NEED HELP...How To Teach Your Dog to "SPEAK" or "BARK"

[aprilm1989]

Hi there,
My dog is 3years old now, we got her at age of 2, her previous owner kept her in the garage within their house. She used to come and go as she pleased to the potty as she had a dog flap. When we first got her she had her missapps but she got away with it with moving homes etc. Its not till a year later she is having a phase of goin to the potty in the kitchen which you can appriecate its not a good way to start the day by cleaning Wee or Poo up

She used to get feed 7am and 6pm and during the day she stays out side her kennel so she can roam the garden etc. Ive now stopped giving her a meal @ 6pm, she gets put outside around 10/11pm in the evening to do her business. you will watch her do her thing so at this point your convinced she'll be ok from here on in.

Ive tried outting her outside @4am for the potty which she does do then you go back to bed and come back to her at 7am and there is another pile of dog do do

Im in the process of teaching her to bark, ive teased her with her toys, leads and treats it just doesnt work. i need to teach her to bark firstly so then i can teach her to bark when she needs to the potty..

i need help with this, as my partner wants to put her in the kennel all year round which i think is very wrong!!! plus we got her to be a house pet/friend.

[Sarah83]

If you can't get her to bark why not teach her to ring a bell instead? I'm sure your neighbours wouldn't appreciate her barking at 4am. Playing around with her feeding times may help too. What time is she fed in the evening now? Has she always had free access to the garden so she can toilet when she wants? That could be part of the problem, she's never learned to hold it. Plus you're missing soooo many opportunities to reward her for going in the right place which is really important with house training.

Personally I would have her in the bedroom in a crate next to the bed at night so that I heard her whenever she started moving around or whining until you get the problem sorted. And I would go back to house training as though she were a very young pup.

[JudyN]

Does she ask to go out during the day when she needs to go? When I was housetraining Jasper and he got to the stage of standing by the back door when he needed to go, I'd put my hand on the door handle as if about to open it, and say 'What do you say?' He would look at me, wondering why I wasn't opening the door, and eventually would whine. At the slightest noise, I'd praise him and let him out. Eventually he'd vocalise deliberately, and we gradually worked on increasing the volume until it was a bark. He will now bark when I say 'What do you say?' anywhere, not just when he wants to go out. Possibly you could teach your dog to bark not by teasing her, but witholding something she wants - a treat or a toy - until she whines, then praise her and let her have it. (Though rewarding a dog with food when she whines may not be the best idea....

This won't help, though, if your dog doesn't feel she has to go outside to do her stuff. As Sarah says, I think you need to go back to basics - there's a thread dedicated to the subject here: viewtopic.php?f=20&t=6125

[abbyneo]

We just started using the bell with our dogs. We have it hanging up by the door so every time we go out to go potty, we ring the bell and say "outside". We've only been at it about a week, but now Neo has started nosing the bell on our way out, so I think it's going to be a success. She also had the problem of never making a sound when she had to go..she'd just go stand by the door for a second then start peeing. So now every time she goes over toward the door and stands there for a sec, we ring the outside bell and head out!