Teaching Your Dog To Speak, NotBark

Barking_Dog As many dog owners have come to discover, teaching your furry friend to do something or not to do something requires a consistent balance of rewards for good behavior and the ability to not acknowledge bad behavior. It is important to understand that the behaviors your dog exhibits are usually out of trying to relay some type of emotion that it is feeling, whether it is anxiety, excitement, boredom and so on. One of these common behaviors that are exhibited is barking. While barking levels can vary based on the personality and breed of a dog, it is something that can be tamed and transformed into a trick through teaching your dog to speak on command.

To teach a dog to speak is very different then allowing a dog to bark whenever itwould like. Barking does not involve control or commands, whereas speaking incorporates both of these items. Whenyou teach your dog to speak, it should consist of a minimal amount of short barks followed by silence. Learning tospeak will also help to control your dog from repeatedly barking at every sound and movement.

So how do you teach your dog not to bark uncontrollably and instead to speak oncommand? The first time is to find out what it is that tempts your dog so that you can understand what reward willestablish good behavior. For most dogs, the reward of food or a treat is used. Try enticing your dog by showing ita treat. Wait until the dog gets into a state of calm and command the dog to speak. Once the dog speaks with a fewbarks, give it the treat and commend the dog in a cheerful and excited tone.

If your dog is not the type to respond to a treat, you can also try incorporatingthe association of certain activities with the command to speak. For example, if your dog gets excited when thedoorbell rings, you can teach it to associate the action of barking with the command of speaking by asking the dogto speak whenever there is someone at the door. Be sure to emphasize association of the word speak whenever the dogbarks so that it begins to learn that this is a command or a trick that will be rewarded.

In order to teach your dog to understand the difference and to learn to speak oncommand, you must continuously practice and incorporate these techniques into the dog’s everyday life.Incorporating the practice of rewarding the dog for certain actions towards specific commands will also work forteaching your dog how to do other tricks, such as sit, give a paw and heel. Dogs do not learn or understandnegative reactions to their actions, so punishing your dog for not speaking on command or performing a trick willonly delay the learning process. Just as with human beings, dogs have a learning curve, so remember to be patientand persistent and you will have your dog speaking on command in no time.