Posted: Sat Jan 28, 2012 10:44 am Post subject: Advice re Training to Bark at the door
Hi there - I know it sounds daft, but I want to train my 16 month old lab bitch to 'talk' when the doorbell goes. She comes with me to the door and 'waits' - and she readily barks at anything outside in the garden that she's unhappy with generally. But as she loves everyone she just wants to meet and greet at the door in her usual happy style....quietly x:0)
I'm not complaining (sorry to all those who have problems with barking and hate my request for advice ) - but I'm frequently alone in the house and we live in a small rural village, and would just like unexpected vistors to be a little unsure before they get licked to death!!!!
I've tried making barking noises myself, but she just looks at me like I'm mad! LoL And let's face it ....you don't have a dog to bark yourself, right? (sorry couldn't resist).
SO any advice please? Or am I just setting myself up for a fall...?
____________ All I want for Christmas is pooch lovinŽ
If she is quiet now and 16 months old it may be to late.
Have you got a door bell or loud knocker, does she react to those noises, if so maybe you could practice with someone else knocking and tell her good girl when she barks.
I understand the logic of having the dogs barking at people coming to the door, or walking round the front garden, I have one who go's ballistic and the other two are quiet, maybe because nb 1 is doing enough for them all.
Hopefully someone will be able to help with some good advice.
Thanks June
The only reaction to the doorbell/door knock is that she runs to the door...no sound Then she'll 'wait' whilst I open it.
We had an intruder in the back at night a couple of weeks ago and she went ballistic in the back garden/chased him off REALLY loud barking (soooo proud ).
If I'm too late I don't really mind. I guess she pulls it out of the bag when required so shouldn't complain
____________ All I want for Christmas is pooch lovinŽ
She does sound like a good girl alerting you to an intruder.
Maybe a bit naff, but what about on of those door bells that sound like a dog barking , she may react to that and then it would sound like you have 2 dogs .
Does she ever bark for you? Coco will bark if I withhold a treat or toy for long enough.
If you can get her to bark for some reason then reward the bark and try to repeat. Then you can attach a command or hand signal to the action eg "speak" or make a > shape with your fingers and thumb and open and close to make a mouth opening and closing signal. Just keep practising and rewarding this and then when she's got it make sure you do it every time the doorbell rings. Then you need to train a stop/sshhhh command by rewarding silence.
You may wish that you had never started this one though.
An alternative would be a "Beware of the Dog" sign at the door, it should make cold callers wary even without the barking.
We are antisocial and got fed up of constant cold callers (salesmen, questionnaires, religious callers, canvassers etc) so we put a poster up next to our front door saying "No callers without prior appointment". It works most of the time.
Whenever she barks whatever the reason - make a hand signal like a bark and praise her using the word 'Bark' very obviously a lot. I taught Luna from a pup in this way and now if I want her to bark I just have to make the hand signal!
Once you have got her responding to a hand signal and command which may take ages using the above method you can then get the doorbell and whenever it is donged make the barking sound.
I'm just going to offer a word of warning: Bran was always a fairly quiet dog but he needed to learn a "trick" for our clicker class (he was 3 years old by then so it's never too late ) and I "wisely" opted to teach him to bark on command. Now he barks all the time: if the neighbour across the road leaves their house, if I'm a bit slow with the treats, if a car door several houses down shuts, if a gnat farts half a mile away.....
If you are determined to go ahead with it though, the way I taught him was to put him on lead then attach his lead to something stable (I used the washing line support) and got him really excited using a squeaky toy until he barked, then I clicked and treated him. I only needed him to be attached to the pole maybe 4 times before he realised what I was asking him to do. I do have to adopt a specific stance, look and voice before he'll do it but I stopped fine tuning it once I knew that he "had" it. Once you've taught your girl to reliably bark on command to a hand signal/vocal command, it should be fairly easy to press the doorbell at the same time as you give her the hand signal/vocal command and transfer her cue to that
____________ Sarah and Bran
Always watched over with love by our angel, Flora, from Rainbow Bridge
Bran Training
You can teach a dog to alert bark for anything, however do be careful what you wish for.
My Mum was very hard of hearing, so I taught her Toy Poodle to Alert Bark for someone coming up the path, the doorbell and the phone ringing. This worked really well, as the little dog would run to whatever was causing the Alert then run to my Mum and back again, barking as she went and we encouraged that too. The trouble was, when my Mum went into Care and we took on the dog, we could not find the Off Switch. Although she would be stop barking when told, she Alert Barked for everything when we really didn't need it and she went on to find new things to Alert for, in the hope of getting a reward (typical clever Poodle). She drove my husband to distraction with her constant sudden barking at everything in the end.
Labradors, by design, should be rather quiet dogs, after all they would be no good on a shoot if they were trapping off all the time. You do get barkers though but these more nervous sorts tend to Alert or Defensive Bark, such as when you had the intruder in your garden, because something is worrying/scaring them. Of course, your girl has only had pleasant experiences with people coming to the door, so as she isn't a nervous sort, she greets everyone like old friends rather than someone to worry about and really with Labs, that's how you want them to be...everyone's best friend.
Really, if you needed a dog to bark at people coming up your path a German Shepherd would have been better suited.
Now he barks all the time: if the neighbour across the road leaves their house, if I'm a bit slow with the treats, if a car door several houses down shuts, if a gnat farts half a mile away.....
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) - but I'm frequently alone in the house and we live in a small rural village, and would just like unexpected vistors to be a little unsure before they get licked to death!!!!
Then she'll 'wait' whilst I open it.
, she may react to that and then it would sound like you have 2 dogs 
.
