Text by: David Harris
Video and Training by: Cindy Jacobs
Featured puppy: Gus von Prufenpuden
www.vonjacobs.com
To teach a complex behavior such a bark on command your puppy will need a solid understanding of the conditioned re-enforcer. Remember the conditioned re-enforcer is a sound (verbal or click) that the puppy associates with the arrival of a primary (food or toy) re-enforcer. Without the ability to re-enforce verbally you will find it difficult to TIME your reward quickly enough to communicate what behavior you are trying to reward. Late timing is the beginning trainer’s most common problem. Attempting to reward after the behavior is completed will not work for this behavior. You must be able to reward the puppy immediately upon doing the behavior if she is going to learn quickly.
There are many, many ways to get a puppy to make a sound. Try different methods of inducing a bark. Sometimes you will need to tie the puppy to something secure. Back away
with a toy or food and tease N freeze. The teasing builds excitement and the freeze builds frustration. If you keep moving and moving and teasing your puppy may just look at you like you’re crazy. But, when you get them excited and then freeze still they will make some type of movement to try and reanimate you. When they do, click and reward. Any type of behavior that leads towards barking should be rewarded in this initial stage. Bowing down is a common precursor to barking. Just like when puppies are playing with one another. Whining and yipping should be rewarded at first and then slowly you ask the puppy for loader and louder barks. Very quickly your puppy will catch on if you begin by rewarding small steps rather than expecting the puppy to come out with a loud BARK on your first training session.
Shaping methods take small steps and builds towards the completed performance.
Good luck and have fun.
View “Teaching the Bark on Command Video here:
David Harris
8 responses so far ↓
1 Dog Training » TEACHING THE BARK ON COMMAND (link) // Feb 22, 2008 at 8:29 pm
[…] Dog Training Web wrote an interesting post today onHere’s a quick excerpt Text by: David Harris Video and Training by: Cindy Jacobs Featured puppy: Gus von Prufenpuden www.vonjacobs.com To view “Teaching the Bark on Command” video click here: To teach a complex behavior such a bark on command you’re puppy will need a solid understanding of the conditioned re-enforcer. Remember the conditioned re-enforcer is a sound (verbal or click) that the puppy associates with the arrival of a primary (food or toy) re-enforcer. Without the ability to re-enforce verbally yo […]
2 Ray // May 27, 2008 at 3:33 pm
These videos are great!! I have been training my GS puppy Luna for several weeks now. She is doing excellent on everything from sit, come, up, down…but i can’t get her to bark on command. Is there a way to get her going…
Thanks
3 David // May 29, 2008 at 6:50 am
All puppies respond slightly different when it comes to teaching the bark on command. But, the main issue is to find a source of motivation you can use to tease the pup into a high level of excitement with. A toy, bowl of food, your voice, something that gets the puppy excited. Once I know what will get the pup excited I usually tie the pup with it’s leash to a door or chair then stand outside it’s range so they can’t get to me. I then tease with the toy or food, then I freeze & wait. Tease and freeze. The tease gets the pup hyped up and the freeze builds frustration. At some point the pup will make a sound of some type. I then immediately give the reward for even the slightest sound. So verbal reward and then food reward for a whine, grunt, yep or yap. Repeat. You do not need a complete loud bark to begin. Just a sound. After the puppy understand that making a sound gets them a reward you can start selecting the type of sound that you will reward. Louder and louder. Once you get the bark loud it is now time to ask the pup to bark without so much teasing. Then to work with the pup off the leash. So first establish the bark by what ever means necessary. Then start asking for more and more from the pup so that you can eventually have them bark on command, off leash, first command, sitting without jumping up on you. Start small, but slowly ask more and more.
4 Amy // May 29, 2008 at 8:41 am
Sometimes you have to get more creative. Does your puppy ever bark on her own? If so, what’s causing her to bark? With one of my dogs I tried and tried the already mentioned methods and nothing worked with her. One day while she was tied up and I was working in the yard I noticed that she would bark everytime I disappeared around the corner of the house. I immediately got some treats and started disappearing. She barked, I rushed back with a treat and praise. Then I started giving the command as I disappeared. After about 5 minutes she was consistently barking on command without the disappearing act.
5 Joe // Dec 3, 2008 at 10:51 pm
Hi I was just wondering if teaching a puppy to bark on command will promote unwanted barking?
6 Amy // Dec 4, 2008 at 9:03 am
After you teach the puppy to bark on command the pup may start anticipating what you want and start barking before you give the command when you get the treats out or whatever you are using to teach the bark, but it has not been my experience that there is any other unwanted barking going on that was a result from teaching the bark on command.
7 David Harris // Dec 4, 2008 at 10:25 am
Joe, one of the purposes of teaching the bark on command is to control unwanted barking. Once you teach a dog there is a RIGHT time to bark it is much easier to teach them there is a WRONG time to bark. It would be silly to say to the dog “Never Bark”. So, it is important to teach a right and wrong time and place for barking if you want to have good control over this behavior. Putting the behavior on cue (stimulus bound) is an excellent way to control behavior.
8 Joe // Dec 4, 2008 at 3:31 pm
That makes sense, thank you for your responses and having such an informative site.
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