Speak Help

[Stella's Mom]

I have been trying to teach my 11 month old to speak on command for weeks now.

I have made the hand barking signal when she is barking and said speak and rewarded her, she usually stops barking the minute I say "speak".

I have done what the decoy at Shutzhund has advised, hold her favorite treat in my hand and wait for her to speak before I give it to her. She just ends up going through a bunch of other commands that she has been taught thinking one of these tricks must be right, platz, sitz, paw....

Does anyone have another way to teach to speak? My girl is pretty smart, but she is just not getting this.

[Liesje]

Can you back-tie her and use that to stimulate some frustration and drive?

[lhczth]

Why do you want her to speak? That would be my first question.

[CeCe]

The time to teach speak is when they are young puppies and play bark all the time. I taught one of my girls at around 4 months and she has a great speak. My other girl, whom I acquired when she was 1, has never learned it.

[holland]

I just think its a fun thing to teach and I love the whisper-its strange because the one dog I have that loves it bark-it took me longer to teach it to her-you could try a toy-it might just take time

[Stella's Mom]

Originally Posted by lhczth

Why do you want her to speak? That would be my first question.

It is required at our Shutzhund. They have to speak on command when going in front of the decoy at the blind.

[Stella's Mom]

Originally Posted by CeCe

The time to teach speak is when they are young puppies and play bark all the time. I taught one of my girls at around 4 months and she has a great speak. My other girl, whom I acquired when she was 1, has never learned it.

Oh no, I hope that is not the case for Stella.

[Stella's Mom]

Originally Posted by holland

I just think its a fun thing to teach and I love the whisper-its strange because the one dog I have that loves it bark-it took me longer to teach it to her-you could try a toy-it might just take time

The decoy did that with her, and he looked at me and say, you still have not taught her to speak...

[Liesje]

To me a fun "speak" command is not the same as an active guard. If the dog won't bark in guarding, you need to work on that issue with the helper. The dog needs to be in the right state of drive/frame of mind and most of that depends on how your helper is working the dog. Learning a "speak" command at home won't hurt but won't really help either, other than showing the dog it's OK to bark (sometimes) but if the dog is not barking or guarding I don't think a speak command alone will overcome that. I use a "pass auf" command in Schutzhund and SDA (I require my dogs to enter the field/facility under control and then *I* tell them when to start barking, so long as the helper is on the same page and not getting in my dog's space before that) but usually adding the pass auf command comes with adding control; I'm training the dog to turn on AND off at the same time on my command, not just training it to bark.

[Stella's Mom]

Originally Posted by Liesje

Can you back-tie her and use that to stimulate some frustration and drive?

I will try that. We worked on that a bit last week at protection. She has only done protection training 3x, so maybe that added stimulation will help.