1 min 4 sec

Speak:

What

Speak up is the act of your dog barking on command. The bark can be directed towards you, or towards the object of their awareness at that moment. For some dogs barking can be very difficult and we might have to settle for some other audible gesture (Basenjis, Huskies, Nordic breeds). Once dogs learn to bark, they generally enjoy it and we find it easy to couple with useful daily applications.

Why

Speak up has numerous practical applications that are very useful in life, in addition to being another behavior you can teach your dog. Some of these would be: Barking to go out to go potty, and to be let back in. Barking to alert the owner of someone at the door or on the property. Barking to alert the owner/handler that they've found something/someone (indication).

One important factor to consider is if you've previously corrected your dog for barking in anyway. If you have, this process can take even longer as the dog most likely will want to do everything possible to avoid correction.

How

 2 min 18 sec

Teaching your dog to bark, more often than not, turns out to be a game of free shaping and patience. The easiest way to start this is by having a food or toy reward of very high value, and while staying engaged with your dog, you don't offer them any hints as to what you are looking for. You remain more or less attentively neutral. Most likely your dog will rifle through all the the behaviors in its arsenal looking for the solution. You continue to wait patiently while still keeping the attention of your dog. We do this in hopes that the dog will eventually squeak out some kind of a sound out of frustration. It is at this moment when the dog makes a sound, that you mark and reward heavily.

First training session with Rhux

 3 min 11 sec 

Once your reward is finished go back to the same neutral, attentive interaction in hopes that the dog will offer this behavior again. Sometimes this can again, take a while to happen. Be ready with your mark, and when the sound happens again mark and reward accordingly. As the dog becomes more apt to make the sound, gradually ask for more. Meaning, increase the length or intensity or the sound. This is also a good time to implement the word you will use to make the association with the behavior. So using your timing, say the word you like the dog to associate with the behavior(speak, bark...etc) just before the dog is going to offer the behavior.

Second training session with Rhux

 3 min 41 sec

Much of this is shaping your dog's own genetic nuances and going with the flow. As mentioned earlier, some dogs are more prone to barking behaviors and the entire process can happen relatively quickly.

Some dogs require a bit more 

1 min 35 sec

If you are finding it difficult to get your dog to bark, you can try using light restraint (harness) with the help of an additional handler. Sometimes this is enough to give the dog that extra push into drive and frustration. You can also put the dog behind some kind of a barrier that is not his crate or normal enclosure or area of confinement to also aid in frustrating the dog. An example of this would be an X pen, or fence somewhere where all safety hazards have been checked. Again, when the dog makes any sound, mark accordingly and reward.

Duration

 2 min 59 sec 

Duration with the speak command is simply the difference of “Bark” and “Bark, Bark, Bark”.  There are a few different ways to accomplish this. 

The simplest being, vary your rate of reward.  Once your dog understands the speak command you can wait for a second bark to reward.  Using the same frustration as before your dog will question why they did not receive a reward for the first bark and offer it again.  Once they offer the second bark go ahead and reward.  You can continue to ask for more once you feel your dog is beginning to understand.  However, make sure that you are varying your rate of reward.  It never hurts to go back and reward one bark.

If your dog is not offering the second bark simply repeat the command without a reward and wait for 2 barks.

Creating duration for the speak command is essential to teaching the quiet.

Bark at the door

 2 min 34 sec

Many people think they want to train a “personal protection dogs”.  We do not recommend this because of obvious liability issues for the owner.  One thing to mention is that a personal protection dog is a very different animal than a dog trained for one of the biting sports, or a dog being trained for police or military work. 

Rather than run the risk of having a dog trained to bite anything that he or she perceives a threat we recommend training an alert dog.  A dog that will bark on command is just as effective at deterring a would be attacker as a dog that is trained to bite. 

By coupling the “speak” command with a knock at the door or doorbell you can also create a dog that will alert anytime people come to the door.  This is not a course requirement however, for those of you that would like to use this as a practical application this video will show you how.

3 min 1 sec