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no attention at all. Training your dog to do anything is providing him with attention from you at an appropriate time, and may serve to reduce extraneous barking by making your dog feel appreciated and recognized by you.
Secondly, teaching your dog to bark gives him some work to do, reducing boredom. Again, the mere fact of training gives you and your animal something to do together and gives him something challenging to learn. If your dog frequently gets bored, the kindest thing you can do is to work with him every day (even if it’s only for a few minutes) on some sort of training.
Lastly, when you teach your dog to “speak”, you follow up his learning that skill by teaching him to “hush”). By rewarding your dog when he barks because you asked him to, you are also teaching him that he should bark when you say so. (It’s a slight distinction to us, but it means something to the dog). If he barks when you don’t tell him to, he hasn’t learned the rules of the game yet. So first, teach him to bark. Then teach him to be quiet.
You can teach most dogs to bark by using food as reinforcement. Hold a piece of his favorite snack up where he can see it, and say, “Speak!” (or “Speak, Fifi!", or whatever his name is.). If your dog is inclined to bark for general self-expression, he will probably bark to ask you to give up the snack. When he barks right after you say, “Speak!”, give him the treat and tell him what a good dog he is. (It’s important to use both reinforcements of food and praise because one day you want him to obey without being bribed with treats. Otherwise, your pockets will always smell of liver bits.) Practice “Speak” daily until he understands that when you say, “Speak!” he should bark in order to get a treat. If he barks when you haven’t asked him to immediately beforehand, don’t give him a treat; ignore the bark.
Next, teach him to stop barking. Ask him to speak and let him bark repeatedly until you say, “hush” and he (eventually and after much prompting from you), hushes. Then and only then, give him the treat. Now he is learning that when he stops barking, he gets a treat. Practice having your dog speak and hush for ten minutes once or twice every day until you can feel confident that he understands and will follow both commands. How long this takes depends on two things; you, and your dog. If you really do practice with your dog every single day, you’re going to see much faster results than if you just do it a couple of times a week. Think about it: you and your dog are basically studying together, and he needs to practice new skills over and over on a consistent basis in order to really remember them and perform them correctly. All things being equal, if you work with your dog every day, you’ll be seeing good results by the end of the first week, and you’ll probably be feeling quite confident by the end of the second. Now you’re getting somewhere!
(If you seriously work with your dog for two weeks and you’re still having problems getting him to speak and hush, your dog may have an unusual problem. Either there’s a big dominance issue between the two of you, or there may be a physical interference, such as pain, hearing loss or illness. Discuss the problem with your vet, and if your dog’s check-up seems to be fine, invest in a trainer who can watch you together and spot problems that the layperson might not see.)
Once you feel your dog has grasped the idea that he gets a treat once the barking stops, you are on your way to being able to reward him for not barking at all. This is tricky, because now we’re talking about the way you have been conditioned to respond to your dog’s noisiness. At this point, you have to learn to respond to your dog’s silence! The problem with silence is, it’s easy to ignore it, because it doesn’t intrude on you the way unwanted sound does. So once you’ve moved into this final stage of training, make an especial effort to be aware of times when your dog once used to bark, and reward him for his silence.
If a dog who has always barked his brains out every time the mailman arrives stops barking at the mailman, take a moment to encourage his new behavior. Tell him what a good dog he is. In the beginning, you may even want to keep a few treats by the door so you can offer him a substantial bribe for giving up that old, bad habit. If the force of habit is too strong for him, help him out with a training reminder: say, “hush” and when he stops barking, give him a treat and encourage him.
Once in awhile a dog takes a real and personal offense to the mailman, and the barking is more than just to get your attention: he’d really like to eat the mailman. If the usual bark prevention methods aren’t putting a dent in the drama around daily mail delivery, talk to the postal employee yourself. If you have a mail slot, you can try simple bribery to change your pet’s mind. Arrange to leave dog treats outside the door, sealed in a coffee can to keep them dry and animal-proof. When the mailman arrives, he can first push a treat through the mail slot, then follow up with the mail. Dogs are open-minded about using food to create and solidify friendships!
The mailman is a great example for targeted desensitization training. If your otherwise good dog goes berzerk over a particular person or thing, focus on that thing and work on it. Now that you have the power of Bark Prevention Training working for you, you can target specific areas and solve the problems that have been bothering you all along.
In the case of the mailman, you can work with your dog every day around the time the mail comes. If you can, have your dog “sit” right before he would normally start barking, and give him a treat and some praise for a good sit. This is good in two ways: it gives him something else to occupy his attention, and it’s harder to bark with a treat in his mouth. If he starts to bark anyway, tell him to “hush”, and give him a treat once he’s stayed hushed for five seconds. Your goal is to keep him sitting and hushed, so have a few treats on hand. Maintain eye contact with him the whole time the postman is there and until after he’s gone next door. You’re letting your dog know there’s a new routine for the postman, and that you’re serious about the routine. Don’t turn your attention to anything else –if the phone rings, ignore it.
If your dog has been barking at the postman for years and years, don’t expect him to give it up after a few lessons. Expect to make this routine part of your routine for at least a month – and that’s with daily practice! But focus on your goal.One day in the not-too-distant future, when the postman arrives, your dog will sit down and wait quietly for him to leave.
Obviously, the postman in the example above could also be the Culligan man, the garbage man, the Avon “man”, the Girl Scout “man”. It’s much harder to train specifically when the visit is unanticipated, but if your dog barks at anyone who comes to the door, you can also practice intensively by having a friend come to the door about ten times a day for the weekend, using the same “sit” and “hush” technology described above.
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Teach to “speak”.
Make eye contact: get your dog’s attention
Hold the treat where he can say it
Say, “Speak”
When he speaks, give him the treat and praise him.
Repeat repeatedly! Practice daily until he can speak on command.
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Train to “hush”
Tell dog to “speak” and encourage him to keep barking.
Say, “hush”. If he stops right then, praise him and give him the treat.
If he doesn’t stop right away, repeat the command to hush until he does.
Wait a few seconds to make sure he’s staying hushed, then praise and give him the treat.
Practice daily!
Expect it to take some time!
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Use bribes to help your dog like people he has barked at before. Have the postman push a treat through the door whenever delivering mail.
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For specific people or situations, use targeted training after teaching “speak” and “hush”.
Make eye contact: get your dog’s attention
Just before he would usually start to bark, tell him to “sit”. When he does, give him a treat and praise him.
When he starts to bark, tell him to “hush”. When he does, praise and treat.
If he starts barking again, remind him to hush, and praise and treat when he does.
Practice daily, and expect it to take some weeks! (Not hours, not days; weeks).
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Pay attention and reward your dog when he’s quiet instead of barking. Notice his changed behavior and continue to reward it.
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This info comes from stopdogfrombarking.com |