How To Stop A Wire Fox Terrier Howling

The dog may be man’s best friend, but this does not mean that they always know how to behave. This is true for every dog, including the Wire Hair Fox Terrier as well. Whether you have obtained your dog as a puppy or as an adult, at some point in your dog’s life, there will come a time when your dog will pursue unsatisfactory behavior. This behavior may also include howling.

Howling can become a rather huge problem if not dealt with. This behavior can result in a neighborhood disturbance and then eventually calls to the local animal control office. There are solutions to this behavior problem. However, these are in no way over night remedies. The process you will take may require at least one or two weeks to actually take an effect on your Wire Fox Terrier dog or puppy.

Before you can begin to train your Wire Fox Terrier not to howl, you first need to know the reason that he is howling in the first place. Howling is a form of communication for dogs. Howling can also be a way to get the attention of the owner. When trying to find out the cause of your dog’s howling, you want to investigate and rule out situations such as any medical issues that the dog may have. When dogs are sick or hurt, they will often howl because of it. You also want to rule out any howling done because of separation anxiety. When dogs are used to being around people, they tend to get lonely rather quickly and will howl until the situation is resolved. This leaves howling for attention and howling as responses to other sounds as the two primary reasons that dogs howl. Both of these reasons can be dealt with.

Howling to get your attention is done in your presence and is usually a signal that the dog wants something from you, whether it is food, a desired object or even your attention for some love and playing. Training your dog not to howl for this reason is a two step learning process. First, the dog must learn that howling does not work to get the things that he wants. Second, he must learn that being quiet will offer him more rewards than howling. The steps that are involved in this training are simple but can take one or two weeks to take effect.

When your dog begins to howl for attention, simply ignore the dog. This means to avoid all forms of communication with your dog. Do not look at him, speak to him, basically pretend that he is not there. Any form of one these will let the dog know that they have obtained your attention, whether it is a positive or negative reaction. As a second step in this process, you want to reward your dog for the times when you are together and he is quiet. This lets them know that we do know they are there and that when they have good behavior, then they will receive more positive reactions.

When your Wire Fox Terrier howls due to responding to triggered sounds such as the another dog howling or speeding motors and other such sounds, your dog will usually stop when the triggered sound stops.

However, this can sometimes become a problem as the dog can start to howl at every little sound. For most dogs that have turned to this type of excess howling you want to try a process called systematic desensitization and counter conditioning. Anxiety, fears, phobias, emotions and aggression are the main factors that these two processes will remedy. The Systematic desensitization and counter conditioning needs to be done by someone that is trained to perform the processes.