How to Stop Your Dog's Annoying Barking in the Home

It is always jarring to be relaxing at night on the couch and suddenly a loud bark storm erupts from your cute little pup. 

I have thrown many plates of food from jumping at the sudden noises.

Aside from being horribly jolting, these barks can get frustrating and overstimulating so quickly. 

My gut reaction is to yell right back (like most dog guardians), but unfortunately, this usually makes the problem worse.

The good news is that with training, you can stop these barks from happening altogether. 

But first we have to understand why dogs bark in the first place...

Dogs can bark for any number of reasons:

• Anxiety
• Fear
• Excitement
• Alerting Those Around Them
• Anger
• Uncertainty
• And so so much more

The first step to solving your own dogs barking is to figure out WHY.

I like to do this by keeping a log.

Write down the time your dog barked, what they were barking at (if you heard, saw, or smelled anything at the time), and what made them stop.

With a few days of logging the behaviors, you should start to see patterns developing that you can then follow the below steps with! 

Once you know WHY your dog barks, you can plan ahead.

The best way to change dogs’ emotions behind things is to pair the stimulus (sight, sound, smell, etc) with their favorite thing - usually food! 

It’s also really simple - and we always love that.

Here's how to do it:

1. Prepare several jars of treats or your dogs’ kibble all throughout your home.
2. Every time you see, hear, or smell the things that your dog usually barks at, immediately drop treats for them to find. 

This should start to change their brain from barking first to looking for treats first! If your dog is barking - STILL REWARD. Barks come from emotions, and you can't reward those.

This is the first stage of changing the behavior.

It might seem like you are rewarding them for barking, and that’s okay! It takes a lot of time to teach a dog that treats are coming after the barking is a habit for so long, so a few might slip out before they can eat the treats.

Once your dog knows that the stimuli (sights, sounds, smells, etc) equals treats, you now have some time BEFORE the barking starts to cue a behavior you’d like to see instead.

For example, when my dogs bark at the door knocking, I would prefer that they go lay in their bed and wait for me to answer the door. So after a few sessions of pairing the knock sound with the treats, I can work on cuing them to their bed in the pause that they have created from the treats.

See the video below from my instagram account to see this idea in action! 

 

 

 

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A post shared by Blythe Neer | Online Dog Trainer | Service Dogs (@deltatails)

I have worked with clients on behaviors that range from picking up a toy to laying at their owners feet, to even alerting the owner with a button that lights up in the case of hard of hearing or deaf clients.

As always, you will want to reward any of these behaviors heavily. They must be rewarded more and with higher value things than the barking creates for your pup, which can be hard to out do. 

You can never go wrong with cheese or hotdogs, though (just make sure to use tiny pieces). 

Want to work on this a bit further and customize the work to your goals and individual dog? You'd love my membership, the Pack. Click here to learn more or start a free trial (no time limit or card required).