Stop that noise!
Dogs bark for any number of reasons. They bark when someone approaches their territory or in response to other dogs (or sirens). They bark at squirrels and other potential prey. Some breeds are born to bark; it’s in their nature. Dogs bark in excitement, when they know they’re going for a walk or car-ride or getting their dinner. Occasionally, barking is stress-related, a sign of separation anxiety, and sometimes dogs just bark because they’re bored.
At appropriate times and levels, barking is a useful behaviour. Lots of people get dogs because they want them to bark when someone comes to the door or is prowling at night. However, when barking becomes excessive, the noise can be a real headache for owners and their long-suffering neighbours.
Before things get out of hand, take steps to teach your dog when it’s okay to bark and when it should stop. If you want your dog to bark when people approach the house, enlist your kids, spouse or a neighbour to help out with the training. Ask the helper to come to the front door and knock or ring the doorbell (Ed note – the Dobermann Release Button, that is). If your dog doesn’t bark at the noise, encourage it by asking, “Who’s there?” Praise your dog when it barks at the sound.
Once your dog is barking to alert you, the next step is to teach it to stop. After it has given a couple of barks, hold up your hand and say,“Thanks, that’s enough”. If it stops barking, praise it, and say “Good quiet” and pop a treat into its mouth. Often, showing your dog the treat may be distraction enough to stop the barking. Say “quiet” and give it the treat after several seconds of silence. As your dog starts to learn what the word quiet means, extend the period between the command and the reward.
Some trainers recommend wrapping your hand around the dog’s muzzle and giving a command. This works sometimes, says vet Amy Marder, but you have to be careful when trying the technique. If your dog is barking frenziedly, it may accidentally bite you when you try to wrap your hand around its muzzle. Instead, Dr Marder recommends calling the dog to you and putting it in a down. “Calling your dog to you usually interrupts barking,” she says. “Also, something simple that most people don’t know is that dogs lying down hardly ever bark.” Again, offer praise for silence-choose a command and use the same one each and every time- and reward the dog with a treat.
When you are trying to retrain a dog that barks excessively, the first step is to figure out why the dog is barking. If it’s bored, the solution is not to punish the dog but to relieve its boredom. “Punishment is almost never appropriate for barking, if the cause of the barking is boredom,” says trainer and behaviourist Gary Wilkes. “The single most important solution to barking problems is to get the dog inside the house. Housetrain the animal and teach it to leave things alone so that it can live with you.”
Just as when you’re teaching any other behaviour, teaching a dog to be quiet requires a lot of patience. Set up situations that give you the opportunity to show your dog what you want from it.
Another reason dogs bark is because they want something. It’s important to make sure that your dog doesn’t train you to respond to its barked demands. From the beginning, wait until it has been quiet for a good 30 seconds before you give it its meal, let it out of its crate, or toss its ball. If you give in even once, your dog will have learned that it can manipulate you by barking, and it will take a long time to retrain it.
At appropriate times and levels, barking is a useful behaviour. Lots of people get dogs because they want them to bark when someone comes to the door or is prowling at night. However, when barking becomes excessive, the noise can be a real headache for owners and their long-suffering neighbours.
Before things get out of hand, take steps to teach your dog when it’s okay to bark and when it should stop. If you want your dog to bark when people approach the house, enlist your kids, spouse or a neighbour to help out with the training. Ask the helper to come to the front door and knock or ring the doorbell (Ed note – the Dobermann Release Button, that is). If your dog doesn’t bark at the noise, encourage it by asking, “Who’s there?” Praise your dog when it barks at the sound.
Once your dog is barking to alert you, the next step is to teach it to stop. After it has given a couple of barks, hold up your hand and say,“Thanks, that’s enough”. If it stops barking, praise it, and say “Good quiet” and pop a treat into its mouth. Often, showing your dog the treat may be distraction enough to stop the barking. Say “quiet” and give it the treat after several seconds of silence. As your dog starts to learn what the word quiet means, extend the period between the command and the reward.
Some trainers recommend wrapping your hand around the dog’s muzzle and giving a command. This works sometimes, says vet Amy Marder, but you have to be careful when trying the technique. If your dog is barking frenziedly, it may accidentally bite you when you try to wrap your hand around its muzzle. Instead, Dr Marder recommends calling the dog to you and putting it in a down. “Calling your dog to you usually interrupts barking,” she says. “Also, something simple that most people don’t know is that dogs lying down hardly ever bark.” Again, offer praise for silence-choose a command and use the same one each and every time- and reward the dog with a treat.
When you are trying to retrain a dog that barks excessively, the first step is to figure out why the dog is barking. If it’s bored, the solution is not to punish the dog but to relieve its boredom. “Punishment is almost never appropriate for barking, if the cause of the barking is boredom,” says trainer and behaviourist Gary Wilkes. “The single most important solution to barking problems is to get the dog inside the house. Housetrain the animal and teach it to leave things alone so that it can live with you.”
Just as when you’re teaching any other behaviour, teaching a dog to be quiet requires a lot of patience. Set up situations that give you the opportunity to show your dog what you want from it.
Another reason dogs bark is because they want something. It’s important to make sure that your dog doesn’t train you to respond to its barked demands. From the beginning, wait until it has been quiet for a good 30 seconds before you give it its meal, let it out of its crate, or toss its ball. If you give in even once, your dog will have learned that it can manipulate you by barking, and it will take a long time to retrain it.
