Leigh, I was interested to hear you have trained your dogs to bark on command, I have often pondered on this but didn;t want to attempt it with my dogs previously as they tended towards being vocal anyway - 'nuff said LOL!!

I have heard that putting a behavour on cue means that the dogs never do the behaviuor except when asked, thus it is then under the onwer's control. Could be useful with a dog that barks too much.

HOwever, i have also heard the exact opposite, that it can make something like barking worse.

I would be interested to hear of your expereinces/thoughts on this one!!

Hi Lyndsay,

"Speaking" on command can be very useful in controling a dog that barks all the time.I personally think that whether it works or not depends on how well the commands are actually taught in the first place and the individual dog involved !

Maybe those that fail have put all the emphasis on teaching the dog to "speak" and not put an equal amount of time in on teaching the "quiet" command.

The first dog, a GSD that we taught to speak on command was not a natural barker. It took a while to teach her how to "bark" and then it took us just as long to learn how to shut her up...lol But we learnt a lot from her :-) Lessons that we used to our advantage when teaching future dogs.

I have never had to use it as a way of dealing with a persistent barker. Although I know people who have had success with it for that reason.
All my dogs were taught for "fun". It just happens to be something that has come in very useful over the years. They love it too.

And YES, they do still bark if they feel the need to "warn" me about something. The only difference is that I can stop them instantly (well 90% of the time) lol.

Leigh