[yorkietalkjilly]

Tibbe barks and barks when the doorbell rings but I want him to. The police told my sister after a break-in she had that a barking dog of any size is a good burglary deterrant as some of the people who come by the house to leave leaflets or for signatures for phony causes or something any reason - can deter them from returning another time to rob. So I let Tibbe bark his head off and then tell him "Quiet" just B4 opening the door. I trained him to bark on command for treats and then taught him to quieten on command for treats.

So he barks like a maniac until I tell him quiet and then he sits or lays down in his appointed spot while I open the door. He does tend to cheat lately and unches toward the door but that's because I stopped reinforcing his down/stay training when someone is at the door and we need some refresher courses. If you train your dog consistently and keep reinforcing the training in the areas that require it - and keep it happy and positive, a rewarding experience and you are his leader, he will respond and mind you 98% of the time and have an area or two that will likely have some consistent response failures if you are not always training in some form or fashion. For instance, Tibbe learned "Leave it/Drop it" and does is every single time - never fails to respond to that. He learned sit, lie down, rollover, sit up beg, etc., and he never fails to do those every time properly. He won't door dart. But unching toward the door when someone is there - that is a weakness for him and I need to always reinforce his training in that area. Sounds like your baby is a barker and once the teaching is done and he's learned to stop the barking and the problem resurfaces, start reinforcing that training and you'll have success again.

When teaching Tibbe not to bark, the noisey cans or clapping horns or things like that didn't work for him but telling him "quiet" and giving him a nice treat did. He learned to shut right up for the nice treat. I just used his usual kibble for treats but kept it in a special tupperware container that had some pieces of beef jerky in it to stink it up really good. He'll do anything to get a treat! Even stay quiet! So, now when someone is at the door and he's quieted after being told to, when the visitor leaves, I still give him a treat for being a quiet boy.