Training a staffy to bark on command

Our staff hardly ever barks. In fact, the only time that he ever barks is during rough play (something I don’t exactly want to encourage with there being children here a lot). I’ve tried to teach him how to bark through all the usual methods that I’ve found online to no avail. Has anyone ever had this trouble and got any training tricks to share? Any outside of the box ideas that might give him the encouragement he needs? I’m at a loss at the minute.

He’s 13 months old now and he learnt all the other commands that we’ve taught him with reasonable ease. He sits, lies down, rolls over, stands up on his back feet, waits and takes himself off to bed on command. He just won’t “speak”.

Any help would be really appreciated. The next and last thing I’ve got in mind to teach him is to take him to my friends house whose dog, who gets along well with ours, can speak on command. Hopefully he can learn the behaviour from her. Is this a good idea?

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Hi & Welcome to the Forum from Flo and me

My girl only ever barks when we play hide the rope toy or we go to her treat box. I think you'll find that Staffies aren't really very talkative.

Is there a reason you want her to bark or is it just as a party trick kind of thing ?

To be honest, I’m not too fussed but my wife would like him to bark at the door because our old dog used to and it makes her feel safer in the house while I’m at work. Our old dogs used to and we minded a friends staffy x boxer a week or two ago while he’s was away and he barked at the door too.

There’s been a couple of burglaries near where we live lately (our next door neighbour’s house was robbed the night we were looking after our friends dog and he went berserk around the same time it happened) so I’d like to teach him to bark on command and then hopefully at the door in a similar manner to our other dogs have done in the past if possible.

It’s not just that though. I’ve started trying to train him to speak now so I’m determined to get there with him

Ah ok I see your reasoning.

Not sure how to achieve the desired effect without ending up with a Staffy that would bark at almost anything, reason I say that is that yes Staffies are smart and will learn to react to a noise or given situation but how do you apply boundaries so that he doesn't bark at the front door at the slightest whim.

You can of course train him to react with reward and could be achieved with repetitive training, though I do think you'd end up with a negative effect with him barking and annoying you for barking at inopportune times.

Having had two Staffies, they are very loyal and will react should their family be threatened anyway, so you might well find that no training is needed.

Hope that all makes sense.

Yeah, I’ve been thinking that myself.
My original plan was to reward train him to bark on command, then to do the same at the sound of the doorbell and then perhaps on the sound of the gate being opened depending on whether that would be loud enough for him. But getting him to make any noise at all is proving to be extremely difficult. As you said, they’re naturally quiet anyway aren’t they.

As I said, it isn’t that important to me really although I would like to be able to give my wife peace of mind. It is bothering me a bit that we can’t seem to get there with this particular command now though, I’m like a dog with a bone (excuse the pun) and I can’t help but feel like we haven’t quite finished training until he gets it but no ones perfect! He’s very close though to be fair. I know we’re all biased but he isn’t half a cracker!

Hi from me & Katy, I have the opposite problem & in the process of training Katy not to bark at the door or window No one can pass our house without her shouting her head off!!!

The problem, as I'm sure you're aware, is that most training methods reinforce a behaviour your dog naturally gives you, with the idea being that you can set them up to do what you want so you can put it on command.

It sounds like the only opportunities you have to do this are during rough play. Although I can understand your reluctance to encourage rough play with kids around, I do think that, with good off switches in place and clear boundaries as to when it's acceptable and when not, you should be able to use this at safe times but teach him not at others. We absolutely have a 'quiet' request that all 3 know - essential with the very vocal rough and tumble here! It's also used for not barking at other things - Millie's quite a noisy little thing!

So that's what I'd do, I'd use the rough play to get the bark and reward it with spot on timing, then pair it with the command, and then pair it with the doorbell, etc. At the same time, I'd teach 'quiet' to mean don't bark in case you do get a sudden release of the vocal chords and extend that to mean 'quieten down', so you can ask him to stop playing when you want. You might also want to give him something else to do, one of the things you've already taught, as 'don't do x' is always harder that 'do y'.

Good luck and let us know how it goes!

Quick update: We carried on using rough play as a trigger and we’re at the point now where he’s barking on command but he’s also sometimes jumping up as he’s doing so which is probably because we used the rough play at the start. Hopefully, this will stop soon as he learns it’s just the bark that earns him his treat. Really pleased though; big improvement over the weekend!

If he doesn't stop jumping, try only giving a treat for a bark without a jump. What often happens with dogs who are expecting a treat is that they'll try different behaviours to see what works if their first attempt doesn't get them their reward, so sometimes it's just a question of holding out till they figure out the stage you're trying to teach.

Sounds like you're making great progress though, it's so satisfying, isn't it?

Yeah, that’s what we’re doing at the minute and he’s starting to learn I think. He’s still getting confused sometimes and going through his full arsenal of tricks, standing on back legs and rolling over etc when I say “speak!” but he’s doing well and he’s getting there.

Going to give him a few more days to get the simple “speak!” command perfected before we start teaching him to bark at the door because I don’t want to complicate things too much yet.

Sounds like real progress

To answer your question I've made a video to show how I do it. The difficult part, as I mention in the video, is to be able to get your dog into a calm attentive state before you do any sort of training. The dog has to be attentive and calm to be able to understand what you want. To get to that stage will take time but its the basis of a good relationship with your dog. Be quiet, be patient, be calm. Wait until your dog is ready to learn, to look at you and be waiting for a cue from you as to 'what next'. They don't speak or understand english so repeating 'speak' forever won't work.
Be patient.
Be quiet.
Set an example of being quiet and calm and the dog will mirror you.
Be patient.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k-x-Q_VVnWA&t=3s

I don't think staffs in general are that vocal. My girl in all her 14 years barely barked once. She would grumble and staffy call, but a proper "bark" was only ever reserved for strange men at the back gate..only ever the back gate. Noone ever came to the back gate thus she never barked.

However, like teaching kids to talk, when they say something...say it with them. So if she ever does bark, say "speak" with them, until you are saying it just before you think they will speak, then they might know "speak"

Not garunteed.

I know im a bit late to this thread (a good 6-7 years lol), but just shocked reading some of the comments about staffys not being very vocal! Mine is so vocal but in a good way, he wont bark at the doorbell or random people walking by (which we dont want anyway cause otherwise he would be barking alllll day), he wont bark at other dogs, wont even bark if he hears another dog barking- he wont bark at anything really that doesn't involve him directly, he just doesn't seem to care lol.

But whenever we come home from work for the day, we have to sit down with him and have "a chat about how his day was" and he will literally bark/make noises "telling us about his day" for a good 5 minuites and when we have a play before bed hes so vocal with us. Also was able to get him to speak on command very quickly too. Our vet even reassured us that 'staffys are a very talkitive dog', after I was continually apologising for him being so chattery (and noisy) with the receptionists at his vet appointments! I understand there all different in their own unique ways, was just shocked cause my crazy boy is the opposite compared to a few mentioned above haha xx