# Barking uncontrollably at visitors - How to teach "Quiet" command?



## happyshep (Sep 11, 2011)

Hi there,

My family has a 6 year old purebred German shepherd. Mira is a very devoted and gentle family member, but tends to get overexcited and barks uncontrollably whenever visitors enter the property. We value her usefulness as a guard dog, but she does not yet respond to any “silence” commands. Her barking is currently unmanageable.

We are not a very united family, and we have been so far unable to work together as a team to solve this problem. I am hoping that if I can print out some clear concise training instructions, then this might inspire everyone to work together. Our ultimate goal is for Mira to be responsive and calm around strange visitors, without suppressing her natural ‘guard dog’ instincts. One or two ‘woofs’ should be okay, but after that we want her to calm down when given the “Quiet!” command.

I also walk Mira for an hour every day, so boredom is not the problem. She is well-trained in the “Sit”, “Lie down” and “Stay” commands – but she will respond to none of these when focused on barking at strangers. She seems to become totally locked into a barking ‘trance’, and shows no interest in food treats during this time.

When seeking advice in the past, we were advised by a professional dog trainer to shut her in an isolated room until she calmed down. We tried this, but she would immediately resume barking as soon as she was released and saw the visitor again. This particular method really did not work for us (I personally found it traumatic having to shut her away and listen to her barking anxiously on the other side of the door), so I am hoping that we could try something completely different this time. 

So if anyone could recommend some clear and concise step-by-step instructions to teach the “quiet” command, my family and I would be eternally grateful! This would transform Mira’s life for the better, and we would finally be able to invite visitors over without having to worry about her behavior.


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## oldhounddog (May 31, 2010)

happyshep ,

Welcome to the forum. This is a great question and you will prolly get plenty of advice from knowledgeable members here on DF.
One key piece of advice I can give you to get you started is to refresh Mira's basic commands and also get her focused on you and back in the training mode. This will require calm/consistent training on your behalf at a time of the day when there are few distractions. I am not a trainer , however , there are many here with expertise in this area.

Good Luck , oldhound


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## troglodytezzz (Oct 19, 2010)

Try This:
http://www.dogstardaily.com/training/excessive-barking


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## doxiemommy (Dec 18, 2009)

Welcome!
One thing I can recommend is that you enlist the help of a few friends or relatives in order to work with Mira on this. It's really distracting to try to visit with guests when you have a barking dog that you're trying to manage; it can also be pretty embarrassing!  So, if you have a few friends that will volunteer to come on separate days to help you work with Mira, that would be great! That way, those friends aren't really coming for the purpose of a real "visit", but rather, they know ahead of time that they're there mainly to help train Mira. That will take some pressure off you!

The method suggested by your trainer could work. And, yes, it's hard to listen to an anxious dog. The other thing that's hard about this method is lots of people give up after a few trips to the separate room. But, to be consistent, you have to put her back in the room every time she barks at guests. If you put her in the room, then let her out, and she barks, she has to go right back in. Then, when you let her out, if she barks, it's right back in. You have to be willing to repeat as much as necessary. (Which is why it's helpful to have "pretend guests" instead of real ones)

I know others recommend totally ignoring a barking dog when guests are over, don't even look or speak to her at all. The minute there's a split second of quiet, you praise and give a treat. 

We use a "quiet" command. But, our dogs were alert barking, mostly to animal noises they heard outside. We said "quiet" in a loud but not harsh voice. It caught their attention, so we said "good quiet!" and gave a treat. Practice, practice, practice! Over time, the amount of time they'd have to remain quiet before getting the treat increased. So, we'd say "quiet" and not give the treat til they sat quietly and looked at us for 3 seconds, then 10, etc.

I don't know if that will work, since the trigger for your dog is actually having guests in the house....


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## theyogachick (Aug 2, 2009)

Gracie used to do this. When people came in the house she barked at them, so our trainer gave us this advice:

Pick a word (we used "say hello," but you can use whatever). For a couple of weeks, load the word much like you would load a clicker. Take a treat she never gets (something REALLY good). Say quiet, give her a treat, quiet, treat, quiet, treat, etc. Do 20 repetitions 3 times a day for a couple of weeks. Make sure you do this in various spots in the house, yard, etc. She will start to associate the word with super awesome food.

Then, enlist the help of a friend. Have the friend come onto the property. When she barks, say "quiet." If the word is loaded correctly, she should stop barking and look at you for a treat. The next step is for the visitor to either have treats to give the dog (so you say your trigger word and the visitor gives the treat) or you have treats outside the door and the visitor drops them on the floor as they enter (after you use the trigger word, of course) and your dog will start to associate visitors=good thing. (My trainer used this analogy: if you hated me, but everytime I say you I handed you 100 dollars, you would actually be happy to see me instead of yelling at me. That is what the treats are like for the dog."

I hope this makes sense. It helped us tremendously. If I need to clarify, let me know (it is early and my coffee hasn't kicked in yet, LOL).


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## happyshep (Sep 11, 2011)

Thank you everybody for your advice. Reading all these great tips has made me realize that there are lots of different ways to approach this problem, so if one method doesn't work then I can always try a different one. This gives me a huge confidence boost, knowing that with patience and regular practice we WILL get there eventually!

The first thing I did was follow Oldhounddog's advice - "refresh Mira's basic commands and also get her focused on you and back in the training mode". Mira is pretty savvy on her basic commands (come, stay, sit, lie down), but Oldhounddog's comment made me realize that lack of focus is probably the key issue here. Whenever we're in a real situation she just won't listen, she won't even react to treats waved under her nose - she's in a "trance".

So today is day 3 of Mira's re-training, and I'm currently enjoying some great results already while out walking her. I now walk with a waist-bag full of treats, and just reward her for keeping up with me and focusing on me. Then I started to introduce the "let's go!" cue whenever she lags behind to sniff at something, and so far she gets distracted much less than usual. I'm very keen to keep working at this, because it's so wonderful to have her listening to me like never before.

Mira often gets into a fix about barking at other dogs (not always, but regularly enough for it to be annoying). So today was a big test, when we walked right past another dog tied to a post outside a store. I just kept the treats going right under her nose, and although she kept glancing back at the dog, her main interest was on the treats and she didn't make a sound! A few minutes later a ute drove past with a dog barking at her madly from the open back. Mira got a shock (so did I actually) and lunged and barked defensively, but when I called her she surprised me by turning around and running straight to me to collect her treat! (which she nearly choked on because she was panting, but I guess it's the thought that counts).

These may sound like ordinary things to most of you who have already put a lot of time into educating your dogs, but these are really exciting developments to me, and I really look forward to seeing Mira progress over the coming months.

I think our biggest error (and one that many dog owners probably also make, since I see so many poorly behaved dogs at the off-leash park) was assuming that once Mira was more or less well behaved at home, then her training was pretty much over. This is a complete mistake, and it's a real shame that we've let her behaviour get this out of hand.

As for Mira barking at visitors, I am currently following the guide which Troglodytezzz suggested : http://www.dogstardaily.com/training/excessive-barking
At first I had some problems getting her to bark on command. Since all her life she has been used to hearing an angry "NO!" response whenever she barks, it's going to require patience for her to change her thinking. Then I realized I could get her to bark easily when I told her there was a cat or a "meow meow!" in the yard (until she realized there was no cat, of course). I'll try again later, and keep trying until we can link up the "Speak!" word to the act of barking. So no miracles yet, but I will keep practicing and probably post an update when we've made signifigant progress.


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## SassyCat (Aug 29, 2011)

happyshep said:


> At first I had some problems getting her to bark on command. Since all her life she has been used to hearing an angry "NO!" response whenever she barks, it's going to require patience for her to change her thinking.


But did NO give any results? If she continues barking, there's obviously no point saying NO and she is now taught well that ignoring NO is a good thing. Teaching her a new word "quiet" is therefore a good idea. Also, angry moods won't work because dog can feel it and much like humans they will see it as a weakness, especially when there's no consequence of ignoring the "angry command". Being calm, serious, optimistic, relaxed and without over-expectations is the right way, but of course when you're frustrated and disappointed it is quite hard to accomplish.


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