Teaching the cue “Quiet” to our dogs sounds like a good idea on the face of it. In fact, teaching “quiet” is a popular training solution to the common problem of demand barking. There are plenty of guides online teaching “quiet”, and you’ll hear many people using this cue if you listen out for it.
The theory is that if your dog is barking you can simply say “quiet” to get them to stop. It sounds good but there’s a catch and it all has to do with something called a “behaviour loop”.
In an ideal training situation, a behaviour loop should look like a circle with three major landmarks: 1. a cue is given, 2. the dog performs a behaviour, then 3. the dog is given a reward. Another cue is given and the cycle repeats itself.
The trouble with teaching quiet is that the behaviour loop looks a little different. There’s an extra step which initiates the cycle: the dog must be barking.
By training this loop, barking becomes “baked in”. This has two very unfortunate side effects: firstly, barking is ultimately being reinforced and therefore will occur more frequently after training; secondly, the dog is in control of initiating the entire training loop. The “quiet” cue is reactionary on our part and contingent upon the barking behaviour. These two side effects often result in a dog who has learned to bark more frequently in order to receive treats or our attention. With enough practice, this “demand barking” behaviour can grow from being merely annoying to becoming extremely problematic. So, what’s the answer? We have to break this loop.
Method One – Management
If our dog is barking at something that’s easy to avoid, one way to deal with the problem is simply to avoid it. If my dog barks at the window I could restrict his access to the window entirely or I could alter the window so that my dog can no longer see through it (for example I could use a curtain, screen or an adhesive to mimic frosted glass). Management solutions aren’t really “training”, but they can offer instant relief from the problem. This breaks the behaviour loop by preventing it from ever starting.
Method Two – Reinforcing the Absence of Barking
This method works by removing the barking behaviour from the training behaviour loop. We ensure we train quiet behaviour before our dog has a chance to bark and then ask for the quiet behaviour in increasingly difficult situations, for increasingly long periods of time. For example; if my dog barks at the doorbell I might reward him for being quiet without ringing the doorbell at first. Then, I may play a recording of the doorbell at a very low volume and reward him for being quiet. If my dog barks, no treat is earned and the difficulty of the task is reduced. I can then increase the volume of the recording, and eventually work up to the real thing. This type of training can be very effective for specific instances of barking (such as at the doorbell), however it’s a very nebulous concept to teach and your dog may not understand why they are being rewarded. It’s very likely that your dog will assume you want specific behaviours (sit, lie down, focus, stay) rather than the absence of one behaviour (barking) - this is just a product of how dogs learn and a topic for another day.
For the nerds among you, this method combines systematic desensitisation to a trigger, counter conditioning and negative punishment (withholding treats) to teach “quiet”.
Method Three – Reinforcing an Alternative Behaviour
What could your dog be doing instead of barking? Sometimes there’s a great alternative polite behaviour to teach your dog. If my dog barks for attention, I could teach her to rest her chin on my knees for attention instead. I would begin by deliberately teaching this behaviour in a dedicated training session, then reinforcing it with attention any time it happened outside of training. If a chin rest always results in cuddles, and barking never does, your dog will quickly make use of this new polite behaviour. When choosing an alternative behaviour, try to pick something that is incompatible with barking and will allow your dog to fulfill the same function that the barking originally served. This method breaks the behaviour loop by replacing “barking” with another behaviour that’s easier to live with. Typically, this method is very easy to implement, but be sure you pick an appropriate alternative behaviour!
Method Four – Punishing Barking through Time-Outs
Sometimes, barking is such a strongly ingrained habit in our dogs that reinforcement training and management strategies are simply not enough. Time outs are an extremely effective type of punishment that does not require the use of force. Time-outs work by strategically manipulating the consequence of your dogs behaviour, such that performing the behaviour results in the opposite of what your dog wants. In the case of demand barking, our dog barks to get our attention. Instead of issuing a cue (“Quiet”) and therefore providing attention to our dog (!), we can instead leave the room for a short period. In doing this, the consequence for barking is the opposite of what our dog wanted to achieve! Punishment of any kind weakens all behaviours in the behaviour loop instead of strengthening them. The behaviour of demand barking will weaken over time. When using time-outs, be sure to reinforce good behaviour when it happens - it’s important for our dogs to know what they’re supposed to do as well as what they’re not supposed to do!
If we teach our dogs not to bark in the first place using any or all of the four methods listed above, the quiet cue is actually no longer necessary, so we can drop this word from our dogs repertoire.
