Q&A for How to Stop Dogs from Barking at People

When you sense your dog is about to bark for the first time, say "no" or "quiet." If he doesn't bark, give him a treat or praise him as positive reinforcement. Trying to train your dog once he's excited will only reinforce more barking. Besides training your dog, make sure to give him enough activities to tire him out each day. Dogs that are bored are more likely to bark and misbehave.

When you put a behavior on cue, such as jumping on furniture, you can also teach the opposite cue, such as jumping off the furniture. The first step is to teach "Up" using reward-based training methods, then once the dog is up, teach "Floor", luring him down with a treat and giving him lots of praise. Thus it becomes much easier to get the dog down. Once a behavior is on cue such as "Up", the dog will tend to wait for the command to do that action. In this case you would start 'forgetting' to tell him to "Up", and in turn he shouldn't jump up until told.

Beef up his basic training in the home environment, and once he's sitting and walking to heel on command, practice this in a park with few distractions. The aim is to get him listening to you. Also, teach him the "Look" command. The combination of better basic training and "Look" places you in control. For example, he's walking beside you and he tenses up because he sees a jogger in the distance. You get him to stop, sit, and "Look" at you, so his attention is on you and not the jogger. Hold his attention until the jogger has passed, at which point you reward him.

A lot of people consider this method cruel, but use the Caesar Millan method. You can look it up on YouTube, because there are so many ways to correct your dog. The main way is to jab them slightly, not too hard but not too soft, and make a "cht" noise. Another way is, if they are on a leash, to pull back on the leash and make that same "cht" noise. I recommend looking it up on YouTube, because there is so much to learn.

Try introducing your dog to the neighbors, or as soon as the neighbors get home, pet your dog, saying that it will be okay.

Start training them individually. That way, you can work extra hard on their weak points and then they can work together.

Welcome to small dogs. Small dogs tend to be yappy and noisy. Your best bet is to put her in a harness and whenever she barks, tug the leash a little bit. Another alternative is when she barks, pick her up, hold her nose firmly and say, "No!"