How to train them to speak ??

When I teach something like that I try to capture it, and clicker train it. For example - my Ginger has the best speak EVER. One day I was eating pizza, back when she and I lived alone. I was ignoring her, but had a piece in my hand. I could *feel* her staring at me, but I kept ignoring. Eventually she let out a "Yark!" and I immediately said, "Yes!" then gave her a tiny piece while saying, "Good Speak". Rinse and repeat. Didn't take her long at ALL to figure that one out. Eventually put the word with the action, and faded the lure.

The downside of my method, is that now she's very good at "speaking" when I have something she wants. [:@] Be careful what you wish for. []

My GSD is quite the vocalizer, but he's not a big barker.  To teach him to speak, I took a target stick and tapped it behind my back.  When he got agitated enough he barked, and I clicked and he got a cookie.

I usually get mine really excited to the point that they bark and then give them a treat. Then I associate a word with it. >^^;<

ORIGINAL: astaracheetah

I usually get mine really excited to the point that they bark and then give them a treat. Then I associate a word with it. >^^;<

That's what I did with Nikki, though I also use hand singals.  She picked it up very quickly, but then again she's a sheltie and we all know how vocal they can be.  []  The other dogs picked it up after watching her.  Trey, though, speaks to both the word 'speak' and the word 'what'.  I have no idea why.  Beau speaks too after watching the big dogs, but Harry's still a work in progress. 

I taught Mirelle to speak by using her food dish at first. When it was time to eat, I filled up her dish but instead of setting it down for her I simply stood there holding it. After just a little while she barked, and I set it down right away and said "Good speak!". I did this for all her meals for about a week, and I started saying 'Speak' before she barked, and then giving it to her if she did. After she would bark for her meals when I said speak, I started using just a treat, and stopped asking her to speak for her meals altogether. I didn't want her thinking that she had to bark to get fed, I just wanted to use that as motivation. So I held up the treat and got her excited, telling her Speak, until she did it, then she got the treat right away. I tried this in different places and different situations, to aviod getting her to simply bark for something. Now I can just look at her and say Speak, and she will usually bark for me. If not, I hold up my fingers like I have a treat for her and tell her to Speak, and that works well. 

ORIGINAL: astaracheetah

I usually get mine really excited to the point that they bark and then give them a treat. Then I associate a word with it. >^^;<

I did the same, too. It helped that Penny's always been a cheeky beggar and yaps when she wants something. I use a hand signal, as well. The funny thing is, she's turned it into this weird, twisted version of speak because when I give her the command, she opens her mouth and makes the movement for barking, but only lets out a little gasp of air. I think the first time she did it everyone fell about laughing, so now she defaults to that one and you have to give her the command a few times before you get more than a whispery 'buff' out of her. []

It's everyone's favourite party trick, for some reason.

Yes, Mirelle does the same sort of thing! When I tell her to speak she'll almost woof, but mostly it's just a weak bark and she just lets air out, like you were saying. So I have to tell her two or three times before she gives me a real bark, usually!

Any suggestions on how to get a dog who normally doesn't bark at all to speak?  i'd love to train sammy on new tricks, but he RARELY barks, and if he does, its usually when we have new people over he doesn't like.  So... since getting over his SA (to the most part) we've heard him bark maybe twice in two months.
 
and he's still a bit shy so trying to excite him or something doesn't get him to bark.  He might be vocal a bit, but only that "talking" kind of whining (arugh arugh type stuff).

When she barks say SPEAK and treat. keep doing this. She will get the idea that when you say SPEAK when she barks she gets a treat and she'll learn the command.

Of course vocal dogs are easier to teach the "speak" command.

I could never teach 5 year old Duncan to speak. He only barked when he though it was absolutely necessary. Trying to excite him into barking didn/t work.

Bailey, on the other hand, learned how to speak in about 5 minutes. He is very vocal, and barks at the slighest provocation, plus he makes wierd "talking" sounds when he is trying to communicate with me. With Bailey I can say "speak" or not say anything, just giving a hand signal, which is my thumb and index finger opening and closing like lips moving in front of my mouth.

I agree with what the other posters have said. I used small dog treats, pats, and praises. Occasionally I too would make a barking sound, hoping she would imitate it [sm=uhoh.gif]

Be sure to teach "quiet!" soon after, though []

Good luck!

This is actually very easy to do and I have thought hundreds of dogs to do this.

Another way to do this is to hold a trait, tease, repeat the command word, and give the trait only when/if your dog barks. This method only works with some dogs.

The easy approach is to figure out what makes your dog bark. Then give praise and use the command word, i.e. "speak" while you do. It'll just take about five to ten minutes, not hard to do at all.

Remember the attitude, and good luck