If you have a dog, you already know they are the most loyal friend you can ever have. They will be there to celebrate you when you get back from a busy day, wagging their tails happily and barking to welcome you home.
However, these loyal friends can also get too loud. They can disrupt your night with a series of loud barks, or scare away any visitor who rings the bell to your house.
Although you can never stop your dog from barking entirely, barking is their mode of communication, you can control their barking and allow them to bark on control.
Before training your dog to bark on command, or before treating the barking problem, it is important to understand what makes dogs to bark.Different situations can lead to a dog barking continuously.
Here are a few reasons why dogs bark:
Fear
A dog can bark, whether it is at home or away at anything, object or sound that frightens it. It barks to alarm the owner of the potential danger or as a reflex action to fear.
Protective
Dogs are territorial animals. Whenever a person or an animal invades the dog’s territory, the dog will bark loudly to keep the person or animal away. As the threat gets closer, the dog will bark loudly, stay alert and become aggressive.
This could be the reason why a dog barks whenever the doorbell rings or when visitors come to your house.
Greeting
When you get back home, the dog will wag its tail, jump and give you a happy bark as a form of greeting. This is also evident when the dog is playing with other animals or with a human being.
Seeking Attention
Since dogs do not speak our human language, they will continuously bark when they want to draw attention.
For instance if your dog wants to go outside, it will continuously bark while standing at the door or bark in the kitchen to get some food or treats.
Loneliness
Dogs are animals that thrive while in a park. When left alone, in the house or in the yard, for long periods of time, they will bark because they are bored, unhappy, or sad.
Separation Anxiety
This is a condition with some dogs. Apart from the compulsive barking, the dog will show other symptoms such as pacing, depression and destructiveness.
A dog with separation anxiety will continuously bark so as to hear its own voice. Dogs with this condition will distract your night with loud and compulsive barks.
How to Teach a Dog to Stop Barking?
After understanding why your dog barks, it could be any of the reasons named above depending with the situation, you can now teach your dog to stop barking and bark on command.
Below are three quick guide steps to assist you in training your dog to stop the compulsive barking.
1. Remove the Motivation and Introduce a Reward
Your dog barks for a certain reasons. Remove the motivating factors that encourage the dog to bark, for instance if the dog barks at passers-by while in the house, close the curtain to make sure the dog does not see outside.
Ignoring the barking for as long as it stops is also a way to train your dog to stop barking. Giving the dog attention is rewarding its barking. While the dog is barking, do not look at him, touch him or speak to him.
When he finally stops barking, even if it is to catch some breath, then reward him with a treat or maybe open the door for him to go if that is what he wanted.
As the dog masters the art of being quiet earns him a reward, lengthen the amount of time the dog must remain quiet in order to receive a reward.
To teach you dog to bark on command, you first train your dog to bark on command, ‘speak’. Let him bark for a few minutes then put a tasty treat near its nose. Once the dog has stopped barking, reward it with the treat.
Repeat the command as many times as possible, until the dog learns the command, to start barking when you say ‘speak’ or any other command you want to use.
With time, the dog will learn to bark when you give the command. Thereafter, you can introduce the ‘quiet’ command. Give him the command to ‘speak’, then say ‘quiet’ and put the treat to his nose.
Once he stops barking praise and reward him. With time he will learn the command quiet. When the dog masters the commands, you can ask him to be quiet anytime.
For instance when someone rings the bell at the door, the dog will bark to alert you, giving him the ‘quiet’ command will make the dog to stop barking even when the visit gets into the house.
2. Use Anti-Barking Device
If your dog barks whenever you are out of the house until you return, or barks continuously at night out of stubbornness or loneliness, you can use anti-baking device to stop the dog from disrupting your quiet and peaceful environment.
The anti-barking device detects a dog’s bark up to 50 feet away and automatically transmit ultrasonic sounds that only a dog can hear.
Once the dog stops barking, the high pitched sounds blasted by the device automatically stops. For the dog to stop hearing the ultrasonic sounds, it will learn to stay calm and quiet.
MODUS anti-barking device is one of the best anti-barking device that will allow you to enjoy a peaceful calm environment at home.
The MODUS anti-barking device has a sensitive microphone that can detect dog barks as far as 50 feet away. This means you do not have to talk to your neighbour about their loud dog, that keeps you awake all night. All you need is to buy a MODUS anti-barking device.
The MODUS anti-barking device is suitable for all size dogs, small, medium and large, because it has an ultrasonic dog bark limit with four different power levels, high, medium, low and test.
Test mode can be used to verify that the microphone and the speaker of the bark box are functional. To set the preferred power of the device, you can manually adjust by the use of a simple knob.
MODUS bark box uses high-pitched ultrasonic sound technology. Although a dog will be stimulated by the sound, the ultrasonic sound are above hearing range of a human ear. Therefore, MODUS bark box is 100% safe for use to both human beings and dogs.
The ultrasonic sounds are annoying to the dog but do not harm him. With time, the dog will learn to stop barking unnecessarily. The MODUS anti-barking device has a hanging rope or hole to make it easy to hang it on the wall.
3. Use a Bark Control Collar
Humans and dogs operate in a relationship that values respect. It is very important for dog owners to understand and respect their dogs. Training a dog can be hard since they do not understand human language.
However, with a bark control collar dog owners can effectively communicate with their pets. A bark control collar operates with the use of a technology that allows the owner to use a remote to send signals to the dog.
You can use your control remote to send different signals, beep or vibrations, to the dog, either to stop it from barking or to give orders such as to sit.
The Dog Care Training Collar is one of the best bark control collar that uses advanced anti-jamming technology that is sturdy and unwavering for multiple training environs.
The Dog Care collar has three training modes, beep, vibrations and chock modes, to help you teach your dog some basic disciplines or to solve some undesirable behaviours such as uncontrollable barking.
Dog Care Control Collar is absolutely safe for your dog. It has an adjustable static level to allow you set the appropriate static level for your dog. It is also convenient for all dog sizes.
In addition, with the Dog Care Electronic Training Collar, you do not have to worry that you could accidentally electrocute your dog due to disoperation. These collar has a security keypad lock on the remote, to make sure you do not accidentally shock your dog causing pain and fear.
If you have more than one dog, then Dog Care Control Collar is the option for you. It supports up to a maximum of nine channels control with only one remote transmitter. You can control your dog’s loud barking with only one remote control.
If you love going out with your dog, probably to the park or in your yard, you do not have to worry about your dog getting out of sight. The Dog Care Control Collar is a wireless control that can cover a range of up to 330 yards. It also has a long battery life.
Dogs can bark loudly and uncontrollably due to different reasons. Before choosing the best method of disciplining your dog to stop barking, it is important to understand first what the dog is trying to communicate.