How To Stop A Sheepdog Barking
Whether you have just brought your new Sheepdog puppy or dog home or he has been a apart of your family for a while, it is important to make sure that you are learning as much as you can about the things you will need to teach him. So many people concentrate on the sit and stay commands, potty training and crate training, that they simply forgot that they are probably going to want to also get the dog to stop barking on command. Some might think that barking will never pose to be a problem and while that may be the case for some dogs, it is not the case with all dogs.
The first thing that you will need to do is to realize that when your Sheepdog is barking at you that he is simply trying to grab your attention. He is trying to communicate with you. The thing is though, sometimes, you simply do not want or need him to communicate with you non-stop about all of the people, dogs, cats and birds that go past your house. A dog that barks a lot can quickly become a problem to you, your family and even to your neighbors. The best thing you can do is to get the barking under control, before it gets completely out of hand.
If your dog is only barking at strangers or animals that are not apart of your family, then you just might need to socialize your dog a little more. The more you socialize your dog, the less he will bark every time someone or some dog walks by. Of course, this is not true with all Sheepdogs when it comes to strangers around the house. In order to get your dog more comfortable with the idea that strangers are all to come near the house, you will want to put him through a little training exercise.
Start by inviting some friends over that your dog is not familiar with. Walk with your dog up to the friends, with the dog on a leash, and praise him for not barking. Now, slowly allow you dog to interact with people on his own. Praise him when things go well and ignore him when they don’t. Your dog is trying to get your attention by barking like a crazed animal. Do not give him the attention or affection that he is trying to gain by all of the barking. Remove yourself from his view and only return when he has calmed down. Once your Sheepdog is in a calm state, you can praise him for the good behavior.
The key to any training is to make sure that you are always consistent. If you are not consistent, you will find that the training will be a lot more difficult and that you will not be able to see results as quickly as you would like. Just hang in there and within a few days to a couple of weeks, you will have a dog that only barks at appropriate times.