POSITIVE TRAINING FOR YOUR BARKING DOG

Most barking dogs enjoy making thing happen, every time they open their mouth they make something happen, either your mailman leaves, or your neighbor yells out something nasty then shuts his window, like I said they like making things happen. Unfortunately this isn’t appreciated by the most humans, and your dog is expected to learn some manners. So all barking dogs need to be taught when to stop barking.

Remember, barking in itself is not a problem. Dogs bark, just like cats mew and people make promises….it’s just something they do when they want something done. For instance they bark to tell you they are hungry at dinnertime or to let you know there is someone at the door etc.   On  these occasions barking is fine and in most cases appreciated. It becomes a problem however when your dog refuses to stop barking despite your telling him to. So the job in hand is not to shut your dog up completely but instead to teach him to stop barking when you ask him to.

So begin your training with a simple command like ‘speak’ or ‘bark’ and pat him and give him a treat when he woofs a bit.  Now tell him ‘enough’ or ‘that’s it’ as soon as his woofing increases and immediately plop a cookie into his mouth, he won’t have a choice but to stop.  Now repeat it a couple of times. Next time he barks to let you know the mailman’s at your door praise him heartily and then sternly ask him to be quiet with a ‘enough’ or ‘that’s it’ (remember to use the same command to avoid confusing him) and give him a treat.

Once this regimen is established your dog will soon pick up what “enough” or “that’s it” means. In case he doesn’t and continues to bark despite your instruction give a sharp tug on his collar and say “Enough” in a stern, no-nonsense tone. He will soon learn that that’s his cue to stop.

Now this training will take a number of weeks to really start working. However make sure you don’t give up part way through.  A few dogs are by nature a little fond of barking and making noise so these will take more time to train than the others.

While training consider if his misbehavior has anything to do with his feeling bored, depressed or left out.  Dogs are actually very sensitive psychologically and little things which you might not even notice might affect them. Consider if you are leaving your dog alone too long, or if he is going hungry.  If you normally keep him outside in his kennel at night bring him to sleep indoors for a few days and see if there is any change in his attitude.

Barking dogs are in many ways like crying babies (except the fangs and teeth).  They need proper attitude training to bring them back to acceptable track, but they also need good time and attention and loving, so make sure your training is a right mix of all of these.

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