Teaching a Mini Alaskan Klee Kai in LA to Focus to Help Stop its Demand Barking

For this LA dog training session, we taught 1 year-old Miniature Alaskan Klee Kai Arrow to Focus and shared tips to help her feel less anxious around new people and hopefully stop barking at them.

Arrow started barking as soon as I came inside her home. I disagreed with her when he tried to jump up on me and then waited for her to settle down before I rewarded that sitting behavior. When a dog jumps up on a person who enters your home, it is often the dogs way of trying to let that person know that it thinks it is in charge.

I shared the number of tips to stop dogs from barking, but most of the session focused on addressing the root cause of this barking behavior. I think one of the guardians unintentionally caused Arrow to think that she needs to be protective or possessive over the human. This was likely a result of a lack of rules and structure combined with some confusion about the leader follower dynamic.

I showed the guardians how they can use operant conditioning to motivate the dog to offer more desirable behaviors. Rewarding the dog when it voluntarily offer is the behaviors he what is one of the easiest ways to modify dog behavior. I like to call this passive training.

I also showed the guardian how they can apply structure when they pet her. Asking a dog to do something before you pet it is a great way to help boost of self-esteem and confidence as well as motivate the dog to be more obedient in the future. These traits will go a long ways toward helping Arrow feel less anxious or needing to be so reactive to things she doesn’t like or disagrees with.

I also shared some secrets on how to exercise the dog, communicate more effectively and disagree with it in a way the dog understands.

One of the things I showed the guardians was a focus exercise. This is a great way to redirect a dog’s attention and also can reduce the production of cortisol in the dogs blood if you use this method. You can learn how to train your dog to focus by watching the free dog behavior training video below.

Teaching a dog to focus is pretty easy provided you practice a few times a day every day, while progressively increasing the duration and distractions. Once it becomes a learned response, it turns into a powerful tool that a human can use to stop a dog from reacting before they get a chance to get to worked up. Best of all, you dont have to specialize as a Mini Alaskan Klee Kai trainer to teach your dog to focus on demand.

However, in order for Arrow to stop acting protective around new people, it’s going to be important for the guardian to assume the leadership role through her actions. The more she pets with a purpose, enforces rules and is involved in teaching the dog new skills, the less the dog will see her as a subordinate or needing her protection.

To make sure the guardians were able to remember all of the highlights of this three hour in-home dog training session, we shot a roadmap to success video that you can watch below.