Jo's Old Site

I’ve read somewhere sometime ago that dogs don’t bark if their person tells them to sit. And what I notice with Ilsa is that if I tell her to sit sometimes she will go woo at me despite being in the sit position. There’s also an UD exercise that’s called speak on command where a dog has to bark once while they are in three positions. These positions are sit, stand and down/drop. However, when teaching this exercise some dogs are sometimes found to be more confident to speak on command in some positions than others.

But speaking in the three positions can still be taught. Also, another point to make is that some dogs are quieter than others. And what may work for one dog and handler may not work quite so well for another. 

Though a person has to try as we’ll never know until we do. Also another person’s idea to control barking is that if the dog’s person decides to teach their dog/s to speak on their command they can then teach them to be quiet.

Then another person’s idea (that I have seen work) is that we can teach dogs a signal when we want them to be quiet. Then after waiting for them to give the correct response we then give them a tidbit. And then after we have repeated this sequence for a while, the barking dog will then realize the pattern and will get to know that if they see a certain signal they are to be quiet then they will get a tidbit.

The trainer may also find that their dog/s responses to their command will become quicker. And a trainer can also reward more tidbits for the quicker responses and less food for slower responses. Also some dogs learn that if they bark they’ll get tidbits as this is one way to teach speak on comand and so it is important for dog trainers to work out what they want to teach their dog/s.

As sometimes, what a dog learns from their trainer isn’t what their trainer is trying to teach them. And a example of this is if the trainer tells their dog to come the very instant it barks, then reward it for coming when called. As some people’s dogs (but not all of them), may think that they’re getting rewarded for their barking, then coming when called and may think to include the unwanted behaviour into the routine and this is why it is so important for trainers to learn about other ways to teach as there are a lot of different approaches to dog training.