Is there a way to stop dogs from barking?

[SCTrojan]

I have a Springer Spaniel mix, and he barks non-stop whenever someone knocks on the door or passes by the house. I tell him no, and he looks like he's got the idea, but by the time it's happened again he has forgotten.

[kkibak]

Some dogs, bred as watchdogs, will be very difficult to keep from barking. A Springer, however, shouldn't be too tough. Is he getting enough exercise / attention? They do tend to bark a lot when left alone.

[PrincessCare]

Try getting an electrical bark collar that zaps him when he barks. That usually does the trick.

[PitFreak]

although a bark collar does work, dogs get the idea that they are only gonna be punished when the collar is on, so the barking problem isn't erased, its just...postponed i guess you could say. there are two things dogs do that you can't really train them not to and that's digging and barking. these are natural occurences. think of it this way: humans can learn to not pee in their pants just as dogs can be taught not to pee in the house. but humans can't be taught not to talk, its natural and we are born with the ability to do it and learn to speak through exposure to language. dogs bark as their language and if they hear other dogs barking, they learn to use their own voice. you can however teach a dog when its appropriate to bark and when it isn't. a good idea would actually be to teach the dog to bark on command. take something that gets him going. like the doorbell. have someone stand outside and ring it. before itl's rung, say "speak", when he barks after the doorbell rings, praisee him and give him a treat maybe saying: good boy, speak. even though your dog's not barking because you said so and only because the doorbell is ringing, he will eventually get the hint that speak=doorbell=bark. once he speaks on command without the doorbell, teach him "quiet". whenever he stops or pauses barking, say: good boy, quiet. and give him a treat. if he barks again after the treat, walk away and distract him with something else. a couple minutes later, say "speak" again and then "quiet". continue this routine until he no longer barks after you tell him to be quiet. this will take a while to do but if you're consistent with it, he'll get the picture and it will be easy to calm him down when he starts barking. good luck!:D

[Frances J. Sittel]

We have learned from experence teaching a dog to bark on command does not always work. Our 14 yr old Female Aussie is on of those dogs. It took some hard thinking and a de-humidifer to come up with the right training method. Becuse the de-humidifer makes a snaping noise my daughter chose the clicker to teach her not to bark. Clicker training never worked for Dreamer so she used the clicker to condition her not to bark. No all she does is say CLICK and Dreamer stops barking. Kind of a odd way to use the clicker but it worked. My other dogs work well with clicker training? It just shows you that every dog is different. No two dogs will learn the same, it has to be something that works for that dog.

[tbrown533d]

I have a black and tan coonhound. She is 17 months old and very well trained. She is crate trained and loves going camping with us. We use the shock collar for her as since she is a hound that's just what she does is bark and howl. She has no problem with us putting the shock collar on her and she knows that if she barks it will give her a little shock. We always look at her and say "how does that feel" when she does get excited. Of course there are times when it's off of her and she feels free to bark. That's just what dogs do and how they "speak" to others.