# Talking Back



## Lisa (Feb 18, 2009)

My 8 month old V Catan has really started to talk back to us or just basically to bark at us for attention. Anytime someone sits down to watch TV he will come stand in front of them and bark. If you ignore him he'll start lunging at you - really get in your face - while still barking. If you make any kind of motion towards him he takes off in hopes you'll chase him and play.

This began soon after he injured a paw and was put on very restricted exercise - about 6 weeks. He's doing better now and we're been trying him with short off leash runs on the weekend. Hopefully soon he'll be able to have daily runs again and not just walks.

We've tried to ignore him but he is relentless and doesn't give up. We've tried taking ourselves away from him. Picture four people locked in a laundry room while the V runs freely in the house with a pillow in his mouth. We've spent alot of time in that laundry room staring at each other wonder why the V has the rest of the house. The most recent thing we've tried is locking Catan away in his crate until he's quiet and than letting him out. I don't like this though because I don't want him to hate the crate. In all cases he goes back to the barking once we sit down again. Unfortunately the kids have now started to yell back at him. Now I have two teenagers yelling and one barking V.

Any advice on what to do here?


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## grnyg (Mar 31, 2009)

Hello Lisa, 

I feel your pain...Guszti, our 11 month old Vizsla male did the same thing when he was around 6 months old. The only advise I can give is to be diligent and consistent, especially when it comes to ignoring him when he barks. I found that that worked a bit better than getting into a shouting match with him. I will admit to using his crate as a time out spot since that is really the only time he is in there. When he would bark I would either turn my back and ignore him, spray him with water from a squirt bottle, or take him for a walk to tire him out. We have been using a RuffWear backpack filled with about 3 kg of beans as well as a gentle leader for walks; that seems to tire him out to the point where he stopped barking. 

I think he got the message as he does not really bark anymore but he does whine when he feels that he is not receiving what he feels to be enough attention. But again, I cannot stress consistency enough in trying to get your Vizsla to behave suitably. Hope this helps, good luck.


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## Lisa (Feb 18, 2009)

Thanks for the reply. Never thought about a back pack with weight to help tire him out. I'll have to look into this option. I guess we just have to be consistent. We just have to fiugure which method we want to be consistent with.


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