How do I stop the dog barking at anyone that comes in the house?

[marne2]

Sat her trying to keep my dog quiet as the gas man services the boiler, earlier someone came to pick up a cake ( I make cakes from home ) and the dog went crazy, his bark is very loud and most people are scared when they knock on my door, he's not got a bad bone in his body but is very vocal. I try and distract him with food but he can manage to bark at the same time as sitting and eating a treat or shows no interest in the food.

I would love for him not to bark when people come over, maybe then people would come over more often, plus it's not very welcoming when people are collecting cake.

Any tips please?

Over all he is very hard work, very hyperactive and I have little control over him , he is well behaved when we don't have visitors! will sit! get down! lie down and mostly do as he's told but as soon as we have visitors or we are out on a walk I have no control and he does not listen.

Help?

[moosemama]

First stop - training classes, to both build your bond and increase you control and his self-control.

Then you can try either or .

Another useful technique is to teach the to lie quietly in a specific place or on a mat when the door goes .

[ErrolTheDragon]

Thanks for the links... my dog is otherwise well behaved but he's a dachshund and he thinks that barking at the door is his job. (fortunately he usually settles down once someone is in, until they go again, and we've an inner door - 'back behind the door' is, thank goodness, a command he learned quickly). But for my own benefit I really ought to address this.

[marne2]

No training classes near us and I can't transport him in my new car .

[ErrolTheDragon]

No training classes near us and I can't transport him in my new car

How big is he? (vocal dogs usually seem to be smallish...) - we transport ours in a crate on the back seat, with a large towel underneath it, so he's safe and the car stays clean. Could something like that work for you?

[marne2]

He's a lab x lurcher, he's bigger than your average lab ( quite tall ), I have a new car and he won't fit in it, I use my husbands car to take him to the vets but even with the seats down the dog can manage to lick my ears whilst I'm driving ( husbands car is a old micra ), he also cries continuously in the car, our nearest dog training group is 20 miles away so it's just not possible, we live in the middle of nowhere so there's not a lot near by.

[marne2]

He also has a touch of collie in him which I think is where the vocal side of him comes from, not a great combination of breeds but we did not know what he was when we rescued him as a pup, he has been very hard work, we have done basic clicker training with him and he's great at retrieving, teaching him to sit was easy, teaching him to lie down was easy but anything else seems to be hard work ( anything that involves being still ).

[moogalicious]

Watching this thread with interest. Our dog is a staffie/collie-x and barks at people coming into the house. We've seen a behaviourist, who showed me how to train speak/quiet and get him to go to his 'spot'. He will stop barking on 'quiet' if the person at the door has gone (postman), or if he knows it's a stooge (DH pretending to be a visitor), but if it's a meter reader or shopping delivery person he will not shut up! Usually I wouldn't open the door until the barking had stopped, but it's hard to do this when you have someone waiting on the other side.

[Atbeckandcall]

My dog was a barker at people. So I taught her to bark on command (with a clicker) and quiet on command (clicker again). It saved my ears, although it didn't really because I sneezed one day and perforated them both, but that's another story!

[SistersOfPercy]

I have a Scottie like this. It's an attention thing with him, very much "look I'm here, fuss me!" Most visitors do indeed fuss him but others who aren't as good with dogs are mistaking his funny little 'huffing' type noises for aggression rather than attention.

He's quite quick at picking up new things so I think I'll try train him to speak and quiet.
Any tips for this?