Any tips on teaching speak/quiet?

I want to add "speak" and "quiet" to Eddy's list of tricks. How? Any advice? I don't want him to just come and bark at me and expect treats, thus I plan on teaching him that being "quiet" will be rewarded with more treats. Speaking will be an easy one, silencing him should be difficult, right?
Also, he isn't much of a barker anyways - how fortunate! So should I not even teach him these commands, in case I accidently turn him into a barker?! He knows "roll over", "sit", "down", "crawl", "shake", and "back"(away).

I'm just afraid of even starting this... and where do I start?

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Permalink Reply by Ashley and Chloe on October 4, 2009 at 8:29pm

I found with Chloe that hand signals work the best. For quiet we hold our finger up to our lips and do the "Shh" noise, very quietly. She's still getting the hang of it, be is catching on quite well. If she doesn't stop barking, we turn our backs and ignore her until she is quiet. When she stops barking we praise her by saying "Good quiet" and give a treat.

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Permalink Reply by Avyon on October 4, 2009 at 8:43pm

Roxi wouldn't speak until her second year - just like sitting up and putting stuff on her nose... odd..

We got her to speak by knocking on the door and going SPEAK SPEAK when she barked and gave a treat.

Eventually she got the idea what we then did it later without knocking and barking at her lol.

She also talked on her own so whenever she grumbled at me lowly I said "whisper... whisper" and mimiced it back to her

the same thing with "Tell me a story"

I basically just played off what she did naturally.

We are now working on Shhh because Charlie is a bad influence and they bark a lot now :/

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Permalink Reply by Kyle, Megan and Loki on October 4, 2009 at 9:06pm

Teaching a dog to speak can easily make them into a barker. Not something I ever consider teaching a dog when I prefer they do not bark at all, ever. Silencing Loki is quite difficult.

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Permalink Reply by Amanda on October 4, 2009 at 9:35pm

Dax is a barker, but only to a certain extent. If there's someone at the door, there's no stopping him, I don't care how many times you tell him to be quiet. If he's just barking to get someone to play with him, he's a little more reasonable.

I taught him to speak and be quiet with two extremes. I stood in front of him and gave an excited "Speak! Speak! Speak!" with a hand signal, and of course, he got excited and barked, then he got a treat. Eventually, he got the idea. When I gave the "Quiet" command, it was a very serious, very firm command. You can actually teach them at the same time. Get him excited and make him bark, then tell him "quiet." You just have to be a little forceful and firm with your voice and body language. Worked for Dax. Good luck!

Oh by the way, teaching Dax to speak didn't at all escalate his barking habits, though he will bark at me sometimes when I'm trying to teach him a new trick and he doesn't understand what I want him to do. It's more of a frustrated bark, I think he's just trying everything he knows how to do in order to get the treat. :)