When your own dog won’t stopping barking on command, many pet owners find themselves driven to distraction or frustration. Even people who have owned dogs for many years may find themselves befuddled when they find themselves with a new dog or an additional dog who doesn’t seem to understand when they tell the dog to stop barking.

As a dog trainer and pet care provider, this is a very common question or concern that my clients voice to me, “How can I get my dog to stop barking?” I teach and recommend a variety of solutions depending on the dog and the type of barking. Humans tend to lump all barking into one category and call it annoying. Some dog owners want their dog to never bark at all. Your dog is communicating with you and you need to discern what he is trying to say.

The type of barking we are talking in this post is “attention barking.” In this type of barking, your dog doesn’t have any specific needs (food, water, or needs to go outside) but he wants your attention. For this type of barking, I offer these solutions:

4 Tips to help you stop your dog from abusing attention barking

1. Personalized Command. You need to tell your dog, specifically what you want or don’t want. Don’t just say No or Stop. “Fido, no bark!” or “Fido, Quiet!”
2. Be consistent in the command. If “No Bark” is your command, then stick with it. Don’t keep changing the command because they learn by repetition and you need them to know that specifically means to stop barking.
3. Recognize your dog for good behavior. If he stops barking, then tell him, “Good No Bark, Fido” When you are specific with your praise, he will associate it with that particular task.
4. If Fido decides he doesn’t want to listen and continues after you tell him “No Bark” it is time to isolate him and remove him from the situation. Place him behind a closed door until he quiets down. Release him when he is quiet but be prepared to do the same process over again if he starts barking. Continuous repetition and consistency are key to success with your dog’s training.

This is just one of the ways that I work with your dog in my training or pet care programs. Implementing training strategies with your dog will allow you to enjoy your pet and have a better behaved dog. In a future post, I will discuss the different types of barking in more detail.

Curious as to how Heide’s Pet Care solutions will work for you? Contact me (Heide Maxwell) for more information or scheduling.