How To Teach Your Dog To Stop Barking

For many pet owners, the constant barking of an alert dog is a great annoyance. Controlling that dog behavior becomes one of the main priorities of the dog owner, and many even go so far as to remove the dog’s voice box or get a shock collar.

Both of those methods are not only less than ideal, they are extremely cruel. There are ways to train your dog out of barking that should be used instead, and if those fail consider not owning a dog at all because dealing with barking is a natural part of being a dog owner.

Notes About Barking

It should also be noted that some dogs cannot control their barking completely. Shetland Sheepdogs, for example, were bred near the Shetland Islands – right near an extremely loud sea. Their only method of communicating was through barking, and as a result trying to get a Sheltie to stop barking completely is a near pointless task. It can be done, but do not be surprised if your dog still sounds the alarm on occasion.

In addition, remember that barking is your dog’s way of communicating. It can be loud and interrupt your day, but it is often one of your dog’s only ways of telling you something.

Training Your Dog Out of Barking

That said, it is perfectly safe and acceptable to try to train your dog out of barking. For this, there are a variety of methods:

• Punishment – Rarely recommended by any dog behavior expert, verbal punishment is still effective for some dogs. Dogs that are sensitive to noise, for example, a loud shout is a good command to get them to stop barking. However, one of the things you need to remember is that you have to pick a word and stick with it. Don’t say “no” and “stop” and “quit it.” Say one word, like “Shush,” and only use that word when you are trying to control your dog’s barking.

• Teach Your Dog to Bark On Cue – A neat little trick that seems less effective than it is, training your dog to bark on command is a great way to get them to stop barking. How? By rewarding them for barking when you ask them to bark, they will experience less joy barking when you are not asking them, because you are only giving them the treat when you use the command.

• Don’t Reward – If your dog barks at you every time you throw it the ball, don’t throw the ball until your dog has stopped barking. Barking is often self reinforcing – sometimes your dog barks to get your attention, and when you yell “no” you are giving your dog that attention. Or your dog barks before you give it food out of being excited, and then when you put the food down your dog’s barking is rewarded. Try to avoid this as often as possible.

• Tire Your Dog Out – Barking dogs are far more prone to barking when they have a great deal of misplaced energy to spare. Tire your dog out and the barking is less likely to occur.

Barking is how many dogs communicate. Training a dog out of barking is sometimes like trying to train an infant out of crying. However, barking can be minimized by using some of the above tools. To learn more tips and tricks for controlling dog behavior, read about my newsletter