Sharing a Tip to Stop a Dog From Barking at Sounds Outside the Home

For this Santa Monica dog training session, we worked with a pair of Cocker Spaniels, Rio and Luca; sharing tips to stop a dog from barking at sounds outside the door.

The dog’s guardian met me outside as she was taking them out to do some business when I arrived. It’s a good thing that she was outside as Luca barks at people who come into his home. I used some of the tricks that I picked up as Santa Monica’s dog behavior expert to become buddies with him before we headed upstairs.

I went over a number of Dog Behavior fundamentals with his guardian. We introduced a marker word, did a little hand targeting, discussed dog’s body language, cut off signals and consent, before exploring the importance of building a dog’s confidence through celebrating desired behaviors and teaching them manners.

I go over these dog behavior fundamentals with almost all of my clients because they are usually contributing factors to their dog’s behavior. My job as a dog behavior expert is to show people what they have done to contribute to their dog’s behavior issues as well as how to fix them.

How to Stop a Dog from Barking at Sounds Outside

We created a set up where I could show the dog’s guardians some tips to stop a dog from barking at sounds. Many people try to correct or modify their dog’s behavior in the moment. This is usually the worst time to try to change a dog’s behavior.

As West LA’s dog behavior expert I have learned that creating scenarios where I can control the elements allows me to make much faster progress when fixing dog behavior problems.

I handed my phone to the dog’s guardian so that she could film me as I showed her the secret to stopping dogs from barking at sounds they hear. We called this sound sensitivity in dogs and it is a pretty common dog behavior problem. If your dog barks when it hears sounds outside of the home, you should definitely check out the free positive dog training video below.

By starting off with a very quiet sound in the hallway and providing a positive reinforcement at the same time, we were able to help Luca not bark when he heard sounds outside the door.

It will be important for the dog’s guardian to practice this often. In a perfect world, I’d like to see her practicing once or twice a day in 2 to 3 minute practice sessions max. You want to stack positive experiences on top of other positive experiences while simultaneously keeping the dog away from any scenario that helps it practice the unwanted behavior. This is the foundation of modern dog behavior modification. And I hear it works pretty good for humans too.

After we filmed that video, I showed the guardians a bucket game exercise that we teach in our puppy classes. This is a great impulse control exercise that helps the dog practice being calm when food is present. I recommended the guardian practice this exercise with both dogs (separately) at least once a day until she’s able to put the bowl on the floor with the dog sitting and waiting. Once this is the case, then she can assign a fun command word for each dog to eat their food like “meatball,” sushi,” or “lasagna!”

This may have been one of the longest dog behavior sessions I’ve ever donebut the time went by quick. I really enjoyed spending time with the dogs and their guardian. Thats the beauty of my job. Loving what you do means you dont think about it as work.

Since we covered so much in this in-home Santa Monica dog training session, I stepped into the other room to film a roadmap to success summary video to help her remember at all. You can check it out by watching the video below.