Training mean teaching and correcting never punishing. You have to practice and be consistent. Use a normal tone of voice. Yelling will only frighten your dog. Believe it or not it is easy to teach them to be quiet, if they understand
barking is a choice. Dogs bark mostly as a
reaction to something, an empty water bowl, another dog in sight and so on. But barking can quickly become a bad habit too. For the lessons you will need a water bottel set on stream, not mist, filled with plain water. Treats. Make ahead a little bowl of tiny rice sized treats (I like using boiled chicken, boiled chicken livers, turkey hot dogs. It is better to have several kinds of treats in the same bowl, that way the doggie is not sure what they will get.) Lesson 1 : Start by doing something you know will make her bark like showing her a treat, toy, her food bowl etc. When she barks say Talk (or Bark what ever feels right to you) and Treat. Now tell her Talk, and when she barks, treat, praise, pet . Do this about 4 or 5 times. What you are teaching her is that she can bark
for you and get a treat. Lesson 2 : When she
barks on her own let her bark 3 times, then say firmly
Enough. If she keeps barking let her do three, then say
Enough. Look sad and frown and If she keeps barking after three barks, say Enough and squirt her with water. What you are teaching is barking is ok if you tell her to talk, or she can give an alert to tell you, hey mom some one is walking in our yard, the kitty has my toy etc, but she must stop, when you say Enough. You will check it out and take care of things. Her job is
only bark three times to alert. Repeat and Practice this lesson for at least 5 days. It may not click in her mind right away, but she will get it.
Enough is an excellent Word to use, because our face looks like a Mama dog snarling, it also sounds like a doggy growl. (No will work too.) After she understands Talk and Enough. Practice on short walks, if she barks at another dog, say Enough and quickly turn around and go the other way (Flexi leashes are not good when doing training lessons.) When she is quiet. Praise with
Good Quiet and treat. Some stubborn doggies will require the PL (pack leader or parent leader) to cary the water spray bottle, on a few walks too. It is ok to use the tools that work .
She will quickly learn Enough means stop what you are doing right now. I only use the words Good Quiet when they are quiet, it is not something I want them to do, it is what they are already doing by being Good Quiet. Later when she has more maturity and self control You will be able to tell her good quiet before she barks on walks and she will stay quiet. After she has the lessons down pat continue to treat once in awhile that keeps her interested. Hope this helps you
