How To Train Your Dog To Stop Barking 

Only the most avid of dog-lovers can ignore the constant barking of a dog. It’s bad enough when your own dog is the culprit, but for your neighbours, it can be just about impossible to bear. 

Often, however, a dog will bark because it is ‘mirroring’ your own behaviour. For example, if, when your dog starts barking excitedly at the doorbell, you jump up and start yelling shrilly at him to ‘Shut Up!’, chasing him around the coffee table so that you can grab hold of him to take him into the yard, you are actually showing the dog that this behaviour is appropriate at this moment, and so he will continue.

If you want to learn how to teach your dog to stop barking, you firstly need to understand the root causes – only then will you be in a position to train your dog to stop barking.

Barking is a natural and instinctive behaviour for a dog. They will bark for any number of reasons.

It may be triggered by a visual stimulus, such as a bird flying by or a cyclist riding past.

Or it may be caused by a sound, such as a phone or doorbell ringing, or a nearby dog barking.

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Dogs will also bark to protect and defend their territory, or when they are bored or frustrated, or when they become anxious - when you are about to leave the house, for example.

They will also bark to try and assert their dominance, or as a means of getting your attention.

And sometimes, they will bark just for the fun of it.

You should not expect to reach a stage where we can get our dog to stop barking completely. It would not only be unrealistic, it would also be unfair to the dog – a bit like trying to teach a child never to get excited!

Rather, you should be trying to take control of the dogs barking, so that you decide when it barks, and more importantly, so that you can train your dog to stop barking.

In order to achieve this, you must try and think of a situation in which you would be happy for your dog to start barking. Presumably, most dog owners would be happy for their dog to alert them if an intruder comes into the garden or house.

This would be a good situation to set up then, so that you can teach our dog to bark when you want them to. 

You will need to invite a friend over, and ensure that you remove any unwanted distractions, and avoid any unwanted interruptions. When the dog is in a calm state, ask your friend attempt to climb over the fence into the garden, or climb in a window – anything that would clearly not be done by someone who has been invited in by you.

Now, encourage the dog to bark at your friend, using a command such as ‘woof’ or ‘bark’. After a short bout of barking, calmly instruct your dog to ‘shush’ or ‘be quiet’, whilst simultaneously getting his attention with the smell of a food treat under his nose.

Once you have got your dog to stop barking, you may give him the treat, and reinforce this reward by telling him how good he has been.

Now you will need to repeat this process over and over again, each time requiring that your dog remain quiet and calm for a longer period than the last time before he gets his food treat reward, until you are able to stop your dog barking immediately, and keep him in a calm and attentive state for a minute or so.

The key here is to remain calm and quiet when praising him for his calm and quiet response – this will confirm to him that his behaviour is the correct one. 

By getting him to bark at a situation that you have set up, you are in a much stronger position to control his response and get your dog to stop barking, rather than an unexpected event, where his barking may get out of control before you’ve had time to react.

Now that you’ve learnt how to get your dog to ‘bark’ and ‘stop’ on cue, you’re well on your way to teaching your dog to stop barking!

To read more tips on how to train your dog to stop barking, see How to stop barking dogs (page 2).

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