Barking Problems: Train your dog to stop barking!Written by Moses Chia
All dogs bark, it’s their way to communicate a message. Dog barks for various reasons: to greet, to alert, out of boredom, to attract attention or when they are excited. Although some barking from is acceptable, too much barking is certainly annoying, especially for your neighbors and eventually leading to complains. The easiest way to stop a problematic barker is to control his barking while you are at home: 1. Set up a situation where your dog will always bark. For example, you can ask someone to ring your doorbell or knock on your door. 2. When your dog charges to door and start to bark loudly, approach your dog, grab his collar and give command “quiet” – no shouting please, it doesn’t help. 3. If he stops barking, praise and reward. He’s a genius and deserves it. 4. When he continues barking, close his mouth with your hand, wrap your fingers around his muzzle – use both hands if needed, and give command for him to keep quiet. Praise if he stops. Most dogs would be able to learn “quiet” command with repeated training like this. Set up similar situations to "lure" your dog to bark and repeat training whenever possible. If you happen to own a hard-core persistent barker, use this method:
| | Understanding Psychology of Dog Training: Pack Behavior & Establishing ControlWritten by Moses Chia
Dogs are descendent of wolves. To study psychology of dog training and understand pack hierarchal system of dogs, we must go back and examine their ancestor - wolves. Wolves live naturally in packs of at least 2 and more... They live in a dictatorship system with strictly defined hierarchies of males and females. In their system, a leader - usually always a male, biggest and toughest wolf also known as alpha leader would be in charge of pack and will have right to everything. The rest of dogs in pack would be followers and follow their leader willingly. This hierarchy system is not static and would change when another dominant member challenge leader's authority and win. For your dog, your family is pack and every member is part of hierarchy system. From moment a new puppy or dog is introduce to family, new dog will start to pick up signals and indicators to figure out his own status in family and who’s in charge. If your dog see you as a "alpha leader", he will follow your commands willingly and this will allows you to train him easily. On other hand, if your dog is very dominant (because you allow him to pick up wrong signals) and starts to challenge your "alpha leader" position, he may refuse to follow your command and turn aggressive against you easily. This situation usually happens in children where dogs see their chain of command higher than that of them. This also explains why children suffer more dog bites than adults do.
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