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“Quiet” command

Jarena

Well-Known Member
My girl, Lettie, is 9 months old and I have been trying to teach her “quiet”. I want her to stop barking when I tell her to. I try not to say it when I feel like she has a reason to bark. If we both hear a weird noise or if someone is at the door I am ok with a little barking and usually that’s all she does anyway. I usually get up and tell her to come “check it out” with me.

Lately she has decided to just plain yell at me sometimes. Usually when she wants attention or if she wants something I have. Like if she brings me her ball to play fetch, and I hold for a minute without throwing it (because I’m distracted, not to tease her) she will start barking. I don’t give her what she wants. She knows that if she wants me to throw the ball, she needs to sit quietly. I can usually tell when she is about to bark so I tell her “quiet” and she will just let out a little grumble instead.

She seems to listen to the “quiet” command much better when she is barking because she wants something specific: I have what she wants in my hand. So if she listens= she gets what she wants. When she barks for attention, she doesn’t listen, because I don’t have a reward in my hand for her.

The problem is sometimes she just barks for attention. I want to make sure I am training her correctly. I have been telling her “quiet” then when she stops barking for a couple seconds, I tell her “good girl”. BUT I want to know: is that the way to do it? Am I marking the quiet or the barking with “good girl”? Or should I be completely ignoring her when she barks for attention? Also, SHOULD I be practicing “quiet” when she has a good reason to bark, or let her bark a little for warning? Is there a better way to teach this command? Any advice would be appreciated :)
 

Nik

Well-Known Member
My girl, Lettie, is 9 months old and I have been trying to teach her “quiet”. I want her to stop barking when I tell her to. I try not to say it when I feel like she has a reason to bark. If we both hear a weird noise or if someone is at the door I am ok with a little barking and usually that’s all she does anyway. I usually get up and tell her to come “check it out” with me.

Lately she has decided to just plain yell at me sometimes. Usually when she wants attention or if she wants something I have. Like if she brings me her ball to play fetch, and I hold for a minute without throwing it (because I’m distracted, not to tease her) she will start barking. I don’t give her what she wants. She knows that if she wants me to throw the ball, she needs to sit quietly. I can usually tell when she is about to bark so I tell her “quiet” and she will just let out a little grumble instead.

She seems to listen to the “quiet” command much better when she is barking because she wants something specific: I have what she wants in my hand. So if she listens= she gets what she wants. When she barks for attention, she doesn’t listen, because I don’t have a reward in my hand for her.

The problem is sometimes she just barks for attention. I want to make sure I am training her correctly. I have been telling her “quiet” then when she stops barking for a couple seconds, I tell her “good girl”. BUT I want to know: is that the way to do it? Am I marking the quiet or the barking with “good girl”? Or should I be completely ignoring her when she barks for attention? Also, SHOULD I be practicing “quiet” when she has a good reason to bark, or let her bark a little for warning? Is there a better way to teach this command? Any advice would be appreciated :)

So the quiet command seems to work with Kahlua for me because she hates disappointing me more than she wants whatever she is barking about. If I add even the slightest bit of disappointment or sternness to my voice she is instantly trying to fix it. Diesel... well Diesel is more stubborn. And often a quiet command will just make him yell at me more. I put my hand in a gesture and he also doesn't care. So for Diesel it usually requires a timeout in his crate and being ignored. Ignoring Kahlua though would never ever work. She will yell all day until she gets your attention. A stern correction and then reward for the correct behavior is all that works for her.

And my dog Cerberus was a very very quiet dog. So in my experience it depends on your dog. I know that is extremely unhelpful but the yelling has been a struggle for us as well and what works with one dog for us does not work for the other.
 

Jarena

Well-Known Member
So the quiet command seems to work with Kahlua for me because she hates disappointing me more than she wants whatever she is barking about. If I add even the slightest bit of disappointment or sternness to my voice she is instantly trying to fix it. Diesel... well Diesel is more stubborn. And often a quiet command will just make him yell at me more. I put my hand in a gesture and he also doesn't care. So for Diesel it usually requires a timeout in his crate and being ignored. Ignoring Kahlua though would never ever work. She will yell all day until she gets your attention. A stern correction and then reward for the correct behavior is all that works for her.

And my dog Cerberus was a very very quiet dog. So in my experience it depends on your dog. I know that is extremely unhelpful but the yelling has been a struggle for us as well and what works with one dog for us does not work for the other.

Ok, I have also been giving her a time out in her crate when she yells at me. Most of the time when she is just yelling at me for attention, she is also puppy biting me. My boyfriend and I agreed when she turned 8 months old we had to start being even more strict about the puppy biting. Not that we weren’t strict before, but she is 100 pounds now and too big to be biting us lol. So now we have a 1 strike rule. When she is hopping around barking and being crazy, as soon as those teeth touch anywhere they aren’t supposed to.... she goes to jail, only for about a minute. But after a couple times in jail she calms down.

We have also been adding hand gestures to our commands, it seems to work better most of the time. And when she is in a listening mood the “shh-finger-to-the-lips-sign” works very well, very quickly. Your response is helpful, good to know I’m not alone :) thank you!
 

DennasMom

Well-Known Member
I would add in another command... like "enough"...

Denna gets one request for "quiet", which gets rewarded when she complies... if she keeps barking when she knows she should stop, she gets an "enough" in angry-mom voice with a really dirty look... and NO treat. If that doesn't work, she gets sent to her 'place' ... which always works, since the 'target' she was barking at (in her case, normally a delivery person) is no longer visible.

I consider training to be:
1. Train the word/action combination - reward every successful reaction to the command word. [vocabulary lessons]
2. Randomly ask for the action and reward each time [proofing vocabulary]
3. Ask for the action when needed and reward randomly [normal use]

In #3 you need to KNOW that the dog understands the requested action. If you are asking for "quiet" and you think the dog is not responding because she's confused as to what you're asking for... go back to step 1.
If you know the dog understands and is just being a brat... start throwing in negative consequences (i.e. "go to place" when barking at you to play ball longer) - so the dog finds it in their best interest to do as asked, quicker.

We did a lot of the same things you're doing - hand signals are AWESOME helpers. Denna responds better to visual cues than words most of the time, too.
And, I agree on your 1-strike, rule, too! 8 months is one of those last 'trial' period when the puppy will really push the boundaries to see which ones stick. Fun times!!! :)
 

Nik

Well-Known Member
I would add in another command... like "enough"...

Denna gets one request for "quiet", which gets rewarded when she complies... if she keeps barking when she knows she should stop, she gets an "enough" in angry-mom voice with a really dirty look... and NO treat. If that doesn't work, she gets sent to her 'place' ... which always works, since the 'target' she was barking at (in her case, normally a delivery person) is no longer visible.

I consider training to be:
1. Train the word/action combination - reward every successful reaction to the command word. [vocabulary lessons]
2. Randomly ask for the action and reward each time [proofing vocabulary]
3. Ask for the action when needed and reward randomly [normal use]

In #3 you need to KNOW that the dog understands the requested action. If you are asking for "quiet" and you think the dog is not responding because she's confused as to what you're asking for... go back to step 1.
If you know the dog understands and is just being a brat... start throwing in negative consequences (i.e. "go to place" when barking at you to play ball longer) - so the dog finds it in their best interest to do as asked, quicker.

We did a lot of the same things you're doing - hand signals are AWESOME helpers. Denna responds better to visual cues than words most of the time, too.
And, I agree on your 1-strike, rule, too! 8 months is one of those last 'trial' period when the puppy will really push the boundaries to see which ones stick. Fun times!!! :)

Dirty mom look and angry voice work instantly to correct Kahlua on all problem behaviors. With Diesel it has zero effect but place or timeout does work for him. It's just amazing how different what works for who can be.