Barking:
Important: Be sure all your
dog’s needs are being met before starting a bark-reduction program. Some dogs bark because they are lonely and
isolated, outdoors in an over-stimulating environment, or too cold, lacking
exercise, bored, etc. Changing the dog’s
environment and circumstances can drastically change the dog’s behavior. If the dog’s basic needs are not being met,
there is no humane way to quiet him down.
Think about your dog’s circumstances and take care of all his needs
first. If you are gone at work all day
and your canine is lonely, consider hiring a dog-walker or dog-sitter, or
enroll him in doggy day-care.
Excessive barking
is easier to prevent than to cure. You
can accidentally train the dog to bark by letting him out of the crate or the
house when he barks, or by appearing with the leash or supper-dish when he is
barking. Be alert, and wait until the
dog has been quiet for thirty seconds before appearing or offering a goody. Some
other ideas:
- Manage the dog’s environment. If the dog barks at passersby on the street, try making the front rooms of the house and the front yard off-limits. Install a privacy fence to reduce the dog’s eye-contact with whatever is stimulating him to bark.
- Desensitize. If the dog barks madly when the doorbell rings, ring the bell yourself again and again. Eventually, Fido will get bored of all the barking, lose his excitement, and quiet down. Jackpot! Over many sessions, try this again. Will he stay quiet when you move outside the door and ring? Do set-ups: have a friend come to the door and ring wver and over. When it’s no big deal and the dog is quiet, reward. Put the dog in another room and do not allow him to greet people until he quiets down.
- Teach “quiet” to reinforce quiet. First, train the dog to bark upon command.[1] Once he can bark upon command, you can teach your word for quiet. Give the bark-command more rarely over time, but reward the dog whenever he is quiet.
- Keep the dog busy. If your dog barks in his crate, put a stuffed Kong in the crate along with Fido. With luck, he may work on unstuffing the Kong rather than at barking. Praise the quiet, and let him out before he is finished, so he doesn’t get a chance to practice the old behavior.
- Ignore the dog when he is barking, and reward him when he is quiet. If he barks in his crate, ignore him until he is quiet. After he has been quiet for 30 seconds, gush all over him and let him out. See the warning below, however.
Important: Beware of the extinction burst. When you are training the dog to be quiet,
you are trying to extinguish a previous behavior (barking). Often the behavior will worsen before it gets
better, because the dog is frustrated and does not understand why a behavior
that has always “worked” for him suddenly does not. He will intensify the behavior before he
gives up on it. For example, if barking
has generally worked to get out of his crate, Fido will bark worse, at first,
to try to get you to open the door.
Expect this, and stick to your guns.
If you “give in” and let Fido out when he is at the height of his
tantrum, or pay him extra attention with sympathy or even by yelling at him, you
have taught him to bark harder, not to quiet down! Remember to monitor him carefully and to release
him promptly once he has grown quiet even for a short time.
[1] This is
mentioned in the tricks section. While
training this trick can cause a relatively quiet dog to become noisy, it often
has the reverse effect with a constant barker.
For details, read Pryor’s Don’t
Shoot the Dog.
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