Sharing Some Tips to Stop a Venice Beach Dog From Barking at Sounds

For this Venice Beach dog and puppy training session, we worked with 3 month-old mixed breed Korra and 7 year-old Parson’s Russell Rad; using counterconditioning to stop him from barking at sounds outside his home.

We spent the bulk of the session going over tips that will help both the puppy and adult dog. Giving them attention when they do desired behaviors, making sure they are mentally and physically stimulated, communicating clearly and providing structure will all help the dogs feel more secure and see their humans providing them with a safe environment.

One of the primary issues the guardians wanted to work on was the dog barking at sounds outside of the home. As one of Los Angeles dog behavior experts, I learned a long time ago that when it comes to stopping a dog from barking, it’s key to find out why the dog feels the need to bark in the first place. Is it scared, territorial, excited, alerting, etc. Knowing the why is crucial to fixing a dog barking problem.

Many dog trainers mistakingly focus on the symptom, in this case barking. Some try to punish the dog or distract them, but that approach rarely stops the dog barking problem for good. Bark collars punish all barks, not just the one’s you really dont like. They also cause frustration can increase a dog’s reason for barking as its still there and now the dog cant communicate with a bark – often causing it to move to another, usualy far worse behavior (soiling, chewing, aggression, etc).

I prefer to use counterconditioning to stop the dog from barking at sounds outside of their home. This is an easy way to stop dog barking because it helps the dog develop a positive association to the sound. The end result is instead of barking at a sound, the dog looks at it, or in this case, hears it as an indicator that they are about to be rewarded. Anyone can do this, you don’t have to be a professional Parsons Russell Terrier dog trainer to do it.

You can learn how to use counter conditioning to put a stop to a dog barking problem by watching the free positive dog training video below.

This secret to stopping dog barking is far superior to using a bark collar, sonic device or punishing the dog for barking like squirting it with water or throwing a can of change near it to startle with a loud sound. Any type of punishment or retributive action is only going to cause the dog to feel frustrated, anxious or insecure. These are all traits that will generally increase dog barking, not get it to stop.

I advised the guardians to make a list of all of the sounds that the dogs bark at so they can work on them one at a time. In some situations they should be able to re-create the sounds on their own, in other situations they may need to record the audio of certain sounds such as the trash truck, etc. This will allow them to use this trick to stop dog barking by precisely controlling the stimulus.

We finished up the session by doing a puppy Headstart session to make sure that the guardians got Korra off on the right foot. Preventing a puppy from developing a dog behavior problem is far easier than stopping a practice behavior in an adult dog.

We will send the guardians the lessons we cover in our puppy classes in the midwest via email, but they also need to set up playdates with puppies every week. Regular play dates with a variety of dogs, treat outs given often when needed aloow puppies to get the socializaiton they so desperately need as a young pup.

After sharing all of these puppy and dog behavior tips, we wrapped up this in home Venice Beach dog training session by filming a roadmap to success summary video.