Dog barks during training

Sometimes a puppy or adult dog will bark during exercise. Sometimes the owners take it for the joy of doing it and encourage it. Sometimes they consider it “harmful”, they scold and punish the dog. Both of these are wrong approaches. Barking is not joy and not “harmfulness”.

Barking and whining during training is a signal that something is going wrong. This means that the four-legged friend does not quite understand what exactly you want from him. So, you are making one (or several) mistakes in dog training.

What training mistakes can cause a dog to whine or bark?

Most often these errors are:

1.     You are giving your dog too much of a challenge.
2.     You are not very good with timing, that is, you do not know how to reinforce the dog in time and accurately.
3.     You confuse the dog with verbal (voice) commands or body language.
4.     You are inconsistent. First you reinforce what you punish later. Or the requirements for completing a skill are different all the time, depending on your mood.
5.     You increased the requirements too quickly or skipped one or more steps in the skill.
6.     The dog is overexcited during the session.

What to do if you make one or more mistakes in dog training?

First of all, don’t despair. Everyone makes mistakes, even masters. It’s not a question of being wrong. It is about noticing mistakes and being able to correct them in a timely and efficient manner.

If possible, film yourself. When you are training with a dog, it is difficult to take care of both yourself and your pet. And the video will show you your mistakes. And next time you will be more careful not to commit them.

Finally, if you cannot train your dog on your own and the barking does not disappear during the training, you should consider seeking one or more consultations with a specialist. It is only important that the dog handler works with positive reinforcement. Now it is not a problem to find such a specialist, because consultations can be carried out not only in person, but also online, and this is also effective.