Indicator "Barking" Question

[Mrs.K]

So I am trying to teach Indra to bark as indication but if there is one thing I suck at it is to get my dogs to speak. The only way to get them to bark is when I knock on the wall or the table because they think somebody is at the door. I've tried everything. From Food to howling & barking videos. It just doesn't work.

If I reward her for the barking once I knock on the table wouldn't I reward the behavior to bark at the door instead of the bark itself?

Does that make sense?

[Helios]

Mrs.K im with you in this one too, I've tried everything to teach helios the "Speak" command and thus far Helios barks only when someone is outside..

[chicagojosh]

i'm in a similar boat..

i want Cody to bark when he thinks someone is outside and he does So, when he does I do two things.

- I say "who's there?" that is sort of his speak command now. When he is already barking, I egg him my by "Cody, who's there?" he he gets even more into it. So, now if were home, and NOTHING is going on, I can still say "Cody, who's there?" and he starts barking and runs to the curtain to look and see.

-Praise him when he barks

[CassandGunnar]

I've only had success with teaching a speak command and I saw it on TV show (a local dog/pet training show) that I saw many years ago.

I put my dog in a sit/stay on somthing above the ground, so they can't just creep or walk away. Using food to "tease" the dog into speaking, then giving them the treat. I've had it work in few minutes and I've had it take a few sessions, but once they got it, it worked very well.

I have also put them on a chair to do it if you're training them inside. Anything where they're not "on the ground" so to speak, if that makes any sense. I currently use a short retaining wall in my back yard. It's basically a raised planting bed, and then I stand directly in front of them and block them from lunging or leaving.

I'm not expert and I'm not always up on the latest methods/theories on training, but I've had great luck with this method.

[GSDElsa]

I would perhaps speak with people about forcing an indication she isn't picking up on naturally. Maybe considering something else would be better? That is one of the main reasons I didn't pick barking as elsa's indicator. It just doesn't come naturally on day to day situations.

But perhaps you just need the right technique...which I can't help with lol. But I do know when I picked the pose slap for hers it took 30 seconds to train and she has been pretty darn reliable with it considering she is still a newbie.

[Jax's Mom]

This is one thing I actually know how to train any dog! LOL (I'm quite proud of myself for it actually) if everything else came as naturally to me, I'd be the next Cesar Millan
It's hard to explain... I could put it on YouTube but I'd be embarrassed to make an @$$ of myself...
I have a weird pitch I can do with my voice that when I say something like "woowoowoo" it makes dogs bark along with me... then like any other trick, convert the behavior to be done on command.
I can work the same thing into regular conversations and people think Jax is a genius because he "talks" back to me and answers my questions.

[Melgrj7]

We have trained Nash's indication (barking) by basically teasing him with a toy. I hold him back, he gets teased with the toy, he barks, he gets the toy. Now when he finds people they don't move or reward until he barks. (we worked the indication separately from the long searches for awhile, using run aways)

[FG167]

I personally do not like the bark as an indication if it does not come EXTREMELY naturally. I have found that when the dog is way crazy excited - like when they've found something - that their indication has to be utterly hard-wired in or it will fade or be forgotten in the overdrive of the find. Unless of course, you are doing disaster, in which case the bark is mandatory. What sort of SAR are you doing?? Also, what age is the dog? I have found that teaching "speak" is easier in non-talky dogs when they get older...

[catbest]

I can always get my dogs to speak by moving my hand kind of in an alligator bite move while they are kind of already pumped up.They watch my hand and move their mouths the same way. Then I just reinforce it. You could give it a try.
Cathie

[KZoppa]

lol i taught Shasta to speak by barking at her and using one hand to hold the treat and the other to make it look like i'm mocking someone when they're talking as a hand signal. When Shasta did that huff back at me, she would get rewarded. and we went from there until she was actually barking at the hand signal, then i would throw out 'speak' with the signal until i could just say 'speak' if she does the huff thing but doesnt fully bark, she doesnt get a reward unless thats what i want her to do. I've had NO luck teaching Shelby or Riley to 'speak' though. Some dogs just dont get it.