Aug 21, 2008)

Jennifer's giving good advice.
I've seen other folks with this issue who just hadn't yet gotten that the quiet dogs first need a command to "bark" and even the quietest dogs I've met can be teased into barking about something and from there springs the impetus to connect barking with the command word to bark, from there spring the audible alert because you'll have a command to give him to show he needs to bark.


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## Konnie Hein (Jun 14, 2006)

Hi Jared! Welcome to the forum. Who are you training with in Texas?

I'm assuming this is a toy/tug reward dog since you plan on doing disaster SAR with her. If so, I prefer to train the dog to bark in drive for its toy. I've seen too many training issues from teaching them to bark in different venues while not in prey drive and then carrying it over to disaster search with a command. My suggestion is to back-tie the dog or have somebody post her on the leash. It's usually more comfortable for the dog to be wearing a harness for this vs. a collar. Have 2 of her training tug toys for this exercise. Frustrate the hell out of the dog with the first toy (second toy is in your pocket or out of sight) by doing prey motions with it just out of her reach. Initially reward her with the toy and tugging for forward motion in drive. Release your grip on the first toy and then tease her with the second. She should drop the first toy and go after the second one. Repeat. Then, when you have her drive level way up, only reward her for that high energy plus noise. Then slowly up the ante and reward for the energy level plus a bark. Timing is pretty important for this as she needs to understand that barking is what earns the toy. This might take a couple of reps to build up, but for most high drive dogs it's a pretty quick process. 

If she gets too energetic and doesn't bark, you can tone down the teasing a little to see if that helps. If she seems bored, then you might want to re-think her career as a disaster SAR dog.

I never bother to attach a command to the bark. The last thing I want my disaster dog to do is to be thinking of me giving him a command when he's standing over a buried live victim. The bark comes purely from frustration.

If you've never done this before, I would highly recommend that you obtain the assistance of an experienced trainer. If I know where you're located, I might be able to throw a few names your way. Hope this information is helpful. If you have specific questions, just ask.


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## Jennifer Michelson (Sep 20, 2006)

I would only do the back tying with a person who knows what they are doing--and works with sar dogs. I did hire a schutzhund trainer, who is a good trainer, but I believe my inexperience and his not entirely understanding my goal, plus a dog who truely didnt bark, caused a few problems with the bark. My dog barked, but did so in a hectic/frantic manner and so the bark alert was accompanied by hectic/frantic behavior. I think maybe we flipped him from prey to defense........I have had to work hard to get a 'thinking' bark. The funny part is that I did go to another sch trainer for this!


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## Konnie Hein (Jun 14, 2006)

Definitely an experienced trainer is key. Although, isn't the help of an experienced trainer key in all disaster SAR training aspects? :grin:


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## Nancy Jocoy (Apr 19, 2006)

What about a bark box? 

Bark alerts and disaster are NOT an area where I have ANY experience so just a question because I saw that used and it seemed to work nicely - it was a box with a guilottine door where someone ran in who had a tug and when the dog barked the door was pulled open immediate reward.

I am sure Carol saw the same box.


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## Konnie Hein (Jun 14, 2006)

The bark box can be used for this as well, as long as the dog is high drive enough to get frustrated to the point where he'll bark (or tear the door off and then yer done). 

For high drive dogs, you can actually skip the back-tie exercise or teaching them to bark as a separate exercise before starting scent work. You start by teaching them scentwork on bark barrels or boxes in drive and then, when they know they're right and the reward doesn't come, they usually bark in frustration.


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## Jared Martin (Jan 22, 2009)

Thanks for the advice everyone!

Konnie, here's my problem. I live in Lubbock, TX and so far have yet to find anyone doing K9 SAR around here. This week I found out that my Sheriff's Office recently had a few SAR dogs but have yet to be able to contact them to find out more. So far that's all my research has turned up. The Texas Task Force for FEMA is seven hours away in College Station, so that's out.

Riley is entirely toy driven. The other day I tried getting her to bark in drive. I had her drive way up then started teasing her with her favorite toy. For a while her mouth started to open like she was going to make a noise. That went on for about ten minutes. But then I stopped because her responses went down some and I didn't want to bore her because as I understand that's potentially detrimental to her drive. 

I toyed with the idea of playing dogs barking over my computer while I'm teasing her in drive. It might be silly, but has anyone had any success with anything like this?


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## Konnie Hein (Jun 14, 2006)

Jared - I'll check with a few folks I know in Texas to see if they can steer anybody your way.

Glad to hear Riley has drive you can work with. It's tough to give great advice via the internet since I can't see what is going on. However, keep in mind that you would be building to a bark over several short sessions. Don't expect her to bark the first time (remember you'd be just rewarding her for her energy and drive at that point). And, 10 minutes is too long of a session. Keep it much shorter - maybe only a few minutes tops.

If you had other folks and dogs to work with, you could back tie another dog who knows how to bark for its toy nearby (but out of her reach, of course) and work both dogs. I've never heard of anybody using a recording of dogs barking while teaching her to bark in drive, but what the heck, it can't hurt to try.

Also, you can experiment with finding the triggers while she's in drive. A long time ago I taught a dog to bark by kicking his soccer ball for him. He would get all ramped up when I had my foot on the ball and then he'd make noise. I just shaped that into a bark by kicking the ball when he made noise. Probably not the most orthodox way of doing it, but it seemed to work for that dog (who would bark while back-tied, but not while free).

Remember that any prompts you add will have to be faded ASAP and proofed off of later. For example, if you use a ball, use it only to get the initial barks in drive and then move on. You'll have to proof her off of the ball later on (meaning she'll be given the option to be distracted by it and you'll train her to ignore it).

I'm a huge fan of training in drive. If we create one working picture for the dog (all aspects of disaster SAR trained in drive - including obedience, agility, direction-and-control), it makes things so much more clear for the dog.

Question: If you plan to do disaster with your dog, who would you be deployed with? Are you thinking of first-responder type disaster? Either way, as a firefighter/EMT you'll have a lot of skills to assist you. I would also highly recommend taking courses specific to disaster SAR, as well as traveling to learn more from other disaster K9 handlers. As you already likely know, working a disaster scene (even something small and local) is far different from wilderness SAR (which has its own set of specific skills required) and it will take a lot of work to be proficient in handling your dog. 

I wish you the best in your journey!


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## David Scholes (Jul 12, 2008)

Jared Martin said:


> ...
> I toyed with the idea of playing dogs barking over my computer while I'm teasing her in drive. It might be silly, but has anyone had any success with anything like this?


My dog does not normally bark much. I had to find something she would bark at. Back tying and teasing didn't do much for me. She will bark when she hears a dog bark on TV but I used an ugly Minnie Mouse/Angel Christmas decoration my wife has. The dog hates that decoration and barks at it. I then would give her a "geb laut" and marked when she barked and gave her a reward. I then used the command in different situations and marked and rewarded when she barked. Then after she got it, I backed tied her used the toy combined with a few "geb lauts" and she got it. I no longer need the command in that situation, she knows she gets the toy when she barks and puts on a show.

It does piss off the family some because now she'll go up to them and try a bark when she wants attention and they are ignoring her.

If your dog will respond to a bark on the computer, I'd start with that and combine with marker training.


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## Jared Martin (Jan 22, 2009)

Konnie-

The soccer ball is interesting. The other day I kicked my daughter's volleyball and Riley tore off after it like it was a rabbit. Something I might could toy with.

Well my fiance is getting her Ph.D. here in Lubbock, so in all honesty my stay here is temporary--about 2 1/2 more years probably. So my thinking was that by the time she's done I will have been able to do a lot of the work I needed to do with Riley, so by the time we move again, we could try somewhere with a Task Force I could deploy with. By that time I would also be a Firefighter/Paramedic. However, it soon hit me that for now I have no one to help me with her that actually knows what they're doing. 

I had planned to attend any conferences or classes I could find on USAR, disaster SAR, and K9 SAR. For right now, however, my classwork keeps me from going to crazy with that sort of thing. Most of that will have to wait till the summer.

Jenn, David---
I thought about attempting to teach her to bark on command, but I worry about my own competence to be able to phase her away from the command to something instinctual. That's one of the pitfalls of having no trainer. :-?  

Nancy--
I thought about the barkbox after reading some information from Robert Milner of Duckhill Kennels, but since I haven't found a local team I'd have to make one, then find someone to help. So that's probably going to have to wait for right now.

Thanks for the advice everyone!


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