How to teach a stubborn dog to speak?

I (and my family & friends) have been trying to teach Raustyk how to speak for 7 years, still no luck (gave up here & there but many times I would try to teach her multiple times a day for months straight). And now I am afraid Kaige is following in her footsteps. A month of teaching him & no luck at all yet.

I've tried the obvious, barking at them, tying them to something & putting a yummy treat or toy just out of reach & getting them excited.

I've tried giving the command speak when they are already barking (Raustyk only barks when she ehars something or sees a stranger or the like, Kaige only barks when he plays with the other dogs). No luck

Nanook knows how to speak. I've had Raustyk & Kaige watch as Nanook barks, Nanook gets a treat, over & over & over again.

Does anyone have any pointers? Something different to try? Anything?

Hmmm...thats a good question...it took quite a while for Kyra to learn to speak but she learned from Micki.

How about trying to get him to bark out of frustration? Put a gate up or tie him up so he can't get to you and talk excitedly to him until he gets frustrated because he can't get to you and bark, this may or may not work. My friend has also been working for years to get her dog to speak on command and has not yet succeded, it is much easier to teach a dog that barks a lot. Good luck!

Um, I think if you've been trying for 7 years then she probably doesn't want to speak! Nothing bad about a dog that doesn't bark. ^_^

Maybe they could each have their own special trick! What are they good at? You could train something fun like spin, or play soccer, or play jump rope!

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Originally posted by wolfie
Um, I think if you've been trying for 7 years then she probably doesn't want to speak! Nothing bad about a dog that doesn't bark. ^_^

Maybe they could each have their own special trick! What are they good at? You could train something fun like spin, or play soccer, or play jump rope!

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Normally I'd just get on with it, so what if they don't want to speak.
But when they bark they bark non stop for a while. They say if you can teach a dog to bark on command it may help with un-necassary barking. Thats what I'm trying to do.

And yes they each have their own special tricks that they know & Kaige is learning a bunch more.

Is there anything that makes your dogs bark, like vacuuming? One of my dogs learned from a toddler toy of my nephew's- she liked to bark at it when I rolled it around because it was loud. If you can find something that will make them bark consistently it should be easier to teach them! Good luck!

Pembroke_Corgi

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Originally Posted by Pembroke_Corgi

Is there anything that makes your dogs bark, like vacuuming? One of my dogs learned from a toddler toy of my nephew's- she liked to bark at it when I rolled it around because it was loud. If you can find something that will make them bark consistently it should be easier to teach them! Good luck!

Pembroke_Corgi

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Yes, he barks non stop when playing when he plays with my other dogs. I've been telling him to speak when he plays with them & I know he will speak soon but I swear when I say speak he stops and looks at me. It's like speak to him means be quite & be still. lol IF he doesn't do that (which is rare) he just continues on like he didn't even hear me. When that happens I still praise him when he speaks when I told him to speak but he just ignores me.
I can't find anything else that makes him bark.
I'm being as consistant as I can & patient but he hasn't had any improvements at all for a whole month. And he learns everything else so darn fast.

Whenever he barks, give him a treat and say "good speak!!" and get very excited. Whether he's barking at the neighbor's cat, television, or just playing, anytime you're near and he barks give a treat and make sure to say "good speak!" every time! Eventually he'll start to associate "speak" with barking.

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Originally Posted by Jessika

Whenever he barks, give him a treat and say "good speak!!" and get very excited. Whether he's barking at the neighbor's cat, television, or just playing, anytime you're near and he barks give a treat and make sure to say "good speak!" every time! Eventually he'll start to associate "speak" with barking.

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Even if I don't tell him to speak first?

Yes, even if you don't tell him to speak first. This way he will be able to associate the word "speak" with barking.

It's the same concept as if I'm trying to teach my pup "bring". I can't MAKE her bring me the toy without doing it myself, and then I'm just confusing her more, and she's not learning anything. But if I say "GOOD BRING!!" and act stupidly excited when she just walks in my direction with a toy in her mouth, she will start to associate "bring" with bringing toys to me.

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Originally Posted by Jessika

Yes, even if you don't tell him to speak first. This way he will be able to associate the word "speak" with barking.

It's the same concept as if I'm trying to teach my pup "bring". I can't MAKE her bring me the toy without doing it myself, and then I'm just confusing her more, and she's not learning anything. But if I say "GOOD BRING!!" and act stupidly excited when she just walks in my direction with a toy in her mouth, she will start to associate "bring" with bringing toys to me.

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I can understand doing that technique for some commands (like bring) but I have always been leary of using it for certain commands (like speak) but I tried it last night anyways. I may give it 1 more day but it seems as if it is making it worse just like I thought.
Since he only barks when he is playing with the other dogs I think he is associating speak with speak & play and LOTS of it. He is really barking out of control now and playing very hyperly. I think I am kind of cofusing him, he doesn't really know if he's getting praised for playing or barking or both, not only that but he's also getting praised for barking when NOT told to do so.

Thanks for the idea though. It was worth a shot.

I may be misreading this, but it sounds more like your goal is to be able to get him to be quiet, when he's barking too much. And it sounds like that you're almost there on quiet. When you talk to him, he stops barking to look at you. So I would forget Speak and work on Quiet. When he's barking non-stop, say "Quiet", then when he looks at you and stops barking, give him a treat. Gradually increase the quiet time before he gets the treat. You want to make sure there's enough of a delay that he knows he's getting rewarded for quiet, not barking.

Par...

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Originally Posted by ParNone

I may be misreading this, but it sounds more like your goal is to be able to get him to be quiet, when he's barking too much. And it sounds like that you're almost there on quiet. When you talk to him, he stops barking to look at you. So I would forget Speak and work on Quiet. When he's barking non-stop, say "Quiet", then when he looks at you and stops barking, give him a treat. Gradually increase the quiet time before he gets the treat. You want to make sure there's enough of a delay that he knows he's getting rewarded for quiet, not barking.

Par...

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Well yeah that is part of my goal. My goal is divided into 3 parts all of which are kind of related to each other as far as the reason for teaching the speak command. To teach him when the proper times to bark are, to teach him to be quiet at times & to teach him how to speak just for a cute trick.

I swear he's backwards. I tell him to speak he shuts up & looks at me I tell him to be quiet he just carries on. I've tried other words too like SHHh, soft, easy etc... none of those words get his attention.
It's like he knows that speak means he gets a treat if he does it right but he can't figure it out... yet anyways.

I've been keeping him on a leash in the house so I can distract & redirect him easier and it works but not for long.
He barks constantly when he plays with other dogs & I can't deny him to play with other dogs. I don't mind it cause it's only like twice a day, but it happens early in the morning & although they haven't said anything I'm sure my neighbors don't like that. I can hear him loud & clear outside I know they can too.

WELL if he is quiet when you say "speak", then have "speak" be the command to make him quiet!!

Dogs don't know english and just know to associate a sound (or a word to us, since we DO speak english) with an action. lol. Just because you say "sit!" doesn't mean the dog will sit there and think "oh, sit means put my behind on the ground, ok!". I mean you could teach your dog that "sit" really means to fetch, "lay down" means to speak, "speak" means to sit, etc. They're just sounds to them :)

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Originally Posted by Jessika

WELL if he is quiet when you say "speak", then have "speak" be the command to make him quiet!!

Dogs don't know english and just know to associate a sound (or a word to us, since we DO speak english) with an action. lol. Just because you say "sit!" doesn't mean the dog will sit there and think "oh, sit means put my behind on the ground, ok!". I mean you could teach your dog that "sit" really means to fetch, "lay down" means to speak, "speak" means to sit, etc. They're just sounds to them :)

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I was thinking of that but with multiple dogs who already know the commands it would be very confusing. I say Speak, Kaige shuts up but Nanook barks.

Besides I say what I mean therefore I wouldn't remember to say speak when I mean for them to be quiet etc.... I'd be confused too.

Besides god forbid but if anything happens to me & he needs to go to another home if I were to train him like that and no one else knew, he'd probably have a hard time finding another home because everyone would think that he is not trained because he isn't listening to the commands. (not saying that I would do that for every command)

LOL actually I would find it to be a little humorous. Can you imagine the bewlidered looks on their face when they tell him one command but he does another instead?? LOL

You're right though I was goign to add but forgot to that it would be most confusing to you. BUT PERHAPS introduce a new word to the command to maybe "fix" it?? Like, he's quiet when you say "speak", so say "quiet speak" and eventually wean off saying "speak" so you just have to say "quiet" and he'll obey?

Try adding a hand signal to it also. I did that with Gull and I can say anything and as long as I'm doing the hand signal, he'll bark.

Par...

I have never tried to teach my dogs to speak, so I don't have any real tips for you.

Tito barks like crazy when he is playing with other dogs. All I do is give him a squeaky or a ball to carry around when he is playing and it prevents him from barking. I guess I am lucky he is so ball crazy, once he gets it, he is not letting go for anything!

And my Granny taught her dog to speak by giving him a treat whenever he barked. Then he got to smart for his own good and used to stand next to the treat tin and howl until he got a cookie. He ended up training the rest of us. :rolleyes: