Training An Older Dog Not To Bark

2009-05-28T08:05:00.000-07:00

One of the most difficult things in dog training can be training an older dog to stop its constant barking. Dogs are prone to encountering many different stimuli in their everyday lives. These can range from other animals, unfamiliar humans, strange noises, or a wide variety of other things. Training an older dog not to bark in these situations can be a challenging task.

With any kind of obedience training for dogs, the most important thing to remember is that consistent positive reinforcement is the best way to effectively teach good habits to your companion. A failure to be consistent is essentially sending mixed signals to your pet – they will not understand whether or not you are encouraging a certain behavior. Training older dogs can be difficult, as they may take longer to instill your desired behaviors into, but it can still be done.

One very effective method when training an older dog to stop barking is to figure out a word or phrase you want the pet to learn as a signal not to bark. When the dog starts to misbehave, use that phrase until they stop barking. When this happens, you want to make sure that you reward them with a treat. Over time, your older dog will associate that phrase with not barking and being rewarded. The key is consistency. Make sure you reward them every time until the training is complete.

Another way to help with your pets barking problem is to prevent him for being able to see things such as bird and squirrels running around outside. This can be anything from keeping the blinds closed inside, to putting up a privacy fence outside. If your animal is less likely to see a stimulus to make them bark, they are less likely to disturb you and everyone around you.

Despite the irritation of the barking, there is one bright side of the problem – your dog will always alert to you strangers or intruders coming to your house. Sure, the irritation of the barking at squirrels and such may bother you, but nothing takes the place of the peace of mind you can have by knowing that you’ll be informed of any possible intruders or threats.

To read more about training an older dog, CLICK HERE.