Welcome to the first installment of Bark Week!
Barking has always been a constant in this house. Lucas has a huge bark, which when combined with his reactivity, means lots and lots of barking at every noise on the street. Cooper, though. Oh, Cooper. We thought Lucas was a big barker until Cooper came around. The big difference between the two of them? I mean, other than the fact that Cooper out-barks Lucas 5-to-1? Cooper’s bark is shrill.
Working from home, I needed a way to get the barking under control – not only to be able to focus on my work, but also to be able to take phone calls without hiding in the bathroom…
So, pretty much since we’ve been back in Bloomington, we’ve been working on barking. We’ve made huge strides, though it’s not perfect, but so many of you have mentioned these same struggles that I wanted to take this opportunity to share with you what has worked – and what hasn’t! Today is all about how to get your dog to stop barking on cue!
A quick disclaimer: I’m just sharing what has worked for us. I’m not certified in anything relevant, so those folks with behavior backgrounds may cringe at my methods here, but… they worked for us, so I thought it might help someone else!
OK. So, the thing is, I’m actually not opposed to them barking in general. I don’t mind it, especially since we have weird travel and work schedules, and I’m home alone very often. I didn’t want to desensitize them to things passing by the house. Instead, I wanted them to feel able to bark if they needed to but -stop when I asked them to. (Some people want to curb the barking altogether by implementing a counterconditioning process for things passing by the house. That’s not what this post is about, though.)
The first step to success was limiting Cooper’s (and Lukey’s, too, but I’m going to use Coop as the example) opportunities to practice nonsense barking. So, the stuff where he barks his face off at… leaves blowing past the front door… or kids walking to the park or whatever. We’ve left our blinds closed for a few months now, especially in the front room of our house. By leaving them closed, his line of sight is limited, so he’s less likely to bark at nonsense.
Next, choose your cue. It’s important to remember that no matter what word you choose to teach, your dog has no context with that word. If you’ve been shouting “shut up” or “knock it off”, you need to pick something else. We went with “enough” because it’s not a word that we use in other dog cuing contexts.
(And this is where those behaviorists might cringe…) Now you need to start teaching the cue. For Cooper, once he started a barking frenzy out the window, he became completely unresponsive to everything else, so I needed to snap him out of that mode. I used my “face-full-of-treats” strategy where, when he started going nutso, I’d toss a small handful of tiny treats at his head. Trust me, it snaps him out of it instantly – giving me a split-second window. As soon as he realized he was just pummeled with treats and started trying to gobble them up, I could call him to me with an even better treat in my hand. It would break the frenzy and bring me his attention.
Eventually I began to integrate the “enough” cue when he would break his attention and come collect his treat, but that step took by far the longest because he was SO fixated on barking his face off out the window. So, repeating that over and over (and over and over…) combined with blocking his views out the window, we cut down on a huge amount of the excessive barking.
Here’s how it works now (please turn your volume WAY down… Cooper barking and me calling him… it’s loud… sorry ’bout that):
How to get your dog to stop barking on cue (aka, “Cooper, enough!”) from Maggie Marton on Vimeo.
Wherever Cooper is in the house, as soon as I shout “Cooper, enough!” he runs at top speed, plops into a sit (unnecessary but nice), and collects his treat. Oftentimes I’ll ask for other behaviors, like a sit or touch, just to give even more distance from what he was barking at.
Of course, the funny thing is Lucas and Emmett dashing into the room to collect treats, too, but I want them to respond to “enough” as well, so I always dole them out!
There you have it! That’s how I taught Cooper to stop barking on cue. Now, if you’re really paying attention here, you’ll realize that “enough” to Cooper does NOT mean “stop barking.” To Cooper and the big boys, “enough” means “haul ass to lady and we get treats!” Not the same thing, but it works!!
As a quick aside, the reason I went with this method is because the old advice of “teach your dog to bark on cue, then you can teach him how to stop barking on cue” did. not. work. Oh, we taught them to bark on cue. But once they found their voices, they did not want to stop. “We’re getting treats for barking! YAY BARKING!” This method fixed that right up!
Phew! Such a long post. Sorry about that. I hope it’s been helpful!
Have you taught your dog to stop barking on cue? What methods have worked for you?
We are always glad to read about training ideas so we can tell when we should stop barking. I don’t think me and Stanley are too bad cuz mom even gave me my own Barking Chair!
Your Pals,
Murphy & Stanley
OooMmmmGggg…..can’t wait to try this. So simple!! My two barkers are very treat motivated, so sounds like it will work well for them!!
This is a great idea; thanks for sharing, and in such a practical and instructive way! Our dogs are not very barky indoors; it’s outdoors (especially in the yard in the early morning) that we have a problem with. I think we could try this outside, though, if we just start going out there with them in the morning and starting the regimen of tossing treats at their heads and assigning the cue. 🙂
i cannot wait to try this method! Our trainer (whom I love dearly!) said we should try the “teach him to bark so you can teach him to be quiet” method also. At the time, Moby rarely barked. Then he got more confident and now he barks A LOT. He doesn’t generally bark at things though – just me. I’m willing to give this a try! Thanks!!
Great post! I will be going home and trying this asap! Both of mine are barkers and once one of them starts the other has to join in 😛 I too don’t want it stopped in all contexts but want an off switch 😉
“We’re getting treats for barking! Yay barking!” This has been the overwhelming response to any kind of “For the love of all that is holy, just cut it out!” training in our house. It doesn’t help that we have a tiny apartment, so calling her to us doesn’t mean she really leaves the stimulus. We ended up ordering window clings from Solyx. They don’t damage the window and they make it look like frosted glass. It’s hard to bark at things when you don’t see them. We also gated off the front door. If she can’t GET to it to bark at things, then what’s the point? So….management over training in our house with the barking. (But I hear you on the loud and shrill thing. For a 25 pound dog, that thing has LUNGS.)
The clings have helped in my house also. We have a ton of big porch windows. Finding the line where we can enjoy the view but she can ‘t is the challenge!
That is so cute how they all come running in the video! Ha! I think this is great advice. It may not work for everyone, but it clearly works for you so I think it could be really helpful to some dog owners.
Ace is not much of a barker, but all dogs get into those barking fits at least every now and then. When that happens to Ace, I usually end up calling him to me and then rewarding him with praise or treats and that quiets him down. He’s always had a great recall and I make sure to praise him. Telling him “no” or sending him to his bed when he’s barking or whining usually won’t quiet him. So I guess me calling him and rewarding him is similar to what you are doing.
He does know “speak” and “sing” (howl) but I have not been successful at teaching “quiet.” I think it’s because I haven’t put enough effort into it though.
It seems to work really well for you! My Puggle mix Theo is too excitable/protective when people come to the door, so we give him a treat for going into his crate whenever someone rings the doorbell. He goes from barking maniac to sitting in his crate in 5 seconds, but only if we tell him to go to his crate. He’s so food motivated it works even when its the mailman.
Honey’s not a big barker. But when she alerts me to something outside, I do her the courtesy of going to the window to check it out.
I tell myself it’s a good excuse to stretch my legs. And it keeps her from going cuckoo.
The only time I’ve really struggled is when her “boyfriend” from two doors over starts barking. He woofs once and Honey goes nuts trying to get his attention. Maybe I’ll try the treat plan. But I’m not sure it will work given how much she loves Riley the golden retriever.
You can hear our whole neighborhood bark sometimes, and mine hates being left out!
Sometimes the shrill, incessant yappers across the street set Graham off, or people walking by…or the nieghbors coming home (sigh). I’ve used the all purpose “Leave It!” consistantly and there are now times when some outside stimulus that would have been barked out of existence only gets a raised head and light growl before he goes back to sleep.
I love the video. I am going to have to try this!
Thank you Maggie, you gave me some comic relief that was much needed today.
I know you meant this to be serious, but I got to tell you this was funny !! The Big Boys coming in to get treats, Cooper’s bark and running to sit and get his treat
was all so cute. Thanks for sharing “enough”, I will add that to my dog vocabulary.
This is great! I had to laugh at the throwing the treats at his head….I think that might work with Luke too. Our house sits back off the street so we don’t get as much of the barking, but if they hear a car at the neighbor’s, etc., we do get it. Like you, I don’t mind if they bark some but I want to limit it. I’ve worked with Luke a little bit with treats, and I can get him away from the window, but he’ll often go right back to it. So we definitely still need to work on it. Both Luke and Cricket are barkers, but Luke usually carries it on the longest.
The video was great…..that was so cute how they all came in, one at a time, to get their treats!
That was awesome. I use “Enough” whenever Bella is doing something obnoxious. In our house, it means “please dear dog almighty, stop already” – so kind of the same thing as in yours. 😉
We did teach her “Quiet” after teaching her to “Speak” but she only does that when she’s not over-threshold so I’m going to start using “Enough” as her new cue for that instead. Thanks for the tip.
Thanks for the tip. I have associated the word “quiet” when getting my pup to stop barking. I have a totally unrelated question: what type of breed is Cooper (and his other tan brother)? I got my pup from a reduce a few months back and he looks identical to your dogs. The rescue has no history on his breed. He looks much like a Black Mouth Cur.