How To Train A Dog Not To Bark

Introduction

Barking is one of the hardest habits to eliminate in dogs. It is hard for several reasons; one reason is that often the barking occurs when you are gone and there is no way to redirect the dog by catching him or her in the act. Another reason that barking is hard to eliminate is because often it is a behavior that you have inadvertently trained the dog to engage in. If, for example, your dog barks at the door to be let in, he has learned to use his doggy voice to get what he wants. By responding to your barking dog, you are positively reinforcing the barking. The good news is that there are ways to eliminate barking even after it has become a habit.

Instruction

Difficulty: Medium

Steps

Step 1: Figure out when the dog is barking and why. You need to do a little detective work to find out when the dog is barking. If you have a dog that barks outside at night, chances are pretty good that he barks when you are away during the day, but you need to ask around to find out. You should also try to determine if your dog barks more at mealtime, or during times of limited activity. Dogs usually bark because either they want something and they are barking to get it, or they bark because they are bored. Boredom barking is slightly different from barking for meals and quite a bit different from barking at a cat or another dog. Determine why your dog is barking before trying to treat the barking.

Step 2: Stop reinforcing barking behavior. The first thing to do if you are dealing with a barking dog is to stop reinforcing the barking behavior. Do you give your dog anything when it barks? You shouldn't. Don't even yell at the dog to say, "Be quiet". Sometimes any interaction with you is reinforcing. What you can do to interrupt the barking is make some sort of an anonymous disturbance. You can buy a bell and ring it to distract the dog when it barks or throw little pebbles from a hiding place. Whatever you do, don't let your dog associate its barking with any sort of attention from you, it will only make the problem worse.

Step 3: Give your dog something to do while you are gone. If your dog is barking when left alone, chances are that she is barking out of loneliness and boredom. There are several things you can do to try to curb this kind of barking. One thing is to leave the television or radio on. If your dog is not used to being left in an empty house, he might bark in protest. However, having some sort of sound might be very soothing to your dog and he might just go to sleep instead of barking. Another thing that you might do to distract a bored dog is to leave a toy filled with food. There are hollowed out toys that dogs have to work at to get the treat out. Kong makes a great and almost indestructible toy that dogs can worry at for hours before being rewarded with their treat. This sort of activity can take most dogs' minds off being left alone.

Step 4: Invest in a bark collar. Because barking is such a difficult problem to deal with, veterinarians have come up with an almost foolproof solution. This solution is the bark collar or citronella collar. The collar works similar to a shock collar, but instead of delivering a painful shock, the collar only delivers a squirt of a harmless citronella spray. They spray doesn't hurt the dog, but she won't like it either. It won't take too long for your dog to associate barking with the citronella squirt and quit barking. Most veterinary offices sell or even rent these collars.

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