Dog, milk delivery

[Anonymous]

We got a new puppy last year and every week then the milk is delivered at 5 am he goes crazy howling and barking like the world is coming to an end. Has anyone had a puppy just grow out of this response?
Suggestions welcome. I would let him sleep in room with us but he would jump on us all night long plus he likes to sleep near our older dog. The older dog does not react at all to the milk delivery and never has—I was hoping puppy would take his cue from older dog-brother.

[Anonymous]

No. They don’t grow out of this, sorry to say if you don’t nip this now it will continue and /or get worse!

[Anonymous]

Get a electronic bark collar and adjust it on yourself first, so you know it won't hurt your dog. I adjusted mine to vibrate and give an extremely mild electric zap, which I could tolerate easily on my own skin. It took two barks with it for my dog to decide it wasn't worth barking in that specific scenario.

[Anonymous]

Who still delivers milk?

[Anonymous]

South Mountain Creamery. See the recent thread in the food forum.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:South Mountain Creamery. See the recent thread in the food forum.

Thanks!

[Anonymous]

You have to train your dog. It's work. It's getting up early to train him on the milk delivery, and it's setting up fake "deliveries" at other times to train on those.

Right now, as far as he knows there is an intruder outside, he barks his head off, and he is rewarded by the intruder going away. Yay, he did it! It's self reinforcing. You have to replace that whole interaction.

[Anonymous]

Can you move the location where they leave the milk? Further away from the house?

[Anonymous]

No, it won’t go away, and the longer you wait to train it the more conditioned it will become.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Can you move the location where they leave the milk? Further away from the house?

Bad idea. You aren't correcting the behavior by doing this. The dog will start barking at the Amazon guy next. Next thing we know, OP will have to get a PO box for all deliveries.

[Anonymous]

I know this sounds stupid but can anyone tell me how to train it? Part of the problem is that I don’t know when the guy comes so I can put him in a down stay and get him settled in advance. I’ve been sleeping downstairs on milk night and when th guy comes I then try to hush him.

I did buy a bark collar but it doesn’t seem to work. Maybe I need to order a different brand.

[Anonymous]

Dogs bark to alert about intruders. It’s their nature. Deal with it?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Dogs bark to alert about intruders. It’s their nature. Deal with it?

What? He’s the fifth dog I’ve owned and the only one that’s ever done anything like this. The great thing about dogs is that the are generally trainable, they learn from situations and adapt. and want to please humans so I feel lkel this should be fixable but I’m just not doing it right. He’s not a guarding breed.

[Anonymous]

I would never hush my dog for barking when a stranger comes up to the house. That is wild. Dogs bark to communicate. They don’t need to be a guard dog to bark.

[Anonymous]

It's more likely you will get used to the barking before the dog gets used to a weekly early delivery. I think your quiet dog is the abnormal one. What dog doesn't bark at a delivery? It's their nature to alert to a stranger.