When it comes to obedience training for dogs, teaching them to stop barking is one of the most common problems to fix.
Your dog may be aggressive and bark at other dogs, or they may simply bark when they are excited.
Whatever the reason is, consistent barking from a dog can be very annoying.
Before you teach them to stop barking, there are a few important things that you should know.
The first thing to know is that trying to get your dog to stop barking completely is unrealistic.
Dogs use barking as a way to communicate and express their feelings.
This is a natural instinct for them.
So to think that you could stop it altogether, would not make sense.
Some courses on obedience training for dogs will tell you that it can be stopped, but really it is not that cut and dry.
One thing that you can do to curb the habit, is to use a trigger word or buzzword to have them bark on command.
What this does is to begin to associate this buzzword with barking in your dog.
Your dog will begin to only bark when they are told, rather than randomly barking.
The word that I have used successfully is 'speak.
' This is a very common trigger word to have your dog bark on command.
Pretty soon, after teaching them the trigger word, they will not bark randomly near as much.
There are certain situations in which you want your dog to bark.
They can alert you to danger, scare off intruders, or just get your attention.
So stopping their barking altogether is not a good idea.
You still want your dog to maintain its instinct to bark in certain situations.
Keep these tips in mind when you are looking for the right obedience training for dogs.
These little tricks will go a long way in helping you control your dogs barking.