Is Your Dog a Yapper?

Does your dog bark at any new sounds or any sudden noise? Does he or she go ballistic when someone rings the door bell? If so, you have a yapper on your hands, and there are ways to curb the barking. Although, you should keep in mind, that dogs are going to bark at some point since it is normal dog behavior, but you can help control the excessive barking.

Things Not to Use to Stop Excessive Barking

First off, do not purchase a dog collar that has any kind of shocking in order to teach your dog to stop barking. These release a shock that is very painful and the wrong technique to use to help control the barking. They can hurt your dog, and make him or her fearful and full of anxiety as they brace for the next "shock" on their neck. These are not good training tools and therefore should never be used in an effort to train your dog not to bark as much.

Secondly, yelling at the dog to "shut up" is also not effective, because in the dog's mind, when you begin raising your voice, he or she thinks you are barking right along with them. Yelling rarely ever quiets a yapper down, it normally has the opposite effect.

Things that Do Work to Quiet the Excessive Barking

First of all, you should find out what is causing the excessive barking. If the dog barks at every new noise, he probably needs to be exposed to lots of different noises to desensitize him to the various noises he hears. Therefore, head to the toy store and get all sorts of different noise gadgets, balloons, toys guns that make noise, alarm clocks, timers that tick, get small items that have dings and electronic buzzing and dinging. The more noises you expose your dog to, the more he begins to except different noises as just part of life. As he desensitizes from the noises, the barking naturally lessens.

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Secondly, if it is people that your dog barks at, then you need to expose your dog to as many new people as possible. Take him or her with you to the park, to the stores, around your neighbors, and around lots of different people. Have friends or even neighbors come into your home more often, this also desensitizes the dog and exposes him to many different people and many different smells. Soon people become boring to the dog and he ceases to bark as much.

Thirdly, if your dog barks excessively at new items your bring in your home, then he or she is an object yapper and needs to be desensitized by bringing all sorts of new items in your home, both large and small items work well. Once the dog begins getting used to new items in its surroundings, they stop the barking because they do not see new items as a threat any longer.

Whatever your dog is barking at that becomes excessive, will tell you what you need to do in order to help him realize there is nothing to bark about. You can also use positive reinforcement by rewarding the dog for not barking. If your dog tends to bark at noises outside, get some of his favorite treats along with a mat, such as a door mat, and place it somewhere in the room that you want your dog to go to when you want him or her to quiet down. Have a command, such as "Go." Before the noise begins get your dog used to going to the mat on command, use the "Go" command calmly and point to the mat. At first your dog will have no clue what you want, but when you place a treat on the mat and say "Go" when he gets the treat, say, "Good Boy or Good Girl" continue doing this until the dog gets the hang of the "Go" command and the mat.

Next, have a family member or friend go outside and make some noise that you know will send the dog into a yapper attack. When he begins barking, calmly say "Go" if the dog goes on his own and quiets down, give him the treat and praise him or her. If the dog is reluctant to go, place the treat on the mat and say "Go" and if he does and quiets down, praise him. As you continue to practice this, you are associate a positive outcome (the treat) with quieting the barking. Soon, you will be able to stop the treating as the dog will quickly go to the mat with the command.

Of course, you must be persistent, you can't begin using positive reinforcement one day and the rest of the week never use it again. A dog has to repeat a process several times (depending on the breed) before he understands what you are wanting.

Final Thoughts

You should be aware that some dog breeds are more prone to develop into yappers than others. For example, some of the terrier breeds, such as Miniature Schnauzers tend to just have natural knack for being barkers. Natural yappers have to be worked with much more consistently, because they can slip into their old yapping ways if not worked with on a daily basis.

Lastly, good early socialization to other dogs and people will help your dog not to developing yapping ways to begin with. Most dogs that bark excessively simply have not been exposed to enough stimuli and therefore are super-sensitive to anything new they hear. Of course, you cannot stop a dog from completely barking, nor would you want to, you would want your dog to alert you and bark if someone was breaking in, for example. Therefore, your goal should never be to stop the barking entirely, it should only be to lessen the excessive barking.

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