Dog owners: How do you train your dog to stop barking and biting?

Hi, I'm thirteen years old and this is my first dog.. like ever. I've always had hamsters or bunny's or fish in the past.. anything that DOESN'T make noise pretty much. I had been begging my mom for the longest time to buy me a puppy because i was always lonely in the house with nothing to do.I told my mom I'd love em and take care of em with all my heart and do anything. I thought it was a piece of cake. All you have to do is feed them and play with them right? WRONG.


I got my first puppy Shihtzu and named him Dash. Right about now he is 10 1/2 weeks old. Most dogs of these kinds rarely bark, but i got a bark all right.


He is the cutest thing ever but the problem is he barks too much! He wasn't like this the first week or so. Now it is just non stop. I can't go to sleep, leave him alone, or just have a nice quiet evening. He only barks when I'm not playing with him or not petting him or when he is lonely. I try my best to be around him, but i just have other things to do and places to be. It's driving me insane and sometimes i yell at him or tap him on the head. But that just makes it worse. I don't know what to do! HELP!





My other problem is biting. I know he is a puppy, and they teeth, but my family spoils him sooo much with toys he still bites my hand and feet and growls and barks if he doesn't get to bite on me. And he has SHARP baby teeth. My family spoils him with toys A LOT but he likes to bite people instead.


Like sometimes when i wanna just pet him because he is being a good boy, that is literally impossible. He always tilts his head towards my hand and trys to bite at me. I know puppy's are suppose to do this, but i don't want him to get that habit of it and think that it is OK for him to bite people.


I don't want to hurt him and hit him for being bad because that just makes it worse and more aggressive. He is still a baby. But a huge turd.





Please, I'm begging you. Tell me how your trained your dog how to stop barking and biting. Your techniques, your consequences you gave your dog, your rewards you gave your dog, EVERYTHING. Please this is way harder than i thought and I've only been getting 6 hours of sleep because of him! ...and it's summer ):Dog owners: How do you train your dog to stop barking and biting?
you know what....ive been sitting in my car, and i thought the same thing. i mean, COME ON, they are too much trouble in the first place, in fact, who needs dogs??? i mean, take your baby sister outside and through a friggin bone and she'll go get it i bet. all im saying is, i know what its like to put both my pant's legs on at the same time, and thats NO fun at all. by the way, i hoped this helped, i really do, you seem like someone who would go ';Q-Q-Q-Q-QU-QU-QU-QU'; the first time you ever stepped into this world....by the way, Old Yeller called, and he wants his bladder control back.








-CohenDog owners: How do you train your dog to stop barking and biting?
get a dog trainer. no money? get a job. then pay the dog trainer.
Be the pack leader.
Hit with shovel
well thats what dogs do but when they bite or bark just say ';no';
It sounds like he's barking for attention. If you give him attention (even just to tap him), you're giving him exactly what he wants. You're reinforcing the behavior because you are rewarding him for barking, albeit inadvertently. So, what do you have to do? Ignore him. Completely and totally. And you MUST be consistent. Until he catches on, he's going to be incredibly annoying, but you can't give him attention when he's barking! Any time he's being quiet, *that's* when you lavish him with attention. And remember, before the barking gets better, it's going to get worse. That's called the extinction burst:


http://k9deb.com/nilif.htm





Wait a second. Would you believe that I found an article specifically about how to deal with barking Shih Tzu puppies?


http://www.shihtzuplanet.com/shih-tzu-do鈥?/a>





As for biting:


http://www.doggonesafe.com/stop%20puppy%鈥?/a>


Every time his teeth touch skin, make a sharp noise like a high-pitched yelp or cry of OUCH!. *Instantly* stand up and ignore him for several minutes. If you can, leave the room. No talking or acknowledging him in any way for several minutes. Then, acknowledge him again like normal, affectionately but low-key.





As for what I did, specifically.. For biting, we pretty much followed the method described above. My two-year-old Mastiff has very good bite inhibition; when you have a giant breed, it's important to make the biting stop while the puppy is as young as possible. He couldn't have been any older than six months *tops* when he gave it up, but I'm sure the behavior completely faded closer to four or five months. (He was never a huge biter, though. I mean, he didn't constantly bite, he only bit when in the heat of play.)





Our newer puppy, now nine weeks old, is a little land-shark. It's normal. He, too, keeps his mouth open and always looks ready to bite, especially when he's being petted. But, after having him for a week, he actually doesn't bite much. Every day, he's more inclined to lick than to bite. We're using the same method.





As for barking, I just ignored attention-seeking barking. It was hard sometimes, puppy yelping is so SHRILL, but oh well. But, my dogs haven't been and aren't huge attention barkers. Mastiffs are guardian breeds, so they tend to bark at what is wrong. The vast majority of the time, my older Mastiff is simply barking because he heard or saw something. In that case, I redirect him by bringing his attention to an item, game or something, or I interrupt him by silently standing between him and the window and blocking him. It's effective enough.
For the barking use an empty 1 gallon plastic cartoon and put change in it, when the dog barks shake the carton towards him and firmly (not agressivily) say NO. For some reason this works, i tried it when my dog would bark and bark when we would be eating dinner, i saw the results in about a week but its different for every dog.





also u can give them ice cubes and freeze theyre toys, ur puppy is teething and its painful for them. hope this helped!!
Wow.


You've had a handful. lol. The first thing I would do as a first time owner, is to calm down just a little, enough to have some patience with him. If he wasnt a puppy, i would have sugested that you get a shock collar. It would only be temporary and its extremely effective, however he is not an adult and most people are against that. So looks like we have to do this with way more patience.





Let's start with his barking problem.-There are two possible solutions:


Get a spray bottle and fill it with water, everytime the dog barks, spray him and say, ';hush!'; (or whatever command you want him to know). In the few seconds that he might silence reward him. If he doesnt silence for long enough for you to reward him, spray him with ever bark, remembering to say the command. It is recommended that you aim for his nose or mouth, not the eyes or face. Eventually the dog will have a little break, wait 4-6 seconds and reward him with praise, or a treat. While giving a treat, feel free to say, ';Good, hush, boy, good.'; sounding as sweet as possible. Repeat the following until the breaks become longer and longer and longer, or until you run out of treats. lol. Give him a treat every once in a while to let him know he's doing the right thing. %26amp;%26amp; your on your way to a good behaving silent dog!


If this doesnt work....


try putting him outside(or in a different room if you live in a apartment) everytime he gets loud. Make sure to say your ';quiet'; command while you put him there. Wait for him to calm down (as in stop barking for a moment) and let him out, this technique could take a while, because of how you say your dog barks, but eventually he will shut up, even if it's an hour later! Reward him for hushing and return to the previous room with him, he'll probably start barking and repeat the entire process, until he stops.





Now for the biting:


Puppies are going to bite, and you can't stop it, but he should know what to bite and why. You can try many things to get him to stop biting you. The 1st thing i would try is to yelp loudly everytime he bites you. Why? Because when puppies are young and with their momma, they play and sometimes hurt each other, when one puppy wants to let the other puppies know it's hurt, it yelps and the other pup stops biting or playing with him. The next method to try is again the spray bottle technique. Everytime he bites spray him(it also helps if you blow in his face or snout) once he lets go reward him and repeat with every bite. Be sure to say your wanted command such as let go or don't bite. If your dog still refuses to stop biting, the last resort is to teach him to let go. Get a toy(but make sure it's a toy he's never going to play with or else it might confuse him, I would suggest a sock or an unwanted shoe or piece of clothing. Make him play with it and out of the blue, say, let go!(or your wanted phrase) and be still so that the item becomes less interesting. If he continues to pull and tug...be patient, he will let go. But don't keep saying it, say it once or twice but no more and wait. Once he lets go reward him and play with him with another, unwanted object. Repeat the previous until he's got it down pact now the next time he bites you, say let go or get off or whatever the phrase was and he will be sure to let go or whatever!





I really hope this helps. Please, tell me if it does. contact me and let me know.
i have a shihtzu too and he doesnt really bark but if he does just go up to him and say no in a aggresive tone youll have to talk to your parents and them to do the same...as for the biting when he bites you hit him(not to hard tho just a firm tap) on his nose and say no! (also tell your parents to do that) eventually he will stop.


hope i helped(:
idk.. i have a dog that literally wont shut the f*ck up! literally.. i cant even have friends over cause she barks too much.. one time i had a friend sleep over, and all we heard was BARK BARK BARK without a break for about 8 hours... and its really high pitch too..


its been like this for 7 years.... cheery .
uhh growl him for when hes being bad


and worship him for when hes being good.





feed him when he listens (make him sit before you give food)


if he bites you (light snap over the noise its where it hurts the most) and say NO





if he pisses in the house scrub his nose in it and then chuck him out side





or hire a dog trainer which is probaly most simple and easyest one. but also costly
I'm 15 and I have 2 daschunds (weiner dogs or pronounced doxens) anyways barking is something you're gonna have to get used to. It's like their way of saying ';something isn't right'; or ';somethings great!.'; If they're barking constantly slap him on the nose and say no very sternly. Biting is also soething you have to get used to, they're like babies, they need a binkie sometimes, your feet/hands are their binkie. It takes awhile for them to become trained and calm. My one is 1 year old and still barks a lot. It's the personality of the dog and you can't just make it stop barking. They'll start getting used to certain sounds, smells, and things of that nature after awhile. Give it time, it's worth the reward.
I'm not really sure what to tell you about the barking. My dogs barks all the time too. They are just looking for attention.





But about the biting. When he bites you, point your finger and tell him sternly ';No biting.';





I would also recommend maybe buying a book about training a puppie. They will give you alot of good tips.





It's going to take time though. Dogs are fun and all but they are alot of work!





Good luck =)
to stop him from barking, lift the leash up like your choaking him, if you do that, he will eventually stop and know his consiquences.
I'm going to be honest with you and you won't like it.





Unless you are emotionally mature, 13 is just too young to understand how to take care of a dog. I am going to assume that you are emotionally mature, so that you can understand and take my advice without the usual early teen pride that comes at that age---- however you wrote your question in a very mature way. In short terms, I'm going to talk to you like you're an adult.








Alright, since I'm talking to an adult...You have to understand, he didn't bark the first few weeks because he's still a puppy and unaware of his environment. He was too afraid to be aggressive.








You have to train your puppy to ';No barking';. It's a command, and you have to follow it with treats. Address him by name and as soon as he looks at you and doesn't bark, give him a treat. Eventually, he will recognize that you are addressing him by name and he will look at you (hide the treat behind your back now)... call his name and when he doesn't bark and does look at you, reward him. Teach him to sit, come, and lay down first. If you are having trouble with this:





Sit:


Present him the treat, say ';Sit'; and force him to sit with the hand that doesn't have the treat in it. As soon as he sits, says ';Good sit'; and give him a treat. This takes some time for him to learn, at least a couple days if you are doing it constantly. After you think he knows this trick, hide the treat from him and don't reward him until he sits. He will learn by command to sit, without a treat being presented. Then you must vary the times you give him a treat. Every other time, and then randomly. This goes for every trick you choose to train him from now on. However, having said this, you have to give him a treat at random times. If he learns he won't get a treat for this, or other combinations of tricks, he won't perform for you anymore.





Come:


Hide the treat when he isn't looking, then walk away from him---make sure he doesn't come to you, then present it after you say ';come'; and when he does come to you say ';good come'; This also takes a few days of constant training.





Down:


I've had problems with this for all of my dogs, but it was mostly because I did it wrong. When you are teaching your dog this command, you must lay the treat between his paws while he is in the down position and say ';good down';, just like you did with the other tricks. I was doing it by giving the treat to him out of hand, which is bad because it encourages him to reach up to get his treat.





Now... if this doesn't stop his barking, you have to teach him a separate trick, which is ';No bark';. It has to be used in combination with another trick and not alone. For example, tell him to sit and ';Wait';.... which is just the basic ';Sit'; command, added with a hand gesture that you can make up to ';Stop';. As soon as he follows your command, reward him.








Now, rewards are a big part of training at first. You will have to ween him off this. Do it constantly at first, and then every other time, and finally randomly. Eventually, he will learn not to do it.








When I mean randomly: you must still reward your dog with vocal praise. Act really excited he did what you said, but don't reward him. In the end, you're dog will be rewarded by your praise and not by the treats.








I can not underestimate the vocal praise, even if it's something small, you have to praise your dog.








This is the best, and non-violent, way to train your dog.
The problem with most dogs is their owners.





First, you've trained your dog to bark. How? When it barks, you give him attention. So what does he do when he wants attention? He barks.





The biting is showing you who's boss. If you want the dog to be the boss, keep doing what you're doing. Otherwise, if he bites, he must be punished.





Yes, you and your family are probably spoiling him rotten. Think about the word ';spoil';. You're thinking ';indulge';, but what you really should be thinking is ';ruin';.





Keep tolerating the misbehavior and you'll wind up with a dog that does whatever it wants, whenever it wants, bites, barks and thinks YOU belong to HIM. That behavior in an adult dog is why so many are killed every year at the dog pound. Stupid owners don't make the effort to control their dogs until the dogs are so out of control, they don't fit into the family - and then they have to be destroyed.





Shitzus aren't very smart dogs, so don't expect to teach him much - but you can certainly teach him the basics.





Get a book on dog training for more details. And remember, to effectively train your dog:





1) Your dog must know who's the boss. (It better be you!)


2) You must be CONSISTENT in your handling of the dog. That includes your family. If they are undermining your efforts, ask them if they're TRYING to kill your dog. If they're too stupid to understand the connection between their bad behavior and the dog's bad behavior, you have bigger problems than a misbehaving dog.





The time to start is NOW. Don't let bad habits become ingrained.





And any idiot who says you have to just put up with the bad behavior is just that: An idiot.
Your puppy is a baby. He needs patience, and he needs gentle guidance. Whenever he barks or bites, turn your back on him and ignore him - completely. When he is quiet and calm, praise him and give him attention. If you and the other members of your family are consistent, he will quickly learn which behaviors get him attention and which do not.
It sounds like he barks to get attention, so the worst thing you can do is reward him with it. When he barks, completely ignore him, then when he's quiet, spoil him with attention. If he still doesn't get the picture, try walking up to him without saying a word, splashing his face with water, and walking away. The important thing is to not give him anything positive to relate with barking. To a dog, even getting shouted at or hit is better than being completely ignored.





As for the biting... I'd tell him 'NO' in a stern/angry voice whenever he goes for your hand and then ignore him until he calms down. Hopefully that will help.
There is a book called ';SitStayFetch'; that has many excellent ideas for stopping biting. There are also a multitude of collars and other means, such as spraying water on the dog when he does something you don't want him to do, to help stop the barking. Some of the collars give electrical shocks, which I don't condone, but others hat a ultrasonic sound that only the dog can hear when he barks that seems to stop the barking. The collars cost around $60, but do seem effective in stopping the ';nuisance'; barking. Sometimes the dog will bark and bite when their routine playtime is roughhousing, so try to minimize that kind of play and encourage ball chasing, Frisbee, or other ';socially acceptable'; behavior that you are trying to encourage. A small treat when they are doing what you want is also a good positive reinforcement (or bribe) however you want to look at it.


Good luck, you need to get the ';upper hand'; with the puppy, just as you want to do with a small child. You want to encourage the positive behaviors and train them not to do what you don't want. Try a web search for dog barking and biting for other resources if the above don't seem feasible to you. You have you hands full with a two-year-old and a 5 month old puppy!


Source(s):


Personal experience and web search for dog barking and biting.
The barking can be solved by either yelling at the dog to show that it is bad, and spanking him. The biting though is a different story, if the method mentioned above doesn't work, contact an animal trainer.
Wow, that is an unfortunate situation. Getting a dog involves a LOT more than playing with him and feeding him. A dog is not a stuffed animal, as I'm sure you now know.





It sounds like your entire family is going to have to completely rethink how you treat your dog. You are describing a dog that is out of control- aggressive and the dominant presence in the house. Dogs are adorable companions, but they can NOT be treated as equals. They require and thrive under a firm hand. A well trained dog thinks of himself as the bottom of the totem pole in the house. This doesn't require you to hit or abuse your dog in any way, but comes from firm discipline in the form of consistent praise for good behavior and training. A well behaved dog should never bite. You should be able to take away his food, play with his toys, even push him to the ground, and he will let you because YOU are the dominant dog in his eyes.





Here is a good website to start with:





http://www.dog-obedience-training-review.com/





Go through the entire website. Learn all about training techniques and the proper way to treat your dog. Make your entire family go through the site and learn about how a dog should be treated. It is not enough for you to change the way you act; if the rest of your family continues to let him dominate them then his behavior will never change and he will control the household for the rest of his life.





There is much too much involved in how a dog should be treated to cover on here. You and your family NEED to make some serious changes in the way you treat your dog... your dog wasn't born with his behavior problems, his owners have let him become what he is. Don't worry, that can be changed, but it will a lot of time and consistent dedication by you and your family to do it. The website I linked is only one source of information. If you need help you can contact a professional dog trainer.





Have you ever seen an episode of the Dog Whisperer? I would watch one if you haven't. The show is about a professional dog trainer who has to go to different houses and help owners with their dogs who bite, refuse to walk obediently on the leash, use the house as a bathroom, etc. I think it'll help you get a good image of how to train your dog and the well-behaved animal your dog can be with some work on your part.





I'm afraid I have to be frank- it sounds like your dog has absolutely no discipline. Training him isn't going to happen in a minute, and it must involve everyone who lives with him. Even if you all do put in the time, he will need daily walks to get rid of his energy and lots of affection for the rest of his life. If your entire family isn't willing to put in the necessary time and energy, I think you try and find another home for him, one in which every person is willing to give him a lot of attention.





ps- Did you get your dog from a breeder or an animal shelter? If not, if you got him from a pet store or something similar, I would definitely recommend you take him to the vet asap. Pet stores get their animals from puppy mills, horrifying and inhumane places which breed dogs like machines to make a profit. These places are filthy and lock the animals up in tiny cages so they can cram as many litters into the warehouses as possible. If you got your dog from a pet store, which got him from a puppy mill, chances are he has many of the diseases which are common in puppy mills. He should be checked right away.