Tips to Stop Dogs from Barking at People

In this Omaha dog training session, we worked with two great French Bulldogs: Bowie (left) and Wizard. We shared tips on how to stop dogs from barking.

Since Bowie sometimes gets too excited or nibbles on fingers when visitors come, I asked his guardian to bring him outside to meet me. Outdoor greetings are much easier for dogs due to the distractions and the environment not being so closed in.

I had left a trail of treats from the front door to where I was sitting outside of the dogs point of view. I suggest that the guardians invite friends they haven’t seen in a while to come by and recreate this greeting.

Dog behavior modification is very much a numbers game. You have to repeat things a lot and most people try to train their dogs in the moment. The best way to change the dog’s behavior is to put it into situations that are specifically crafted for that dog.

If you invite someone over to help with your dog, you can treat them like a guest. This way, you can give them instructions while also hanging out and catching up with your friends.

Once we got inside, Wizard, also known as Wiz, felt comfortable with me, since his roommate Bowie wasn’t acting crazy. If the guardians can set up several greetings that are similar, the dogs can learn to relax. This way, they won’t get so excited that they jump up and nip at people.

I suggested that the guardians invite one of our level one trainers to help them. The trainer can show them how to use the relaxation protocol. This will help the dogs stay calm on their dog bed. The dogs can remain relaxed even when guests arrive, kids play, or someone knocks on the door.

How to Stop Dogs from Barking

One of the dog behavior problems the owners wanted help with was Bowie’s barking. He barked at construction workers and visitors to the home. To stop a dog from barking at people, you need to find out why the dog barks. It is important to address the root cause instead of just punishing the dog for barking.

Many people believe that spraying a dog with water, shaking a can of coins, or yelling will stop barking. They think that spanking or other punishments will also work. But a dog that is barking is trying to communicate something.

If you want to share something important, being told to be quiet won’t stop you. You will still try to help them understand your message. Same thing happens with dogs.

Instead, I used a positive reinforcement based way to stop dog barking; counterconditioning. Counterconditioning a dog to stop barking means showing the dog what it was barking at. You do this at a low intensity.

You can achieve this by adding distance, slowing down, or lowering the volume. This way, the dog does not react or bark.

After the stimulus happens, the dog gets a treat – provided it didn’t bark. After practicing that a few times, you can increase the intensity level a small amount and repeat the exercise. If you don’t get greedy, the dog starts to see the thing it was barking at as a source of them getting something good. Over time, this conditions the dog to stop reacting to whatever it was barking at.

You can learn to use counterconditioning to stop a dog from barking. Check out the free positive dog training video below. This works for all dogs and people, even if you are not a professional French Bulldog trainer.

It was great to see how quickly this exercise was able to stop the dog barking. Stopping dog barking this way is easy, it just needs a lot of practice. I recommended the guardians ask one of their workers to help them at least once a day. Spending 1-2 minutes on this barking prevention exercise a few times a day will accelerate the canine rehabilitation process.

They should also go through their phones and ask friends to come over to visit and help them practice the exercise when they first arrive. Fixing dog behavior problems is all about repetition. Creating situations to practice is wise and can really accelerate your progress.

In the meantime, the guardians will want to do all they can to stop a dog from barking at people. By limiting the situations where Bowie barks at people, and practicing the counterconditioning exercise to teach a dog to stop barking, the guardians will progress twice as fast.

More Tips to Stop Dog Barking

Exercising Bowie before practice can help set him up for success, they will just need to make sure he has a good 10-15 minutes of rest between exercise and counterconditioning. But exercising before guests arrive or before other activities that cause the dog to bark can really help.

I shared a number of other Dog Behaviorist tips and tricks in this in-home Omaha dog training session. To help the amazing guardians remember them all, we recorded a roadmap to success video that you can watch below.