How to Stop Your Dog Barking

Barking, for a dog, is about the same as speech for a human. It is a dog’s main form of communication. Through barking, a dog will warn intruders away, welcome guests, and request attention. Of course, it’s unreasonable to think that you will be able to stop your dog from barking entirely.

Sometimes you want your dog to make some noise. However, if your dog is a nuisance barker it can get pretty annoying – not just for you, but also your neighbors (even if you find your neighbors more annoying than your dog barking, it’s still probably prudent to get the barking under control!). The truth is you can train your pet not to bark excessively and to be quiet on command.

Barking, for dogs, is instinctive and can be a difficult habit to break. Of course, it’s easier to raise a puppy not to bark than it is to teach an older dog, but don’t worry if your problem barker is more mature. Training may take longer, but older dogs can also be corrected and learn they don’t have to bark every time the wind changes.

Step #1 is determining the real cause of the barking

If you want to stop your dog from barking, the first thing you need to do is determine why he’s behaving that way. There are really only five general reasons a dog barks. He wants to tell you something, he’s protecting his territory, he’s lonely, he’s bored or he’s insecure. If you know the cause of the behavior, you can choose the right technique to stop it.

One of the main reasons that dogs bark is to protect their territory. First, respect your dog by taking a moment to see what he is barking at. It’s okay to allow your dog to bark, as long as he will quiet down when you tell him to. If your dog is barking to protect his territory, let him know that you appreciate his efforts.

A pat on the shoulder or a key word or phrase such as “okay,” or “thank you,” will often work. He needs to know that you can take control of the situation, now that he has alerted you to it. If your relationship is clear (and he knows you are the alpha leader of his pack) he’ll be secure enough to know that he can stop barking once you tell him it’s okay.

Of course, there is some training to do in order to get him to understand that a particular command like “enough” or “OK” is his cue that he can stop barking. This won’t be the first thing you teach him because it relies on your dog knowing another command and responding to it. You need to redirect him from the barking and then reward him.

Assuming your dog has already learned the “Sit” command and can do it even with distractions (this is one of the very first commands you and your fury child will learn in dog obedience class) you can use this to teach him the command to stop barking.

Basic Stop Barking Training Technique

Timing (as with every exercise in dog training) is crucial. When your dog barks, let him do it for a couple of seconds. Then give the command to sit. If the dog knows this, when he sits, he’ll stop barking because you’ve redirected his attention. As soon as he’s quiet, say “enough” (or whatever word you’re going to use as a command) and immediately praise him with a treat.

With consistency, your dog will soon associate quiet with the word “enough” and that when he hears that, he gets a reward. Over time, you won’t need to redirect with the sit command. When your dog barks and it’s time for him to stop, you give the command “enough” and he’ll know to be quiet.

That’s the basic training technique to stop a dog barking. Of course, sometimes that’s much easier said than done. For some dogs, the nuisance barking is a symptom of a more basic problem like loneliness, boredom or insecurity. The next page covers methods to stop barking dogs in these situations.

For more information on stopping your dog from barking and every other behavior issue that might come up, we recommend Secrets To Dog Training, the most comprehensive and well written dog training book available online.

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