Teaching Some West LA Dogs to Stop Barking

For this in-home West LA dog training session, we helped 3 year-old Maltipoo Sage and his 5 roommates (Oliver, AJ, Lady, Sage, Zoyla and Brooklyn from left) stop barking on walks.

If you want to stop your dog from barking on walks, you need to identify why they are barking in the first place. In Sage’s case, I believe she’s barking to make things go away and to get attention from her guardians.

A Creative Way to Stop Dog Barking

If your dog is barking at people or dogs when you are walking them, training it to do other activities can be a very effective way of stopping dog barking. Earlier in the session, I had gone over marker words and using a clicker.  I decided to use that lesson to teach this little dog with a big bark that there are other things to do on walks besides barking.

You can learn an easy way to stop your dog from barking when you take it on a walk by watching the free positive dog training video below.

The great thing about this method of stopping a dog from barking at people or dogs on walks is that anyone can do it. You don’t have to be a professional Maltipoo dog trainer to use this positive dog training approach.

Shortly after we shot this video, I coached Sage’s guardian through the technique. It took a couple practices before the human and dog were working hand-in-hand. It will be important for Sage’s guardian to remember to use the positive interrupter kissing sound. They can also use some hand targeting to get the dog to come back to her instead of pulling the leash.

Afterwords we went back inside so that I could show the guardians some basic dog cues. It will be very important for all of the members of the family to practice these exercises with the dogs until they can all sit, lay down, sit up and stand with a verbal cue. Since there are so many dogs in the home, practicing with each dog once a day for 1 to 2 minutes consistently for a week to 10 days should do the trick.

Dogs who like to bark are often insecure. Training a dog to do different tricks or exercises is a great way to help them practice a little bit of self-control and develop more self-esteem which are both helpful when you have a dog barking problem.

To help the guardians remember all of the dog behavior tips I shared in this West LA in-home dog training session, we recorded a roadmap to success video that you can check out below.