In the last week or so Lee has developed a very loud and annoying habit. While we are sitting eating she will come up and bark at us. I swear she barks extra loud. I tried to get a video of her doing it tonight, but since it is not a constant bark, it is periodic barks and I was eating it didn't happen.
My current strategy for dealing with this is a behavioural term called extinction. This means withholding whatever was reinforcing this behaviour. I am assuming this behaviour has been reinforced by either attention or treats, so when she barks, even though it makes my head want to explode I ignore her and pretend nothing happened.
I hope this habit goes away as quickly as it appeared!
Lola did this when she first arrived. A firm "no" and then ignoring went a long way, though it took a few weeks for her to finally understand.
ReplyDeleteGood luck! I understand about the head exploding though!
Silly Lee. Sometimes it's like these behaviors come out of nowhere!
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