Dog won't bark - Page 1

Moving back to dogs and training, here's a stumper:

I have a nice little bitch that just plain won't bark. She never really has even as a pup. Not on the post, in the blind, out in the yard, never. She's got a huge powerful bark when she lets loose (rarely) but, short of putting a cat in a cage or a heron on a pole, NOTHING gets this dog to bark. No I haven't tried those really. But seriously, the only time she ever barks is when she's in the yard and the heron is in the creek (all the dogs hate that thing) or if she's in her kennel and a cat runs by. Nothing else. Ever. She's got drive out the wazoo but is dead silent.

Any suggestions?

My suggestion is to thank your lucky stars!!  No problems with the neighbors. 

Just kidding, but knowing how many people have neighbors who complain every time a dog lets out a woof, I'm just trying to look on the bright side. 

How old is she?  One of my dogs didn't have much to say for himself until he was almost a year old.  When he started SchH training we always brought him out with a real barker or two.  The helper would play with them with the tug or a pillow on a long line and that helped him learn to bark.  The helper has excellent timing so would immediately reward a bark with a bite.  With some dogs you'd have to reward even a little tiny noise or a whine just to get them to vocalize, then gradually hold out for a real bark.

And I saw this once: a dog (not a GSD) simply Would.Not.Bark.  Tried everything over quite a few sessions.  One day they decided to bring his crate onto the field: put him in his crate and the helper did everything he'd normally do except the dog was in his crate.  (No hitting or banging on the crate was done).  Anyway, this worked, and the dog soon forcefully barked at the helper.  After just a couple of times of being praised for that he could be worked like a normal dog and the crate went away.  I'm not recommending this method, just passing it on as something I saw once with a dog who would not bark after everything else had been tried.

It was a wire crate, not an airline crate.  Don't know if that would make a difference, but the wire crate is of course open all around.

I like the Idea of dead silence on an attack .I guess it's not so good if your dog is a sch dog . I have no sugesstion to get it to bark .I do have a personal protection trained dog and he is silent ..But deadly  . I like mine like that . I bet Sunic ,4pack ,Molly ,Shelly ,Cris Smith , and a few others on board know what you need to do . Good luck .

hello,

 just had the same problem, we beat our heads for 4 mo. straight nothing worked, called german friends and trainers nothing would work. my dog will go so high he locks in pray drive. so i tied him out. got down almost sitting with the wedge in front of me, after a while he let out a whine, so i'd make the wedge move, just alittle, and waited for another noise, he figured out the more noise he made the more the prey would move! as others say as soon as i got a prey bark he got a bite, then it was back to it after lots of praise! about 4 times of this and he had it figured out. when i say we tried everything, i mean everything, the helper sat in front of him for 2 hours without a movement, nothing! so you may just have to try everything and figure out what will work, does she prey whine at all when being worked?
 anything?

kenny

Are you working this dog formally with a helper or are you trying to get her to bark on your own?  What is the goal with her?  Do you want her to alert when someone comes to your home or are you doing schutzhund with her?

I have had good luck teaching my dogs to speak on command by barking at them, kind of like agitation, with a reward for the first little whine or squeak. It's always worked. Might look pretty amusing to others, so I only teach this in the privacy of my home!But they really do catch on quickly, they seem to think it's pretty funny. 'Course, shutting them up is another issue! Once they start speaking, they find they have a whole lot to say! jh

you don't know how lucky you are, my 2yr old bitch never stops

When Brago was just starting out, he would not bark either.  He would stand there in the puppy/young dog line amidst a barking frenzy of other dogs and just dough-dee-dough, look around, lalalala, this is interesting. Finally we set this up. Him in his crate facing the open hatchback of the car, about 15 yards from a wooded area. My husband went out of sight, I sat in the passenger seat. Helper in gear with the whip came sneaking out of the woods as if to creep up on me. Brago went off like a bomb, I paired the giblaut with his barking and praised lavishly. We repeated that several times, then took him back to the line. No more barking problems! Dean (Calderon) offered him a bite and he nearly dragged him over the fence!   Brago was about 11 months old IIRC, but already about 80 pounds.

We had a neighbor when we lived in the country who had a GSD.  She was very sweet, a companion dog with no formal training.  She also did not bark.  One night our neighbor heard the most God-awful screaming and yelling outside his house.  By the time he got to the door a car was roaring away and he found a trail of blood from just inside his fenced yard to the highway...about 50 yards.  His girl never made a sound, just waited for the bad guy to climb over the 4 foot chain link fence and let him have it.  We all got the biggest kick out of it and I'm sure she got a steak for her next meal.  Sometimes silent but deadly works out well.

Deb

Not if you're planning on competing. The "bark and hold" just won't cut it with no bark!