Free Tips to Help a Dog Stop Barking at Everything

For this Omaha training session we had one goal; dog stop barking. Sophie is a 6 year-old Havanese who barks at everything!

When I got to the session, Sophie quickly showed me how well she could bark. This happened right as soon as I rang the doorbell. I could tell that this dog barking problem had multiple levels. Dogs bark for many reasons.  When you have a dog barking problem, you first need to determine why they feel the need to bark in the first place.
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This was more than a territorial dog bark. I’m guessing the over barking started that way, but when people didn’t listen, Sophie just turned up the volume. When that didn’t work, she kept at it and has operated that way for so long that it has become a bit of a habit. This is frequently how many a dog barking problem starts.

If you want to stop barking, removing the reason the dog barks can help a lot. This has always been the case when I have been successful in stopping dog barking. In those cases the dog learned to stop barking because we created a positive association with whatever the dog was barking at.

When I sat down with her guardian to talk about Sophie’s barking, I noticed some common unwanted dog behaviors. These showed me that Sophie felt that she needed to defend the house, aka territorial dog barking. A lack of structure made this cute Havanese dog think she was in charge of home security.

How to Help a Dog Stop Barking

To help Sophie with her barking problem, I suggested some rules and boundaries to help her develop some impulse control and change how she see’s her humans. These should help her see them as having things under control. A key thing to do when you have a dog with a barking problem.

Sophie parents wont stop dog barking until she no longer feels the need or stops thinking its working. You need to help them adopt a different behavior when you have a dog with a barking problem. Encouraging them to pick up toys or lick a lick mat when a barking opportunity arrives is an easy way to help a dog with a barking problem.

To a dog, barking works. They bark when they see someone approaching and eventually the person walks away. While the person was just passing by, to the dog, it was their barking that CAUSED the person to walk away.

Removing Sophie’s access to looking out the window by covering the bottom 1/3rd will help her learn better dog behavior. This will also greatly reduce her barking as she wont see the dogs walk away. This is one of the first steps you should take when you are rehabilitiaitng a territorial dog.

Next I suggested a number of other rules and ways to enforce them. Sophie’s guardian must demonstrate through her actions that can be counted on as a leader. Enforcing rules consistently can help dogs adopt more of a follower mindset as they watch the human follow through. Dogs respond to what they see us do, so demonstrating we are putting our money where our mouth is makes a big difference.

While consistently enforcing rules is important, rewarding desired behavior within 3 seconds helps a ton as well. This is why I spent so much time discussing the importance of celebrating desired behaviors. The more you give a dog attention for the things you want, the less of a dog barking problem you will have.

Tips for a Dog Barking Problem

To help Sophie pay attention to her guardians better, I wanted to go over an easy exercise they can use to distract her when she starts acting like a territorial dog. Its a simple attention exercise, but I like to teach it operantly. That’s a fancy way of saying I dont bribe the dog to look at me. Instead I wait for them to do it on their own.

If you have a dog with a barking problem and want to be able to get their attention to dog stop barking, take a minute to check out the free positive dog training video below where I go over how to train a dog to focus on cue.

I love helping a dog with a barking problem by teaching the focus exercise with a marker word.

By itself, this exercise won’t help a dog stop barking, but its a great way to distract them away from anything they may bark at. This works even better if you can see something the dog is going to bark at and distract it away from that thing by looking at you.

We call this “management,” and its a great way to stop dogs from practicing unwanted behaviors like barking.

Another way to stop dog barking is to create a positive association of whatever it is they are barking at. Lets say your dog barking problem is when someone knocks at your door. To stop dog barking in that situation, I like to use counter conditioning.

The idea is to pair something pleasant or desirable to your dog with the arrival of the thing that causes your dog to bark. The secret is to make the thing that makes your dog bark so small that it doesnt actually woof. I identify this by lowering the volume, increasing the distance or turning down the volumen of the thing that causes the bark.

Once you find that, you dog stop barking by recreating the thing (stimulus), then give the dog a treat if it doesn’t bark. Repeat this process a few times and end on a success. Maybe 6-12 practice reps in a row.

Then recreate the exercise a little while later. Every 5th repetition or so I increase the intensity a tiny bit to progress. Over time the dog starts to think they thing they used to bark at is actually a good thing. Its a wonderful way to help a dog stop barking because its something the dog chooses to do.

Another place they had a dog barking problem was when they put Sophie in a crate. This could be stress or demand barking or a combination of both.

I asked the guardian to put her in a kennel so I could get an example of her dog barking problem. They pretended to leave so I could hear her barking while she was in the kennel.

As soon as we closed the garage door, Sophie started barking. I don’t think she stopped until we came back a few minutes later.

Prior to my visit, Sophie’s guardian had been letting her out of the kennel while she was barking. This can confuse a dog and make them think that barking made the human come into the room.

When a dog gets what it wants for unwanted behavior, it can also get confused into thinking the unwanted behavior is what gets them what they want. This is one of the most common mistakes people when they have a dog barking problem.

I recommended the guaridans use the counterconditioning approach to her barking at the garage door too. They may need to practice this with Sophie on the other side of the house to lower the intensity of the garage door sound. But if they do, then prograssively move her closer to the sound of the door opening, they should find thier dog stop barking within a week or so.

I spent a few minutes showing the guardian how to add some structure to letting Sophie out of the kennel. We call these kennel games and they work because it helps creat a positive associaiton withe crate while also helping the dog practice not barking. Not only did this help the dog stop barking, it resulted in a calmer, more balanced energy too.

By the end of the session, we werre successful in our mission to dog stop barking. But before I added her to the list of clients I helped who had a dog with a barking problem, I wanted to make sure they could remember all the things we covered, especially the solution to thier dog barking problem.

Sophie had learned some impulse control and to stop barking when corrected. She also barked less at things that used to make her bark non stop. By setting rules and boundaries and sticking to them, we made a lot of progress of our goal to eliminate her dog barking problem.

We wrapped up the session by filming a Roadmap to Success video which you can watch below.