Teaching your dog to “speak” or bark on command is not only a crowd-pleaser but also encourages them to ‘think’, and the better they learn to interact with us, the easier life they live. Moreover, teaching your dog to speak first you should know how to teach your dog to speak. and it improves your overall connection with your pet. When you connect with your dog better, you can teach them anything, even Math! Yes, you read it right. Some dogs’ve been trained to solve single-digit addition problems. Also, to train your pet with all dog tricks to teach, start teaching your buddy to speak because it improves your timing and connection with your dog.
How to Train a Dog to Speak?
Remember, not all dogs are out rightly into speaking, some dogs are naturally more quiet. You need to understand that every dog is unique and takes time to learn new things. Reserved dogs usually take more time to get through this training, while more vocal dogs learn it quickly. But vocal and energetic dogs might start barking all the time once they realize that barking gets them treats. That is why you must teach your dog when to speak and stop. Following are the tips for how to train a dog to speak. With these easy tricks to teach your dog to speak you and your pet will be happy.
#1 Lure Them With the Treat
Pick a good treat, the one that your dog loves the most. Give them a little bit of it to get them hooked on the taste of the reward they would be getting for being a good dog. Then keep the treat in your hand, and let them know that you intend to give them, but don’t reward your dog this time. Hold it away from them, and let them figure out what is stopping you from treating them.
#2 Your Dog will Take Time
Your dog will take time. They will try to figure out why you are not giving them a treat now, it can take 5-10 minutes, which might feel like an eternity while waiting, but it’s just a few minutes, and you need to be patient with your dog. They’ll try to do everything, from lying flat on the floor to ignoring the treat, they might try to show you other dog tricks you have taught them, but you need to stay focused and keep luring them with the treat.
#3 Create Small Thresholds
They will do their best efforts to understand what you want them to do, and you are supposed to reward the smallest efforts like a timid bark or even just a growl, give them the treat. When they start growling a few times in a row for the treat, then keep the treat away from them, but in front of their eyes, unless that perfect bark comes out.
#4 Be Encouraging
Tricks like barking on command work when your dog really wants to participate in the training, thus the reinforcement works better than the punishment here. When they bark properly for the treat, start giving them the larger portions of the treat. Keep repeating dog commands, and above all, try to be really encouraging and appreciative while rewarding your pet with dog treats.
#5 Introduce the Word
The best way to make them learn the word on which they are supposed to speak is to say that word just before they bark, or while they’re barking. This word can be anything you want like ‘speak’ or ‘bark’, and keep repeating the whole process of training dog over and over again.
3 Easy Tricks to Train your Dog to Be Quiet
One of the most common complaints from dog owners is that their dog won’t stop barking. If you’re struggling to get your dog to be quiet, there are a few things for how to train your dog not to bark. You can do to train them to be quiet on command. With a little patience and consistency, you can have a well-behaved dog who knows when it’s appropriate to bark and when it’s time to be quiet. Follow these tricks to teach dogs how to be quiet.
#1 Make your Dog Know
The first step is to make your dog know that they are not going to get rewarded for barking unless you specifically ask them to bark. You can do it by ignoring their unsolicited barking, and when they stop barking, treat them clearly saying the word ‘quiet’ or ‘stop’, or whatever word you want to pair with this behavior.
#2 Reward the Small Efforts
Learning two behavior patterns simultaneously can be exhausting for some dogs, and they might not be able to understand why you are not rewarding them now, even though they are barking. Here you need to be patient, and reward the small efforts, like reward them for the brief silence in mid of their barks. They will gradually start to interpret that you want them to stop barking, and when you want them to stop barking.
#3 Repeat
Repeat it several times, say quiet when you want to stop a dog from barking, and pair it with a treat, say speak when you want them to bark, and pair it with a treat as well. By doing this, you are glossing your connection with your canine best friend.
How to Control your Dog’s Excessive Barking?
But what to do if your dog barks all the time, and is naturally too vocal and hyper-energetic? And you need not teach them to bark at all, but you want them to know that you would like the quieter version of them more. Then foremost you need to understand why your dog is barking, there can be several reasons why your dog barks excessively, most common among those reasons are ‘territorial protection’, when someone walks into what they consider to be their territory, they start barking; other reason that might trigger excessive barking can be fear, attention seeking, boredom and in rare cases, it dogs can bark when left alone because of separation anxiety.
You can stop dog barking to some extent among high energy canines by playing fetch with them for 20 minutes every day, and by investing in the best chew toys for dogs and dog fetch toys for them. For dogs with separation anxiety, you can counter excessive barking by taking them for a walk before going to work every day.
Conclusion
Barking comes naturally to dogs, some dogs bark a lot, some do not even let out a growl, but with this humane dog training, you can teach your dog to communicate better with you. It is not only about a trick that your dog will learn, and that you might show later to your peers, it is about your connectivity with your pet. This connectivity will help you and your pet to deepen the whole relationship. Dogs in particular are superficially intelligent animals, and with good training and love, you can make their lives better.