Bark #3

I can count the number of times my dog has barked. The first two times were the same incident on 2 different days. Apparently he didn't like it when I woke up and then went back to bed. He's got a lot of energy in the morning. For the first few weeks he woke up between 5-6am (I wake b/n 6-7). The first time I didn't know what was up and I took him outside. Then I went back to bed and I think he did it again or something. The next time I can't remember if I was napping because I was sick or it was the morning again but I could hear him make tiny noises and I was ready to pounce on him when he did start up. He did this thing where he jumped left and right. He's such a calm and shy dog, this totally threw us off. After I corrected him (it's pretty easy to intimidate him... well for me it is) I pretended to go back to bed. I waited till I could hear him lie down and then I got out of bed and petted him. At that time he had a pet tag that made a lot of noise, so it was easy to hear him change positions.

Today was #3. I'm having a new side door put in and the workers had to knock out the stucco and sawzal the old door frame. You could hear the workers chatting. I guess Marley would make a good guard dog as he barked. I shush'd him but I don't think I was making an impact so I took him outside and walked a little. when I brought him back in I got the idea to leave the leash on (idea I got from ed frawley's ebook: establishing pack structure with adult dogs). Basically this tells the dog I'm in control. The whole, look calm and don't talk to him, wasn't enough for this situation. I had him on the leash and he growled at some random destruction noise and I was then able to yank on the leash in addition to "hey!" (my correction word). He was amazingly calm from then on.

I'm not sure if he's still chicken or not because when I had him on leash and brought him over to where the door was... he didn't want to go past the kitchen. haha. Maybe because I was taking over as pack leader (though, wasn't I already in that position???) it allowed him to step back as the timid follower?

Right now I'm thinking, when he barks is it better to correct him for barking or better to put the leash on him and tell him I'm under control here... you don't get to bark unless I say so?