To reduce your dog’s excessive barking, it helps to teach your dog a definite set of behaviors to do when visitors come into your home so that he has fewer chances to alarm bark. Additionally, when your dog performs his new behaviors and receives rewards, he’ll learn that people coming into your home is a good thing.
Prior to training your dog to go to a spot and stay there when a door opens, you have to educate him how to “sit” or “lie down” and then how to “stay.” After your pooch has learned these skills, your training to “spot” may begin.
“Go To Your Spot” Training
Look for a specific place in your home where you’d like your pet to go when visitors come to the door. If possible, pick a spot that’s at least eight feet away from the front door but still within your sight. It might be an area at the top of a set of stairs, inside the doorway of another room, your dog’s crate, or a rug positioned at the far corner of an entryway.
State “Go to your spot,” let him see his treat, and then throw the treat onto the spot where you’d like him to go and stay. Do this sequence 10 to 20 times. By the tenth time, pretend-throw the treat to make your dog begin to move toward the spot on his own. As soon as he’s standing on his spot, throw him the treat. As he catches on, you can stop making the fake throwing action with your arm and just give him the command, “Go to your spot.” Then wait until he does and reward him.
Once your dog is reliably going to his spot, change your position when you send him there. Practice cueing him to go to his spot from several angles and distances. For instance, say “Go to your spot” when you’re standing just a couple of steps left of it. After a few repetitions, move a couple of steps to the right of the spot and say, “Go to your spot” from there. Then move to another part of the room, then another, and so on and so forth. In the end, practice standing by the front door and asking him to go to his spot, just as you might when guests arrive.
Once your dog masters going to his spot, start training him to sit or down when he gets there. As soon as your dog’s rear end hits the floor on the spot, reward him with another (maybe a different) tasty treat. Then let him move off the spot with “Okay”. Execute these steps at least 10 times per training session.
Lock In the Learnings
Now, you may add stay into your exercise. Stand next to your dog’s spot. Ask him to sit or lie down, say “Stay” and wait for a second. When he executed your command, praise him with a cue word and give him a treat. After you deliver the treat, say “Okay” to release your dog from the stay and motivate him to get off the spot. Do this sequence at least 10 times every training session.
Progressively increase from one second to several seconds, but change the time so that sometimes you make the exercise easy (a shorter stay. On other occasions, you make it hard (a longer stay). If your pooch starts to get up before you say your affirmative cue word, say “No” and immediately ask him to sit or lie down on his spot again. You can then the next few times ask your dog to hold the stay for a shorter time. Steer clear of pushing your dog to accelerate the progress or testing him to see how long he can hold the stay before getting up. This practice just sets your dog up to fail.
Bring in a friend
Now you need some help from family and friends to practice fake visits. Arrange to have someone come to the door. You will work with your dog to help him stay on his own.
Be prepared! This will likely take some time before he actually gets the drill. When you open the door, one of two things can happen.
- Scenario A: Sometimes you leave your dog there on his spot while you talk to the person at the door, as if your visitor is a courier or delivery person. Your dog never gets to say hello. (However, your dog should be getting treats to reward him for staying.)
- Scenario B: At other times, invite the visitor in. Wait until the person sits down somewhere, and then release your dog to join you and your visitor.
With a fake visit, you will need to repeat the scenario over and over, at least 10 to 20 times. Practice makes perfect. With each repetition, it will become easier for him to do what you expect because he’ll be less excited by the whole routine—especially when it’s the same person at the door, over and over again.
Continue to recruit people to help you practice “Go to Your Spot” exercises until your dog reliably goes to his spot and stays there until you release him with your cue word. At this point, your dog should be able to perform his new “Go to Your Spot” skill perfectly about 90% of the time during training sessions. The toughest part for your pooch is to go to his spot and stay there in real-life situations; when he hasn’t been able to do a few warm-up repetitions.
Prepare for the real ones
To prepare your dog for times when real visitors arrive, ask friends who are acquainted with your dog to drop by randomly when you are home. Then ask other friends who don’t know your dog well to drop by, too. With plenty of practice, your dog will be able to go to his spot and stay there, even when neither of you knows who is at the other side of the door.
So, when the real visitors arrive, you can ask your dog to go to his spot as soon as they knock or ring the doorbell. After letting your visitors in, ask them to sit down. Wait about a minute before releasing your dog from his spot to greet them. You may put your dog on a leash if you think he might jump on your visitors or behave aggressively. Allow your dog to greet people briefly, ask him to lie down at your feet and stay. Give him something to keep him busy,
If you repeat the ritual above for a while, your dog should learn to settle down calmly when guests visit your home.
Greeting Barking
In lieu with the “spot” training associated with visitors, dog owners should also learn and train their dogs about greeting barking. If your dog barks at people coming to the door, at people or dogs walking by your property, at people or dogs he sees on walks, his barking is accompanied by whining, tail wagging and other signs of friendliness, your dog is probably barking just to say “Hello.”.
Keep greetings low key. Train your dog to sit and stay when meeting people at the door so that he has something to do instead of barking. This will reduce his over excitement.
If your dog likes toys, keep a favorite toy near the front door and encourage him to pick up the toy before he greets you or your visitors. If he learns to hold a toy in his mouth, he’ll be less inclined to bark. Although, he may still whine.
Teach your dog to walk calmly past people and dogs on a walk without meeting them. You may need to distract your dog with special treats.
Steps to Take to Reduce Excessive Barking
One reason that it’s so easy to live with canines is that they are one of the most expressive creatures in the world. They find a way to let their humans know what they need. Although, they often do this by barking or whining.
What you don’t want is your dog demand barking. A demanding, noisy dog has inadvertently been taught to be this way. Now you need to make it stop. You need to consistently not reward him for barking. Don’t try to figure out exactly why he’s barking. Ignore him instead.
This is hard because, most of the time, pet parents unwittingly reinforce the behavior—sometimes just with eye contact, touching, scolding or talking to their dogs. To canines, all of these human behaviors can count as rewarding attention. Your body language must tell him his attention-seeking barking is inappropriate.
You must try your best to never reward your dog for barking at you. Sometimes, it’s easier to avoid problems in the first place by planning to remove the things that cause your dog to bark. If your dog barks at you when you’re busy on the computer, distract him with a treat before he starts to bark.
Compulsive Barking
Dogs occasionally bark in situations that aren’t considered normal or they bark in a repetitive, fixed or rigid way. A compulsive barker will repeatedly bark apparently at nothing or at things such as shadows, light flashes, mirrors, open doors, the sky, etc. for long periods of time.
Sometimes other repetitive behaviors like spinning, circling or jumping while barking can also be a sign. To help reduce compulsive barking, you can try changing how you confine your dog. For instance, if the dog is on its own for long periods of time, you should increase exercise, mental stimulation and social contact.
Anti-Bark Collars
Devices are available to teach dogs to reduce their barking. Usually, these are collars that produce an unpleasant outcome when your dog barks. The stimulus might be a loud noise, an ultrasonic noise, and a spray of citronella mist or a brief electric shock. The noise producing collars are not very effective with most dogs. The citronella collar has been found just as effective for stopping barking as the electronic collar and was viewed more positively by owners.
Virtually all dogs learn not to bark while wearing their anti-bark collars but revert to barking when they’re not wearing them. Collars that work on a microphone system to pick up the sound of a dog’s bark should not be used in a home with more than one dog because any bark from a dog can activate the collar.
Anti-bark collars are not recommended as a first choice for dealing with a barking problem. As they are punishment devices they should not be used where the barking is sourced by fear, anxiety or compulsion. Before using an anti-bark collar, seek the help of your vet.
What NOT to Do
- Do not encourage your dog to bark. Don’t look out the windows, say “Who’s there?” at pedestrians or dogs passing by your home.
- You must be consistent. Do not punish your dog for barking at some sounds, like car doors slamming. Don’t then encourage him to bark at other sounds, like people at the door.
- Unless a veterinary behaviorist advises otherwise, never use punishment procedures if your dog is barking out of fear or anxiety. This could increase his fear and, as a result, his barking might increase.
- A muzzle should only be used if you are actively supervising the dog and never for long period of time. Dogs can’t eat, drink or pant to cool themselves while wearing muzzles. Making your dog wear one for long periods of time would be inhumane.
- Never tie your dog’s muzzle closed. This is dangerous, painful and inhumane.
