Dear Miss Behavin’:
Our Dalmatian, Groovy, loses his mind whenever the mail or a package is delivered to our house. With the holidays fast approaching (and surely more packages arriving), how can we help him keep his cool?
Unfortunately for dog parents, the old saying “practice makes perfect” applies to this naughty canine behavior. Dog narrates the scene and it goes something like this: “scary person approaches house with strange object, dog barks nonstop, and as a result (according to dog), scary person drops object and runs off. Viola!”. And so you have it, the barking works time and time again.
The first step in stopping naughty, unwanted behaviors is to stop them from happening in the first place. It can be impossible to intervene if you’re not home when the behavior occurs, so take some time to set things up before you leave.
If Groovy is outside barking by the gate when mail or packages are delivered, bring him indoors. If that’s not an option, put up a barrier to prevent access to the gate. This could be in the form of a baby gate closing Groovy into the main area of the yard, or a more permanent gate on the side of the house. The idea is to distance Groovy from the trigger. If distance isn’t an option, add a visual barrier.
If Groovy is inside when the behavior happens and he barks when he gets a visual of the delivery person, you’ll need to block his access to the window or area where he can see outside. If it’s the sound of the truck that sets him off, you can drown out the noise by turning on the radio, leaving the TV on, or using a white noise machine.
Once you stop the bad habit from starting up, it’s quite common for the behavior to simply dissipate. This may take some time, but ultimately your dog fall out of practice. As a common rule of thumb for dog behavior, when you ask Groovy not to do something, try to give him a different job or activity instead such as a food puzzle.