The ability to control your dog’s unwanted behavior, such as barking, is essential for every dog owner.
I am writing this post to give you insights on what to do when your dog doesn’t stop barking.
You see, most of my advice is proven to work on dogs that are gone way too far and barks uncontrollably.
But there are only two conditions that I want from you, for my advice to work for taming a barking dog.
Commitment and Patience.
As humans, the dog also takes some time and getting used to before that can change any habit. As it goes with us, the older the habit, the harder it is to change.
You’ve to keep that in mind.
By patience and commitment, I mean:
- Don’t lose your temper
- Be consistent with the actions that I’m about to tell you.
So now you know what’s required of you to do be able to succeed at this, let’s talk about why do dogs bark in the first place?
There are many different reasons why a dog would bark abnormally, most common of them are:
- Excitement
- Lack of activity
- Nervousness
- Confusion
- Feeling extra protective
- Sensing a threat within the territory(fake or otherwise)
- You see, the list above tells pretty much everything about what needs to be done.
But I still go ahead and break it down for you in a step by step actions that you can take.
So without further ado, here is what you need to do to:
Get your dog to stop barking.
Step 1 – Get your dog on some exercise routine
For dogs, who bark out of over-excitement and extra energy that goes unused, exercise is the perfect remedy. If you have time constraints, you can always hire a sitter, who’ll do it for you.
This exercise will eliminate any feelings of boredom and frustration and will calm down your blog.
Check out my article on why your dog needs exercise to find the benefits of it.
Also, if you want to go out of the box, then check out the list compiled by folks at WebMD that contains both mental and physical activities.
Once you get your dog involved in some exercise routine, you’ll notice that you don’t need to force your dog from stop doing the unwanted behavior.
They’ll do it voluntarily.
Step 2 – Use their instincts to your advantage
No one will disagree that dogs are inherently conditioned to be our companions and work with us.
They have these incredible qualities to subconsciously learn from us and be an integral part of our life.
If you dig up some history, you’ll discover that the dog is a very food-oriented animal. You can use this fact to your advantage whenever you need to tame your dog.
And for 90% of dogs, this trick works every single time.
Use a piece of meat that your dog loves, and it will make your job easier.
All you need to do is incentivize your dog for good behavior.
A good analogy to understand this is how a smart teacher offers a treat to his students for good behavior.
These treats will work as a bridge for the communication gap that occurs when the dog over-excited.
As soon as you have their attention, the job is half done.
The key here is to not being very demanding with your dog. Even if your dogs show you respect for a small amount of time, reward her with the treat.
And here is what to do when she starts barking again.
Step 3 – Ignore her to grab attention
Once she stops being the good girl and starts barking again, stop looking at her. Please ignore the fact she is barking.
In fact, don’t even look at her.
You want to make her crave for your attention. And as soon as she stops barking, show her some love and give her a treat.
This is where most people make mistakes.
What they would do is that they would try their best to ignore their dog, and after some time, they’ll give up. And then they start frowning on their dogs.
Such a behavior ingrains a pattern in your dog’s mind that they’ll need to bark a bit longer to grab your attention.
So you have to be patient. Let it take, however long it takes for barking to stop on its own.
Step 4 – Make her friends with whatever it is that is causing her to bark.
This is the trickiest part and the one that will demand some patience from your side.
One helpful analogy that comes to my mind is “Remember a Childs first hair cut” or “Remember the first day at school.”
Getting my point?
We start by getting them accustomed to whatever it is that we are getting our kids involved in.
We do it just the right amount. For example, we send our Childs to sit in preschools for 1 or 2 hours only.
And once they are comfortable, school becomes a normal thing.
Likewise, if your dog barks at a passer-by, you need to gradually start her to socialize a bit.
If she barks a stranger, as soon as the stranger appears, offer her a treat and try to distract her.
Very soon, she’ll recognize and connect that unwanted thing with their much-loved reward.
It could be food or play.
Which is a good thing for what we are trying to achieve.