Dog Training Technique to Control a Barking Dog!

Dog owners all know the frustration, embarrassment and lack of peace and quiet a constantly barking dog can cause. While we love our pets when a dog is out of control and barking constantly you can be at your wits end and end up yelling back at your dog or doing things you may not be proud of. So how do you control a barking dog? What dog training technique can you utilize?

First of all we must understand the root cause of your dogs barking. Usually a dog barks because it is excited, bored or scared. All of these things have one common thread, they all stem from a lack of confidence in a dog to deal with its situation. Excited dogs often go out of control barking because they are encouraged to do so by owners who get over-excited themselves or are loud and animated very often, your dog will think it is ok to do such things and may not understand how to control this once they start. Bored dogs bark because they do not know how to handle being alone and frustrated; they bark because they want attention and a relief to the boredom. Dogs who are scared also bark to sound more threatening and feel they need to be very vocal about it. If your dog is also aggressive when scared you may need to be more careful with its training however so watch out for signs of baring teeth and snarling also.

IF your dog barks in some or all of these situations then what you need to do is teach them how to deal with this by positive reinforcement and being a good role model. Your relationship with your dog is the most important part of the training, as the master your dog sees you as the pack leader and will take cues from you good or bad. You must behave in a way that makes them comfortable with the situations by not making a big deal out of any of their fears. So let’s break down some examples for the different reasons for excessive barking we have discussed.

Excited
When your dog gets overexcited you must learn to not give it attention, too much praise and attention can send it into overdrive and reinforces that it is ok to be hyperactive and loud. You must learn to be calm and ignore the dog while they are in this state until they calm down, only once they are calm and not barking should you show any praise. When you do show praise make sure it is calm and soft to keep the situation settled. Also when you arrive home do not get too excited to see your pet, if you immediately start lavishing attention on it they will start associating barking and people arriving.

Bored
When you leave your pet at home and go to work do they bark? Or do they bark at night when they are outside? Again reinforcing the wrong behavior is something we do too often by letting the dog back inside at night or by making a big deal of coming home or leaving the house. The dog must know it is normal to be alone sometimes, when it gets too much attention it panics when it is deprived of this. To train the dog to realize being alone is normal you must make sure when you leave or return to the house or even from room to room you must not greet the dog but ignore them, only praise them if they do not bark and do not yell at them. Only when they realize as the pack leader this is all normal will they calm down.

Scared
Dogs usually become scared if the owner shows signs of panic or fear try not to be panicky or agitated around the dog. Make sure you are in control of your emotions and actions when around your dog and they will feel comfortable with their master and with themselves enough to keep calm.

If you become the dogs pack leader and show that everything is ok, there is nothing to fear and that you are the master who does not have to give attention to them they will gradually learn to be more comfortable in whatever situation they find themselves in. I hope you can use this dog training technique to control a barking dog. Good luck!