Why Is My Dog Not Barking At Strangers
If your puppy is now older than 6 months and still doesn’t bark at strangers, you may be worried, especially if he is a guard dog. But I can assure you, there’s nothing to worry about.
Barking is your dog’s instinct, if he’s not doing it yet, you just have to give him a little boost and let him do the rest. You could introduce your dog to another puppy that does bark. He’ll pick up the habit from his new friend and start doing it himself in no time.
[2] Do puppies go through a barking “stage”?
Puppies go through different stages of development before they fully transition into adult dogs. The first few weeks of a puppy’s life involves getting up on her feet, becoming aware of her environment and of course, finding her voice.
A puppy will first start to vocalize between the 2nd and 3rd week of her life, but this will only be little whines and grunts. Some puppies start barking by the 7th or 8th week, this is usually for small dog breeds while large breeds wait for much longer (16th week or longer) before they can become fully vocal and bark like adult dogs.
Throughout the puppy stage, dogs develop and discover new traits in themselves, and surely they do get excited when they learn something new. For instance, a pup who just found her voice will excitedly bark at everything and anything. She’ll bark when she wants attention, she’ll bark when she wants to play, she’ll bark at the TV, she’ll bark at other dogs, and she’ll definitely bark just for the fun of it. They will bark simply because they can.
If you’ve observed that your pup just barks at anything, even at the faintest sound, she may just be going through this stage. You may want to ignore your pup and allow this behaviour to fade away with time, but maybe you shouldn’t. Unprovoked and perpetual barking can be a nuisance and if not properly handled, this can easily become a life-long habit and you may find yourself dealing with a noisy dog.
As your pup grows and becomes more territorial, her bark at strangers may be to warn and scare them off. As soon as your little cutie becomes vocal and starts to show off her voice, you should consider training her to bark on command.
[3] How to train a dog to bark on command
Barking is the major way dogs communicate. Dogs will bark when they’re trying to draw your attention to something, they will bark when they see or hear something unusual, they also bark when they’re playing or having fun. And some dogs will definitely bark for no reason at all, just barking because they feel like it.
Persistently barking for nothing in particular can be a little over the line and come across as disturbance, this is a behaviour you want to cut short before it becomes a habit. Training your dog to bark on command will enable you control when he/she barks and when it’s time to be quiet. And here’s how to teach puppy to bark on command.
Choose a treat: when teaching your puppy a new behaviour, it’s very important to give her rewards when she does exactly what you want her to do. This will act as positive reinforcements and help her learn faster. The perfect reward for your puppy will be her favourite treat, the more your dog loves the reward the faster she’ll learn. Make the training fun and exciting, and she’ll learn even faster.
Get your dog to bark and reward her with a treat: get your dog to bark by exciting her in some way, either you wave a treat at her and when she reaches for it, hide it and watch her bark for it. Or you can try playing her favourite game, simply get her to bark and when she does, reward her with a treat.
Pick your command word: next, is to pick a name for the behaviour. The most common English command words used to tell dogs to bark are “speak” and “talk”. You can use either of them or pick your own special word. The idea is that when your dog is about to bark, say the word just before she barks and reward her if she proceeds to bark. You can also pair the command word with a hand signal.
Use the command word and a treat: once your dog realizes that she gets treats for barking, expect her to keep barking. However, do not reward her when she barks without any cues from you. Say the command word before she barks and reward her only when she correctly follows the cue. Do this several times until she only barks when you want her to, you can also practise with her outside your home.
Gradually withdraw the reward: if you observe that your dog has come to the point where she immediately responds to your “speak” command with a bark, gradually start to withdraw the treats. In other words, don’t give her treats every time she barks on command because this will only slow down the learning process. You can start by giving her a treat every three times she barks on command, then every five times and so on.
When do puppies start barking at strangers? | DogVela
While your Trixies cute little puppy barks might not bother you now, the story is likely to be different in a few months when she gets her full volume bark. Even worse, when your neighbors start banging on your door to complain. Instead of having to deal with this aggravation, why not spend a little time and train your pup that there are times when it might be acceptable to bark and times when she needs to keep her opinions to herself. One thing to keep in mind: very few dogs bark just to hear the sound of their own voices. Barking is their way of communicating in much the same way that we talk.
The basic premise of this training is that your goal is to teach Trixie that a good time for her to exercise her voice, is anytime there is a stranger outside the house or trying to get in. Although there may be other times when you want Trixie to bark on command, in this instance you are teaching her to bark under a particular circumstance, i.e. a stranger knocking on the door or walking around your yard. It could save you and your family from an intruder or your home from being burglarized.
Before you start working on training Trixie to bark at strangers, she must first have mastered the four basic commands of come, sit, down, and stay. By mastering these skills, Trixie learns who is in the Alpha position and that she is required to learn the things she is being taught. You need a few supplies to help with the training:
Of course, you can have all the supplies you can possibly imagine, but if you dont have the time and patience to put into the training method you choose, Trixie may never learn that she is supposed to bark when there are strangers about.
Call Trixie into a room that has an outside door such as the kitchen or living room. It should be one where most people tend to knock or ring the bell. Have her sit and stay.
Time to call in the favors from one of your friends. It doesnt matter whether Trixie knows them or not as they will be on the other side of the door.
Whos there? Have your accomplice knock on the door or ring the doorbell. If Trixie barks, go ahead and praise her and give her a treat. Repeat this step until Trixie will bark every time your friend knocks or rings the bell.