Dogs have many different types of barks. There is barking out of fear, aggression barking, warning barking, and attention barking and barking out of excitement. Once you recognize what type of bark your dog emits it is actually easy to address the issue.

What if I told you that one way to solve a basic barking problem is by teaching your dog to bark! On the surface this sounds bizarre but there are great training benefits.

Barking, like all my topics, is a multifaceted topic. So today we will focus on barking on command and quiet on command. Then Monday the focus will be on how to set your dog up for success in barking.

Barking on command: bring some treats with you and find a quiet space. Ask you dog to ” speak” using a verbal command or pair it with an open hand signal. When your dog starts to bark say good and reinforce them with a treat in front of their face. Once your dog is consistent with this behavior when you ask them to “speak” ask them to “quiet”. After they bark put the treat in front of them and say “quiet” or you can also pair it with a hand signal ( shut your right fingers together). If they are quiet reinforce them. Continue everyday on this behavior. Eventually if your dog is barking you can ask them to quiet and since it us now a learned behavior the dog will quiet!
Remember like all positive reinforcement training this takes patience and time. Also giving the treat to your dog at the correct moment . This is the hardest part of training to make sure you reinforce at the right time. With these techniques your dog will or should I say will not be barking any time soon .