5 Tips on How to Stop a Dog From Barking
Getting dog tired of your pup’s barking? Are they growling, yelping and howling at everything from a neighbor walking by to the sound of wind blowing through the trees? Here are five tips to take some of the OOF out of your dog’s WOOF!
A Tired Dog Is Quieter Dog
The biggest reason your dog may be barking a lot is simply due to boredom. Dogs like to by physically and mentally challenged. If they are just sitting around most of the day, they are going to be easily provoked into a marathon barking session for the smallest reason.
Increase your dog’s daily activities! Take long walks along varied routes so your pup can investigate different spots around your area. His inquisitive nature will love it!
Play games with your pooch. A good round of fetch will work his brain and keep him active. You can stimulate him even further with agility and herding challenges that work his natural instincts as a dog.
Be Calm and Consistent
As tempting as it may be sometimes, emphatically telling your dog to “keep quiet” when they bark is never going to work long-term. If they’re barking and you loudly try to quiet them, they will just think you are joining along! Even if the sound of your voice does intimidate them into quieting down in that one specific instance, it won’t stop them from barking next time.
Instead of getting mad or frustrated, try teaching them to be quiet on command. The key, like teaching any command to your pup, is to be consistent. Every time they start barking calmly repeat “quiet”. When they stop barking, give them a treat! They will soon learn that the word means for them to stop barking and when they comply, good things will happen!
Redirection
Focusing your pooch another activity when they launch into one of their bark-fests can be an effective way to calm them down. If you can direct them to start playing with one of their chew toys or simply lay in their doggy bed, this could lessen their desire to bark. With patience and some nice treats, you can train them to do a specific activity with just a simple command or hand gesture.
Once they have been trained to do these replacement activities on command, continue to praise them when they do it in the future. A quick head rub, positive words and a little treat to recognize the fact that they didn’t bark will help continue to imprint this training.
Manage Their View Outside
Dogs will instinctively want to warn their owners of possible predators. Your pup is territorial and if they believe someone is infringing on this territory, they will sound the alarm by barking.
There is obviously nothing you can do about people walking by your house. But if you can manage how your pup sees those people, it may become easier to control this kind of barking. Close the curtains on windows that see out on the street. Rearrange furniture so it’s not so easy for your dog to look out windows. Add a fence, a gate or natural barriers like trees or bushes outside to help obscure the view of passersby.
If it’s the noises outside that set your pooch off, have a television or radio on to help drown out those sounds a little bit. Even a white noise machine or a fan could help lessen what your dog hears outside which normally would signal him to start barking.
Ignore it
As a dog owner, the hardest thing for us to do is to not respond to them when they bark. However, picking them up or playing with them to stop their barking is just going to teach them that the noise will get them special attention.
When they start barking to get your attention, do everything you can to ignore them. Don’t touch them, don’t look at them, even go so far as to turn your back to them. Once they stop barking due to being ignored, be sure to praise them with a treat or even one of those beloved belly rubs!
Need Some Help?
Want to get your pooch into some daytime activities to help curb his barking while you’re busy at work? We have just the place! Dogtopia offers daycare services where your pup can run around with his doggy friends and can burn off that extra energy that could be behind their barking. To learn more about our doggy daycare services, give us a call.
