Speak?

[Backward_Cinderella]

Doom is such a smart dog - he knows sit, stay, down, roll over, etc... almost everything I'd like him to know.
I have no idea how to teach him to speak. I don't remember how I did it with Bear, other than that it involved a lot of barking on my part.
Does anyone have any advice? How did you teach your dogs?

 

[Laurelin]

Well teaching speak with the shelties was really easy lmao.... You just get them remotely excited or frustrated and that's their first resort. So it was easy to put speaking on command....

Sorry that wasn't much help.

See guys, there's a plus to having a vocal breed!

 

[HoundedByHounds]

Here's Cleo learning "Talk"...I used food and excitement.
VIDEO CLIP

 

[bubbatd]

I've taught it in the past , but now feel it's not necessary !

 

[Whisper]

With using frustration and excitement with food, Millie turns herself inside out waiting, but doesn't bark for that, so I had to use other ways to get her barking. I'd wait 'til a car came by or asked a friend to knock on the door. It was easy to put it on command once I eliminated things that wouldn't get the result I wanted. I also taught her "enough" at the same time.

 

[Squishy22]

I tought my old rottie how to speak. It was pretty simple and she leaned it FAST... within an hour or so.

I just get her riled up and say "SPEAK!" over and over with an excited tone of voice. As soon as she made any kind of noise vocally I gave her a treat. I haven't tried it with my other dogs... yet, but plan on it.

 

[lizzybeth727]

I did the same thing as mentioned above, used frustration and clicked for any vocalization. It came out as a cute little cry at first, and I wanted to leave it at that, but then I discovered that people can't hear it if we're out in public. So I just clicked louder and louder cries until she finally barked.

No, of course it's not necessary to teach your dog to speak. Just like it's not necessary to teach them shake, roll over, play dead, beg, any of those things. But it gets your dog thinking, that's the important thing.

 

[jacko]

This also might help.. http://www.ehow.com/how_14237_train-dog-bark.html

 

[Backward_Cinderella]

Thanks everyone!

 

[DanL]

Gunnar was easy, and I can't even remember how we taught it. Now I'm teaching him "quiet" because he always barks when he's excited.

Daisy just learned this recently. We used tempting food and got her excited. As soon as she make a noise, even if it wasn't a bark, we rewarded. Gradually we worked it up to it having to be a bark for her to get a treat. She's so funny because she almost makes little practice tries before she gives this little "woof" that is so deep you think, that's not from a lady!

And, after 6 years of trying. Bruzer finally picked up on it while we were teaching Daisy. We'd have all 3 sitting there, saying speak, and who ever did it first got the treat. Needless to say Gunnar got a lot of treats but the others caught on fast that if they wanted a treat they better bark.

Now we're working on a hand signal with Daisy, making the "you talk too much" sign with your hand, and she's been doing well responding to that.