Some Free Tips to Stop a MaeDay Rescue Dog’s Barking Habit

For this Los Angeles Dog Psychology session we helped a 10 year old Mae Day Rescue dog, Melvin a 10 year-old Min Pin (pictured here on the left with his new roomie Bruce), teaching Melvin the quiet command and sharing tips to stop dog barking.

Melvin was only adopted into his new home a few days ago. I got hooked up with his new guardians through LA’s best dog saving organization, MaeDay Dog Rescue.

Melvin did quite a bit of barking when I came into the home. It was partially territorial barking, part alert barking and part habit im guessing. When you have a rescue dog that barks, its often something they have done so much it becomes a default behavior and my dog behaviorist experience told me that was what was going on here.

I ignored the barking and waited for the intensity to lessen a bit before redirecting Melvin to a bully stick. Redirecting a dog is a great way to stop dog barking. Verbally chastising a dog is not. This is a common mistake people make when it comes to stopping dog barking.

Another secret to stopping dog barking is to teach a dog the quiet command. I decided to use some clicker training to help with this dog barking problem. You can watch as I teach Melvin to stop his barking in the free positive dog training video below.

Melvin is one smart dog. Within minutes his barking stopped or slowed down greatly. He started to sit instead of barking for attention (we call this demand barking) and give me great optimism that the humans will be able to put a stop to his nuisance barking behavior for good. Best of all, you don’t have to be a professional Min Pin dog trainer to teach a dog to stop barking. Anyone can do it!

To help the humans remember all the rest of the dog behavior tips I shared in this in home LA dog training session, we recorded a roadmap to success video.