After reading another thread, I decided to ask this question. I have a yappy Yorkie. My Bichon only barked when necessary. Please tell me about the Havanese. Should I expect a lot of yapping or just the normal barking?
I think this gets down to why the dog is digging. Mine have one and only one purpose...to get moles! In other words, I do not think they dig just for the sheer joy of digging. We have had a super rainy spring and more mole activity this year. We also have very yucky clay soil. Anyway, this leads to mud clump feet. And when they dig they fling the dirt backwards so it gets on the back of front leg and front of back legs as well. If it is dry, you can a lot of the dirt out by brushing. Otherwise, I set Mia in a few inches of water and soak her to get it out. This problem is probably unique to me since I have a yorkie who is a born mole digger and Mia has learned this from him.Mine doesn't dig, I'm just curious. If digging became a problem because of mud and Havanese coats, would it be possible to find a way of changing the material the dog digs in? Sort of like a sandbox, to create an appropriate place to dig with some kind of material that's easier to clean up than mud? Or would this be too confusing?
My yorkie also barks whenever Mia starts barking and he seems clueless about what he is barking at. Mia always starts it. I keep thinking as she gets older her hearing will go. Well not yet...she can hear the UPS truck a mile away...long before my yorkie ever does!Kodi is a demand batker. If he wants something, he barks at you. Our fault, spoiled, first-puppy-syndrome. We knew better and were more careful with the girls and they don't do it. We've never beaten it out if Kodi. (Just kidding anout the "beating", but it's true that we've never been able to TRAIN it out of him!)
They ALL alarm bark. I think the more dogs you have, and the more comings and goings, (we have a lot in a multi-generational, 5 dog house) the more of this you have. It's hard to stop, and and hard to control. We are happy whenthey respond to a "THAT's ENOUGH!!!" When we tell them that _WE_ have answered the door, and it is, indeed, NOT robbers. 😉
Our dogs are not "general barkers", thouh. They don't tend to bark for no reason. Except Kodi. He barks when ANY of the others do... Just BECAUSE they are are barking. He has no idea why they are barking. And when I tell him to stop, he woofs one more time, just to have the last word. brat! LOL!
Oh yes, the TV. People who say that their dogs don't watch TV don't realize how lucky they are! Dogs on TV upset Perry very much. He generally doesn't bark at other sounds on the TV, just the dogs (and they don't even have to be making any noise - he doesn't seem like he's watching but HE KNOWS!!!) - sometimes an occasional strange animal like a capabara. We also realized that animated dogs seem enough like real dogs that those bother him too (can't watch the secret life of pets with him around!)And then there's the TV ... What we would give to have a dog who ignored the TV! Shama barks at the sound Netflix makes every time it comes on. Shama barks at any animal on TV. She barked during the entire Beverly Hills dog show the other night, except when she was paying attention to DH and getting tiny bits of apple instead.
Sometimes I mind and sometimes I don't, but hubby does almost all the time. It's funny though because I do talk to Perry like that all the time too - when he's at the window barking I'll get up "thank you, that's enough"... or "thank you, enough Perry. that's only Sam, you know Sam" or "that's enough, look there's not even anyone out there, see, nothing"We don't mind it most of the time when Shama barks. Sometimes it is something I still want to work on, however.
A great trainer we had for a puppy class did advise acknowledging what the dog is barking at: "Yes, there is a dog walking by, and you spotted it. Good girl! Thank you for telling me. Now you can stop barking ..."
Perry has reacted to sounds, but he's much more concerned about the dogs (real or animated). I really think he does believe they're real - he has no interest in dogs on my computer screen, but the ones on the TV are, in his mind I think, either outside a window OR invading his house. He either runs up to the TV area (it's high on the wall so he can't actually reach the tv) and jump/ bark at them or, if I make him stay on the couch, he'll whine and get very upset.Mine believes every sound on TV is real. Even the faintest of sirens outside or on tv means jump to the window to look for a fire truck. He alerts to babies crying but doesn't bark, he's just concerned; children laughing he jumps up and wags his tail; birds or animal sounds he looks curiously out the window. Doorbells or knocks, it depends how sharp it is. If it's an aggressive knock he'll bark even if no one is there, but if it's a doorbell he won't bark, he'll just try to see where the person went. He doesn't understand or acknowledge the tv itself at all. I've seen him stare at the TV one time, during a movie with a large closeup of a dog, and it was shocking. He just watched it, no reaction, and I'm sure he knew the dog wasn't real or he would have gone crazy with excitement. He's never acknowledged the tv before or since. He thinks every single tv sound is real. If the fake tv bark is friendly, his tail will wag and he'll sit hopefully in the window. If it's not friendly, he'll grumble and pace a bit in the window for a minute. Every once in a while I can catch dog sounds are coming and mute for a moment. I wish someone would invent a "dog mute" program for tv!