by This video by Zak George’s Dog Training rEvolution teaches how to effectively train a dog to stop barking. First of all, you need to understand that dogs bark for a variety of reasons. Maybe they are excited or simply want to play. They might as well be nervous, unsure, feeling protective or territorial. The initial step to help things become easier for you is to get your dog the appropriate exercise that it needs. Exercise serves as a great “general prescription” for barking, boredom or frustration. If you have high energy dogs, you may have to play fetch often or do some long hikes to improve their situation.
The initial step is to get the dog’s attention away from whatever it is that’s making it bark. The dog should be able to focus its attention to you and do this voluntarily. Sincerity is a big word and dogs truly understand this. Your dog needs to feel that from you. Thus, it is best that you perform dog training with a very positive approach even in spite of the nuisance of barking. The main factor of this training is to let your dog start off aiming for a reward. You can utilize a beef jerky or any other dog treat that you can get to serve as a form of incentive for the dog. As soon as it gets quiet and stops barking, use this treat as a reward.
For some dogs, food or toys won’t work anymore, especially if they are too “far gone” already. For these types of dogs, there is a need to do something a little bit more. You have to go back to where they have acceptable obedient behavior. For some, it may mean picking them up as a means of a reward. As you can see in the video, the dog Dante gets carried by his owner and the dog behaves better.
The best takeaway from this video is the lesson about correcting unwanted barking at the best time possible. You may ask what the best time is. Well, it’s the time before the barking occurs! If you have spent a reasonable amount of time with your dog, it will be easier for you to know when it will be barking. You can anticipate it and tell your dog to stop right before it even barks then reward it afterwards.
To sum it all up, you need to incorporate the important factors stated in the video such as getting your dog’s attention, anticipating the barking, and rewarding heavily even in brief moments of compliance. It’s understandable that your dog might need time and that’s fair.
Photo © Erik Lam – fotolia.com
Do you want the easiest, fastest way to an obedient dog? Watch this video:
I have a question: I run a very energetic Golden Retriever in Agility. While I know that I am late in giving commands, and slow with the running. My girl loves to let me know by barking uncontrollably. Something that is important to know about my dog, is that she is a therapy dog, and is very easily redirected with toy, or even just talking to her. She only does this barking while running agility. Any ideas? I have tried turning around and ignoring, this just makes her even more frustrated, I have tried turning her to something to be successful like a sit or a down. This works for the length of time that she is in a down or sit position (any length of time that I ask her to do). This is very frustrating as she ONLY does this during a run through agility.
Thanks for your ideas!
Katie