How to Stop a Dachshund From Barking at Strangers with a Focus Exercise

For this Omaha dog training session we shared tips on how to stop a Dachshund from barking at strangers. We used a simple focus exercise to help 4-year-old Miniature Dachshund Herman stop excessively barking. This included barking at people and other dogs, like his roommate, 9-month-old Otto.

How to Stop a Dachshund from Barking at Strangers

The dogs were behind a baby gate when I arrived for our session, but I could hear them barking. Both pups seemed upset that someone new was in the home. When I came around the corner and saw them in the baby gate, some redirected aggression kicked in.

Clearly the dogs were stressed and the nuisance barking was an offshoot of that. To stop a dog from barking, start early. Create a healthy leader-follower relationship with your dog.

After sharing some dog behavior tips, I was ready to show the guardians a helpful exercise. This exercise is great for dogs that bark too much. It is called the focus exercise.

Teaching a dog to focus on their human rather than external stimulus is a great way to stop unwanted barking.

Easy Tips to Stop a Dog From Barking

When a Dachshund, or any dog, shows signs of anxiety, they react to small sounds and situations with stress. This anxiety comes from Herman feeling responsible for the safety of their guardians. They do not always listen to it.

This stress causes high levels of cortisol. Cortisol is a hormone that triggers the body’s fight-or-flight response. It can lead to physical symptoms like rapid breathing and a faster heart rate. If a dog stays stressed for too long, they could even develop symptoms similar to PTSD.

To help reduce a dog’s stress, we recommended the focus exercise. The goal is to get the dog to look at their human. This helps release calming hormones like oxytocin and serotonin.

We used treats to guide the dog’s eyes and reward him for making eye contact. Over time, a dog is trained to hold their gaze longer, and their guardians use a cue like “focus” to signal the desired behavior.

Once an anxious dog, like Herman learns this basic exercise, the training can be expanded to environments with more distractions, such as the yard or during walks. The dog is encouraged to stay focused even when there are other animals or sounds around. The dog can also be slowly desensitized to things they find stressful, like children, by pairing these stimuli with treats and positive experiences.

Throughout this process, consistency and patience are key. By gradually introducing distractions and rewarding the dog for staying calm and focused, a pup learns to reduce their anxiety and respond better to stressful situations.

Herman’s guardians should practice this exercise a few times each day for a week. They will gradually increase the delay until they can focus for 15 seconds.

I’m hoping that the tips we covered in this in-home dog training session stop the barking problem. You don’t need to be a professional Dachshund trainer to do this. I believe the guardians can teach these barking dogs to stop and focus on them instead.

To help the guardians remember everything, we recorded a roadmap to success video that you can watch below.