Teach a quiet dog to bark on demand?

[michiru]

Hello! I am new to here! Nice to meet you all.

I wonder if it is possible to teach a quiet dog to bark on demand? My golden retriever is a very quiet dog. She is almost 3 years old and I have her since she was a month and I only hear her barking once.

People around me is saying how lucky I am to have a quiet dog, but I wonder if there's a way to make her talks?

 

[tx_cowgirl]

Usually what you can do is have a treat or her favorite toy, and basically wait until she gets frustrated because you won't give it to her...and barks! If you're familiar with clicker training, you would click and then give her the treat or toy. Try to be exciting without saying much--you want her to bark to a CERTAIN WORD, right? So you don't want to be jabbering away and inadvertently teach her to bark to something completely insignificant. So maybe wave the toy or treat around, jump up and down, anything that will get her revved up. Everytime she barks or grumbles or makes any noise, click and reward. (Or say YES! and reward.) If she gets to a point that she'll grumble consistently when you have treat/toy that she wants, then stop clicking/rewarding for it and she may bark.

If you have a really quiet dog, you honestly may not be able to teach her to bark. One of my dogs is extremely quiet. She talks once in a while, but not often, and she rarely ever barks. I can't do anything to get her to bark. So, I gave up. Not my favorite trick anyway, lol, so I abandoned that one.

 

[michiru]

Hello!
Thanks for your reply!
I think my dog is the really quiet type... Barks, almost never, but she does grumble every now and then. So let me try to teach her to grumble first.

Thanks again! And I hope to post again soon and telling you that she learned the trick!

 

[tx_cowgirl]

You're welcome! Good luck with her.
Since you mentioned the classroom subscriptions in your other post....if you do subscribe, the first section will really help you learn how to use clicker training to get the best out of your dog(if you haven't used clicker training before).

Hope to hear she's got it down! :doghappy: