Dog Training: How to Keep Your Dog From Barking

To Bark or Not to Bark, That Is the Question...

Emotional Momentum and Physical Equilibrium

In my last blog post here I said that dogs bark because a stimulus—internal or external—creates a sudden feeling of being off-balance physically, as if the ground beneath the dog has suddenly tilted. So barking is one way a dog has of re-establish his physical and emotional equilibrium.

There are two basic postures dogs exhibit while barking which illustrate what I mean. Some dogs, like the one below, plant their weight or “stand their ground.”

Others will feel so off-balance they seem to actually be trying to hug the ground.

There is a third form of barking: the dog that barks while running, either toward something or away from it. But even when a dog is in motion while barking, the two main forms of body language are clearly visible. If barking is not the result of a dog feeling suddenly off-balance physically, then why would dogs exhibit these two kinds of physical postures when they bark? I think they clearly indicate that the dog is not trying to communicate as much he’s trying to regain his physical and emotional balance.

I think it’s important to understand this because it’s very difficult to change any behavior without understanding what caused it. For instance, using a citronella collar or a shock collar may work to stop barking with some dogs, but they don't address the underlying cause of the barking.

With that in mind, here are some ways to teach your dog to be quiet on command.

Simple Cases, Simple Solutions

A minor case of barking involves less emotion and thus can often be fixed by simply praising the dog for barking, then redirecting him into another activity, preferably one where he gets to bite a toy or other prey object. Praise usually works best if it’s a bit louder than the barking, so be sure to “overdo” your praise.

Some dogs respond to praise more readily than others, meaning it settles their nerves more quickly and more effectively. With other dogs, teaching them to “Speak!” on command, and then teaching them to be “Quiet...!” can also establish a good foundation for responding properly the next time the doorbell rings, etc.

To teach a dog to speak on command, spend a few days working on eliciting some form of vocalization. I do this by showing the dog a treat and then softly barking at him, throwing in a few low growls, and maybe some high-pitched yips as well—anything to trigger a vocal response of some kind, even a chuffing sound.

When the dog responds, no matter how softly, I give him the treat then say “Speak!” while he’s eating it. It doesn’t matter that the command comes after the barking behavior because dogs don’t learn through a linear process of association, they learn through pattern recognition.

I usually only spend a few minutes per session, but repeat the lesson several times a day. Then, once I know I can get a reliable bark from the dog, I’ll show him the treat and say “Speak!” first, rather than after he’s already barked. Then, once he’s reliably speaking on command, I’ll let him keep barking—seven or eight times—while teasing him with the treat. Then I’ll suddenly give him the treat and say “Quiet…” in a hushed voice as he takes it. This is a substantial change in the pattern so the dog may look puzzled at first.

Then, once the dog has learned to be quiet on command, I’ll begin to use that command whenever the dog is barking. With some dogs this will decrease the probability that they’ll bark at all. For others, it’s a way to stop the barking momentarily, but doesn’t keep him from barking at all, ever again .

4 Different Sound Distractions & 5 Core Exercises

Another technique, which is useful inside the house, is to interrupt the barking with an unusual noise of some kind, one that’s loud enough to cut through the barking but not loud enough to scare the dog. If you do this four times in succession, with four totally different sounds, the dog will usually stop barking at that moment. Do it enough times on different days, with different sounds, and the dog may stop barking altogether. The four different sounds might be a loud whistle, clapping your hands, dropping a spoon on the floor, and smacking a magazine on your desk (not too loudly!). Do not throw objects at or toward your dog. The sounds should not be threatening; they should just a) interrupt the barking and b) give the dog a new set of patterns to pay attention to.

If your dog is thrown off balance more easily than others, and he finds it more difficult to re-attain his physical and emotional equilibrium, you should invest at least 15 - 20 minutes every day to do the 5 Core Exercises of Natural Dog Training: 1) The Pushing Exercise, 2) The Collecting Exercise, 3) Speaking on Command, 4) The Suppling Exercise (deep tissue massage of the dog’s shoulders), and 5) Playing Tug and Fetch Outdoors (90% tug, 10% fetch). Each of these exercises is designed to iron out kinks in your dog’s emotional system.

The Collecting Exercise

I had a dog staying with me last week, a Dandie Dinmont terrier, who, whenever it was time to go for a walk would get excited, as most dogs do. But his way of expressing his excitement was to whine and whimper and bark and moan in a various number of annoyingly expressive ways. Since he’d already been trained to do the collecting exercise, it was fairly easy for me to get him to settle down, at least momentarily. That’s because collecting begets stillness. And when a dog is able to keep still, both physically and emotionally, he won’t bark as much as before. And in some cases, he won’t bark at all.

If your dog doesn’t have that skill set (stillness), and is a problem barker, then you should start doing the collecting exercise immediately and continue on a regular basis every day. (Don’t try doing it in the heat of the moment, i.e., while the dog is already barking; wait until after the dog is really good at it and has learned to love it before you have him go into a collected down while he’s reacting to noises, etc.)

Since dogs bark in order to feel more stable, physically and emotionally, and since the collected posture is one of the most stable and relaxed postures there is, this is one of my preferred methods to solve this behavior problem.

Here’s another, which operates on a similar principle.

Hi-Tech Training: The Emergency Down

Years ago, whenever my Dalmatian Freddie (1992 – 2007) chanced to come into contact with a loud, aggressive dog on the street or in the park, and if the dog’s aggression caused Freddie to feel off balance, I was able to defuse the situation instantly by having Fred go into an “emergency down,” where he would instantly drop into the down position, hugging the grass or pavement. This took the wind out of the other dog’s sails so that he was no longer barking, aggressing or instigating.

To teach the emergency down, you need to go through several steps.

1) First teach the dog to lie down on command.

2) Next, while your dog is walking next to you in the heel position, teach your dog to automatically sit whenever you stop moving.

3) Next, teach your dog to heel next to you while you’re both running and to automatically sit when you suddenly stop moving.

4) Next, teach the dog to hold a long down/stay. Start at 30 seconds, then build up slowly over a few weeks until the dog is capable of holding a down/stay for 30 minutes.

5) Teach the dog to go into a down while running, either while running next to you, while running away from you, or running toward you.

These steps are just an outline of how to train the emergency down. For more info, see Kevin Behan's book Natural Dog Training, or contact a trainer who uses drive training rather than "positive reinforcement" or "pack leader" methods.

Lee Charles Kelley

“Life Is an Adventure—Where Will Your Dog Take You?”