Tips to Stop Dogs From Barking When People are on the Phone

By: David Codr

Published Date: October 15, 2020

Larry and Dixie scaled - Tips to Stop Dogs From Barking When People are on the Phone

For this Omaha dog training session we worked with a pair of dogs, 11 year-old Laso Poodle mix Larry (left) and 13 year-old Westie mix Dixie, training them to not bark when their human gets on the phone.

Dixie is the more vocal of the two dogs; whimpering or whining to get attention and barking when her guardian gets on the phone. Many dogs bark when their owner is on the phone, this is the dog’s way of getting thier attention. And like many dog guardian’s Dixie’s mom would shush her when she barked while she was on a ph call. But any attention to dogs is rewarding, so this attempt to stop the dog from barking when her human was on the phone was actually reinforcing and rewarding the barking behavior.

Instead of trying to correct a dog from barking when you are on the phone, its much better to teach your dog that being quiet when you are on the phone is rewarding. You can learn how to train your dog to be quiet when you are on the phone by watching the free positive dog training video below.

This is an easy way to stop any dog from barking when you are on the phone. It just takes some practice and patience. Id like to see the guardian practice this secret to getting dogs to stop barking when we are on the phone 3 times a day for a week. If she gradually increases the duration for these “practice calls” it shouldn’t be long before the dogs are quiet when their guardian is on the phone.

Another issue was Larry’s habit of takng out his frustrations on Dixie physically going after her. Luckily nothing bad has happened, but it was obviously a concern for their guardian. We withnessed a little dust up when Dixie showed interest in our trainer Laura’s treat bag.

To stop this resource guarding issue, the guardian will need to learn to watch for warning signs from Larry. We went over what to watch for as well as show the guardian a targeting exercise that will allow her to redirect one dog to touch her hand and the other dog to touch her foot. Id like to see the guardian practice this exercise 3-4 times a day, in different locaitons, with about 10 treats each time, to develop a strong response.

We covered a number of other dog behavior tips in this in home Omaha dog training session. We sumaraze it all in the roadmap to success video below.

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This post was written by: David Codr