Training an LA Dog to Stop Barking at People

For this Los Angeles dog training session we helped 5 year-old Maltese Terrier mix Walter (Who was adopted through our friends at Mae Day Rescue) stop barking and feeling the need to defend his humans and their home.

I got to see Walter’s barking and territorial behavior when I arrived for this in home dog training session.

We started out by going over Walter’s day to day routine which is when I learned that he didn’t really have much structure in place. Its not uncommon to see a dog without any rules in place, especially when Im working with a rescue dog.

Many humans tend to think that removing rules is a great way to help the dog feel more relaxed. But a lack of rules and structure often causes a dog to think it needs to assume the leadership position.

I shared a number of dog training secrets to help shift what I like to call the leader follower dynamic. It will be important for Walter to see and respect his guardians as leaders in order to stop some of his problems; especially his nuisance barking and territorial behavior.

After showing his humans several positive dog training tips and ways to reward Walter for desired behaviors, I turned my attention to the most pressing issue, dog barking.

Ironically, the first step in training a dog to stop barking is to teach it to bark on command. I share this dog training tip as well as how to transition into training a dog to be quiet in the dog training video below.

Walter’s guardians will need to pick the best times to practice this exercise to avoid this barking behavior which has upset his neighbors. That’s why I spent the first half of this at home dog training session showing the humans how to act like leaders (in the dog’s eyes).

The more the humans assume the leadership position, the less of a need Walter will feel to bark at strangers or sounds outside of his home.

Another option I suggested to stop dog barking, was to use Counterconditioning to create a positive association with sounds outside of his home. Counterconditioning is a positive dog training technique used by many of the best dog behaviorist in LA. I promised his guardians I would include a link to a video that covered this technique in this write up.

We wrapped up the session by shooting a roadmap to success video covering the dog training tips I shared with his guardians during this LA dog training session.