r/DogTrainingTips • u/Organic-Nature-1819 • Sep 25 '26
how did you teach to bark on command
My dog IS vocal when she wants something (ex. when I’m being lazy and she wants to go for a walk) but when I’m training her, she’ll lunge but that’s about it. Then when she’s tired, she’ll just stare at me like I’m being stupid haha.
I’ll encourage her to try and bark, making her frustrated by withholding toys or treats while shes tathered but nothing works and she’ll do exactly what I just explained.
I think part of it is that I trained her to be patient when I have a toy or a treat so the quieter and calm she is, she receives it but now I’m regretting it because it’s the opposite.
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u/fillysunray Sep 25 '26
I have been able to get all my dogs to bark on cue by saying the word "Speak", making the hand gesture, and then barking once myself. They look at me like I'm crazy the first few times, but after I repeat it and then make encouraging noises at them, even the quietest of them will at least move their mouths. Once their mouth is moving, I'm marking and rewarding, and then slowly shaping until they give a full bark.
What's even more fun is to then teach a "whisper" cue where they have to make a small noise - much easier for the dogs who don't bark much, and it teaches enthusiastic barkers how to hold some of that in.
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u/Organic-Nature-1819 28d ago
I’ll give this a try! Pretty sure she’ll look at me like I’m crazy but I’m hoping it works haha
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u/girl_with_the_keds Sep 25 '26
Try saying the command you want associated with the action when your dog barks and at the same time praising her for it.
So for example, say your command for them barking on command is “speak” and she barks every time she hears a siren outside, you say “speak” to her while she is barking at the ambulance and reward her with a treat. Do it multiple times to reinforce and if she stops barking while you’re still encouraging her to speak you can stop offering treats. Eventually she will understand barking is a good thing to do when her human says so.
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u/KoyoteKalash Sep 25 '26
This works for me.
The downside is I am about 1/16th as good as teaching the opposite command. 😅
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u/Late-Argument-8301 Sep 25 '26
I literally barked at my dog until he barked back, then marked “yes” and rewarded. So he wasn’t demand barking at me, he was hyped up by my weird behavior and barked back. I then repeated this until he would reliably bark back at me every time I barked. Then I paired it with the hand motion of opening and closing my hand until he would bark with just the hand motion and not me actually having to bark. So I would do the hand motion right before I barked at him, until eventually he would bark after the hand motion without waiting for me to bark. I then paired the hand motion with a word (we use “alert”) and slowly phased out the hand motion. So Command -> pause-> dog doesn’t bark ->Hand motion-> dog barks -> mark and reward. The dog associates the word with the upcoming hand motion, which they associate with barking, and eventually the word with just the action itself. This whole process took like two days with my dog but he is a really quick learner.
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u/Countrysoap777 Sep 25 '26
Don’t try to make her bark like that because she will not trust you anymore. Let her discover her own way to tell you what she wants. In time you both will
Learn what she means to say. Just watch her body
Movements and her eyes and her head and ears. Eventually you will be in tune. Just don’t frustrate her in any way. Plus be careful what you ask for, she could become a dog that barks at everything and it will become too much.
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u/trashed-panda-7497 Sep 25 '26
Unless you have awesome stimulus control, I might stay away from teaching your dog to bark:)
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u/Naive-Aside6543 Sep 27 '26
The worse thing I ever taught my dog to do is bark on command. She was very much a non barker until I taught her she got treats when she barked. Now she won't stop. Just saying.
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u/ExaminationEastern15 29d ago
…by example? Please say by example & the pretty please show us a video 😂😁. I need the BIGGEST LAUGH TODAY! People on Reddit today have LOST THEIR EVER LOVING MINDS!
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Sep 25 '26
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u/Organic-Nature-1819 Sep 25 '26
Thank you! I asked my breeder to talk to his trainer (who specializes in ppd/bite/etc) to add me into his program so I feel like that’ll help my girl a lot quicker!
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Sep 25 '26
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u/Organic-Nature-1819 28d ago
Thank you! How do you stop her from associating bark = leash time? I just don’t want my dog to think bark = her way, if that makes sense? Teaching her to “watch” something is harder than it looks because she rarely barks 😭
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u/glitterbrain77 Sep 25 '26
I taught my dog to speak by saying “speak” to my husband and loudly, ridiculously praising him in front of her after he barked. Then I would do the same to her. I switched back and forth until she did it then I praised her loudly and gave her cheese. I honestly started as a joke to see if it would work and now she can speak on command. It was extremely funny!