Tips to Stop a Pair of Dogs From Barking at People Passing By The Yard

For this Waterloo dog training session we share tips to stop dogs from charging people who pass by the yard to help 5 year-old Keeshound Rocko and his room mate 2 year-old Golden Retriever mix Bailey.

The dogs live next to a family with a child who likes to pull a wagon around the front of the house and often lingers when the dogs bark which only amplifies the dog barking problem. I wouldn’t say the kid was teasing the dogs, but it certainly appeared that they stopped in front on purpose and lingered while the dogs charged and barked at them.

When you have a dog that barks at people passing by your home, one of the first things to do is avoid having them out when people pass by. This can be a challenge when you don’t have a fenced in back yard. Confidence is a factor here as well as both dogs are lacking a bit of confidence for different things, more Bailey than Rocko, but still. Insecurity is often big factor when it comes to unwanted dog barking.

I recommended the guardians increase the dog’s exercise, especially prior to being let out in the front yard. Exercise will not stop dogs from charging at people, but it will make it easier.

I also suggested some rules and structure to the dog’s daily lives. Often we think of rules and limits as negatives, but for dogs, humans enforcing these is both comforting and helps them see the humans acting as the leaders.

If your dog barks at people passing by the front yard, you need to train the dogs to listen to you when in that location. There are a few ways to do this, but I decided to start out with some basic clicker training. While clicker training itself won’t stop a dog from rushing the property line, it will help the dogs practice listening to and obeying the humans in the yard. You can watch me teach dogs to listen and pay attention in the front yard by watching the free positive dog training video below.

If the guardians practice this exercise a few times a day, first inside, then in the yard, they should notice the dogs are paying more attention and can be called away easier. Combined with the other things we covered in this session the dog barking and charging should decrease or make it easier for the humans to call the dogs off.

If the exercise, structure, rules and obedience training don’t stop the barking problem, we may need to set up a follow up session in a month or so to do some desensitization or counterconditioning to prevent the dogs from barking or running at people passing by.

To help the humans remember all the positive dog training tips we shared in this in home Waterloo dog training session, we recorded a roadmap to success video fro the guardians.