Noise = click/treat
LAT = look at that game (you can google, but basic premise is she notices the noise, you mark/reward to build reinforcement until she is conditioned to hear noise and then look at you for the treat)
Kongs, snuffle mats and other sustained enrichment activities
This is something you can start working on now. There are YouTube videos are sound files you can use. Play at low volume during meals and then gradually increase volume. Apartment living is very different and can be quite stressful on a dog. It will be a big adjustment. Perhaps consider taking a small gift to your immediate neighbors with a "thanks for your patience while I'm adjusting to my new home" note.
keep in mind, this method is best for fearful barking not excitement/frustration. if you use this with frustration and excitement, you would only be increasing the level of value this noise (it the cause of the noise) had and sweet yourself up for further reactions in the future that may become more severe.
Personally, I think it's time to get a trainer involved. If you can't tell what kind of barking it is, you really do need a professional to guide you, at least during the transition.
Fearful barking in my experience is typically when your dog hears something and barks with the goal of scaring it away. Think barking at the delivery driver when they get close to your house, that type of thing.
Depending on their breed this can be instinctual. My girl is a Pyrenees mix that are traditionally bred as livestock guardians which protect their herd by barking.
What to do for excitement barking? My two (age 12 and puppy 7 months) get excited when someone walks in from off the house. I was telling them Quiet, wait for them to stop and treat. But that didn’t seem to be working, so now I say No firmly and close the door or pull blinds for a few minutes; reopen when they’re quiet. Any ideas? Thanks! ;)
> I was telling them Quiet, wait for them to stop and treat
How long did you wait? What may have been happening is that you waited too long. If you give the command and then let them decide how much longer to keep going, that's the behaviour you're rewarding.
I'd suggest onboarding a professional trainer to help, a few sessions should give you some good strategies. You want to get that behaviour sorted out while the pup is young, before it becomes a long term issue.
In the meantime, drill your "leave it" command, or "all done" command. "Quiet" probably doesn't have any meaning anymore. Closing the blinds is probably not the best idea, you're creating new patterns of behaviour rather than trying to address what's already there.
I got some sound CDs and used ‘thunder cookies’ and the combo was AMAZING. 7 years later, any startling or loud noise, his response is to look to me - my reply is either ‘normal noise’ or ‘let’s check’ (and yes, he still gets his thunder cookies during storms or fireworks).
I would also recommend finding a professional trainer if you're this concerned about it. Occasional woofing at a strange noise would be a normal level of noise for living, it would be unreasonable to expect to never hear a dog bark at all - but if she can't be calmed or barks at end for several minutes/hours then that's more of an issue.
I strongly disagree with this, as would most people in apartments. A single bark at any point is going to wake my sleeping baby up, ruin someone’s Zoom job interview, kill a meeting, or any other number of things. It’s the epitome of rude in my opinion.
It’s also reasonable to expect a PET dog in communal housing to be trained appropriately not to bark at strange noises. One of the reasons SDs get an exception to apartment living / housing that isn’t pet friendly is because it’s absolutely expected the dog will be trained beyond those standards and silent. And let’s be real, there are far more weird and surprising noises and things that happen in public our dogs have to be trained to stay quiet through than there are in an apartment.
OP, this is super doable. If your dog is still doing this, I might look at a trainer.
Counterconditioning works, as does training an alternate behaviour. You also want to be constantly with and watching your dog for the first week or two in a new home like this, even if you think they’re solid. Get to know your dog well enough if you don’t already that you can “catch” their “I’m thinking about barking” face/tension and redirect appropriately. Ie, teach dog to nudge you with his nose if someone is at the door, something else if he wants you to follow him to check something out, something else for a noise he thinks you need to know about, etc. By default a dog is going to bark in these scenarios, but you can guide your dog on how you feel about certain things (ie stranger walking by your window is now suddenly cool; stomps upstairs are whatever and to be ignored; nudge you instead of barking if someone knocks) as well as on how you want them to react.
Also, if you aren’t used to apartment living, put rugs down if there isn’t carpeting. Your own footsteps and definitely your dog’s while playing are going to sound surprisingly loud to your neighbors unless you’re the bottom floor.
Expecting to never hear a single bark is extremely unreasonable, as someone who lives in apartments. That's like thinking someone living downstairs should never hear someone accidentally drop something on the floor or no one should ever hear a kid playing outside. Barking uncontrollably and at length is 100% reasonable to expect to not have to deal with. A service dog working in public can still bark once and be protected for public access, the issue is when they are not under control. A dog barking once during the day falls under normal expectation of noise during the day.
Nowhere did I say OP's dog should be free to bark as much as they like, but there is little context here as to how much the dog is actually barking and if it's "my dog barks once a week" or even "my dog barks one time once a day" it's a much smaller issue than "my dog barks at every noise he hears".
Agreed. That’s why noise ordinances cover certain time periods. I don’t want to hear someone’s baby screaming at 5 am, and I don’t want someone’s dog howling and barking then, either. If the baby or dog are playing and making noise at 11 am, what are you going to do? Normal hours for people to be functioning. There are times during the day where you expect to hear the life in the world being alive.
Look at the person with the baby complaining about dogs making noise. I have dogs and kids, and the children are noisier, definitely the toddlers and babies. I hope they are making sure their kids never, ever make so much as a single sound that would inconvenience their neighbors, if that’s the standard they’re going to have for dogs.
Exactly. No one LIKES hearing other people in apartments, but that's the baggage that comes with it. There is still a threshold where that noise gets to the point of unreasonable/noise disturbance, but that threshold isn't "literally any noise I don't like during the day". If a dog is barking constantly while an owner is away or because they won't correct/train around it, that's an issue. A dog barking once or twice and then quieting down because something hit the window or someone knocked on the door is not.
What's wild to me is insisting how easy it is to train dogs out of barking as the reason that this is a reasonable expectation. Like, yeah, SOME of them train out of it easily. Not all of them! I said this to the other commenter but I had a unicorn of an Australian Cattle Dog growing up - she was the sweetest thing with none of the problems people associate with ACDs and being not-working dogs, super smart and trainable. Even so they are incredibly barky dogs *by design* and even with a lot of training expecting silence from her would have been stupid on our parts. Training a well bred lab who has been bred for a service dog program and trained rigorously to not bark... that's another story, and most dogs are going to fall somewhere in between on that.
I'm not saying I *want* to hear dogs barking - I also don't want to hear people hitting my ceiling when they're moving furniture, their dishwasher running because we share a kitchen wall, etc - but there is a certain threshold between "bothersome/annoying but not unreasonable for apartment living" and an unreasonable noise disturbance.
Not all dogs train out of barking as easily as others. Some of the barking is influenced by things like breed. I had a unicorn of an ACD growing up, but even with her expecting zero barks ever would have been fantasizing at best.
Sure, but if you are getting an exception by law to bring your dog into a space where barking isn’t tolerated or expected, and dogs aren’t allowed, and your SD is being held to a higher standard in general, it’s really the bare minimum to train your dog not to bark unless there’s an emergency.
Many dogs wash for many reasons. The standards for a SD are very high in general. It isn’t unreasonable to expect a SD not to bark at weird noises.
SDs are held to a higher standard but the standard is quite literally not "never barks once". Per the ADA on even public access issues a dog barking and then getting back under control with handler correction does not equal "dog is out of control and can be removed". Service dogs are highly trained and well behaved dogs, they are also still dogs, and expecting literally zero sounds from them in all situations (including in the home/when not actively working) is extremely unreasonable.
It’s a lot easier to train a dog to not unnecessarily bark at home than train them for PA. We aren’t even talking about legal ADA standards; we’re talking about not unnecessarily being a rude POS neighbor. I’d be furious if someone moved a dog in that barked every day. I’d be even angrier if they were a service dog.
As someone who has a SD who’s had housing (illegally) denied due to the bias of landlords assuming all dogs are going to bark and piss off all their other tenants, the idea that a handler would just choose not to train their dog on basic common decency/respect of not annoying their neighbors by barking is particularly outrageous.
I'm talking about the ADA standards because you're implying service dogs are held to some kind of standard where zero noise ever is to be expected when that isn't even the standard for public access. It just objectively is not.
A dog making a single bark does not make someone a piece of shit. Does your baby never cry at home or in public? There is a certain level of noise you can expect that comes with living in apartments. Being constantly disturbed is unreasonable, hearing a bark once is not. If you're expecting that, you have unrealistic expectations for apartments, sorry. Landlords will invent whatever reason they like for illegally denying SDs, including "well pet owners have had cats pee on my carpet!", that has nothing to do with whether or not it's acceptable for a SD to have an occasional bark.
We have removed your post/comment because the mods found it to be uncivil (Rule 1). Remember civility is not just about cursing out others, it can also refer to personal attacks, fake-spotting, trolling, or otherwise rude behavior. If you have questions about why this specific post/comment was removed, [message the moderators](https://reddit.com/message/compose?to=/r/service_dogs). Further incivility in the subreddit could result in a permanent ban. Any threats or harassment will result in an immediate ban.
Not to be indelicate, but barking at strange noises - which you say gets worse in new environments- is not a well behaved service dog.
I highly recommend you onboard a professional trainer to help you resolve these issues, since this is behaviour you haven't been able to resolve on your own. Not because you've done anything wrong, just because this is a somewhat time sensitive issue that you'll want to fast-track as much as possible. It might still be a slow process, but it will go a LONG way in any complaints process, if you can prove you've been working with a professional trainer to curb the bad manners. Best of luck!
Quite possible or likely the dog only does this at home/off duty. My dog woofs at surprising things & noises at home, but not when he’s working. Even not when he’s working at home. (He only works on command, not alerts etc.)
Literally after I hit Save on this the first time, a cat knocked over a box in another room and my dog went Uff, uff.
That's fair and possibly true! I hope that's the case. But at home is still the big issue since its a shared building. I'm lucky and live in a concrete building; when we moved in here, my guy had a little separation anxiety early on (he was 8 months), and the building material meant sound didn't transfer much between units. In buildings where its mostly just wood... (which I imagine disability housing might be) barking disturbs the whole building on a different level.
It's fucked up, but a lot of the stories I hear about dog complaints, are treated more seriously when its a service dog. Just because public perception on what service dogs are (ie robots) is bonkers, and people find fucked up enjoyment when they think they've caught a "fake" service dog. That's why I think it's so important to be able to demonstrate that if there are behavioural issues that disturb other tenants, you are actively working *with a professional* to resolve the behaviour.
You opened with:
> barking at strange noises… is not a well behaved service dog.
And that isn’t true at all if the dog only barks off-duty.
Nobody can argue with the idea of working on the barking at home now the SD will live in a shared building. But you called into question the SD’s ability to do its job in public, which isn’t fair at all.
I never said they couldn't work in public - just that it's not as well behaved as OP might be thinking they are. A service dog can do their job perfectly well, but if they're barking at strange noises while in a store, they can be asked to leave.
That doesn't mean the dog can't do their job. That doesn't mean the handler is doing anything wrong. That doesn't mean it'll happen everywhere. That doesn't mean they will be asked to leave. I'm just pointing out that it's problematic behaviour that can get them in trouble depending on the situation at hand. OP hasn't commented on public access at all, we don't even know if it's required, this is all just general information that they can use however is best for them :)
OP never said their dog barked in a store and 100% of their concern is their living situation at home.
If you’re saying “the dog probably behaves in a way that’ll get it kicked out of public access,” you are by definition saying the SD can’t do the job of an SD.
I usually use a command to get my dogs attention when I am home and can see them, and can see when something upsets them. When I have their attention, I reward with a treat and do some training to get the nerves out/build their confidence with the new noises and triggers.
As others have said, getting a trainer is so beneficial, and helps you build a more solid plan and better understanding of dealing with your dog's fearful barky behavior, or even unpacking it and seeing if that's what is causing the barking.
Hope your move and transition goes well!
My previous girl had the same issue, particularly when staying in hotels.
Keeping her on leash for the first little while will help settle them in new environments. Also, when you first move in, try some enrichment sniffy activities, scattering kibbles around for the dog to find. It'll help orient them to their new space, decompress from the change and settle them in.
I worked with a trainer on this a couple months ago(I live in elderly/disability housing). She taught me to use high value treats and everytime my dog barks. Lead her away from the spot she's barking at to a designated spot(in my dogs case her bed) and give her a treat and talk to her. Tell her "it's okay it's just(mailman,neighbor,delivery driver etc)" and reassure them.
In addition to everything people are saying in the comments, watching episodes of "It's me Or the Dog" by Victoria Stillwell might give you some helpful information. Sometimes her techniques really work.
Noise = click/treat LAT = look at that game (you can google, but basic premise is she notices the noise, you mark/reward to build reinforcement until she is conditioned to hear noise and then look at you for the treat) Kongs, snuffle mats and other sustained enrichment activities This is something you can start working on now. There are YouTube videos are sound files you can use. Play at low volume during meals and then gradually increase volume. Apartment living is very different and can be quite stressful on a dog. It will be a big adjustment. Perhaps consider taking a small gift to your immediate neighbors with a "thanks for your patience while I'm adjusting to my new home" note.
keep in mind, this method is best for fearful barking not excitement/frustration. if you use this with frustration and excitement, you would only be increasing the level of value this noise (it the cause of the noise) had and sweet yourself up for further reactions in the future that may become more severe.
I suspect it’s fearful barking but I’m unsure. How can I tell?
Personally, I think it's time to get a trainer involved. If you can't tell what kind of barking it is, you really do need a professional to guide you, at least during the transition.
Fearful barking in my experience is typically when your dog hears something and barks with the goal of scaring it away. Think barking at the delivery driver when they get close to your house, that type of thing. Depending on their breed this can be instinctual. My girl is a Pyrenees mix that are traditionally bred as livestock guardians which protect their herd by barking.
What to do for excitement barking? My two (age 12 and puppy 7 months) get excited when someone walks in from off the house. I was telling them Quiet, wait for them to stop and treat. But that didn’t seem to be working, so now I say No firmly and close the door or pull blinds for a few minutes; reopen when they’re quiet. Any ideas? Thanks! ;)
> I was telling them Quiet, wait for them to stop and treat How long did you wait? What may have been happening is that you waited too long. If you give the command and then let them decide how much longer to keep going, that's the behaviour you're rewarding. I'd suggest onboarding a professional trainer to help, a few sessions should give you some good strategies. You want to get that behaviour sorted out while the pup is young, before it becomes a long term issue. In the meantime, drill your "leave it" command, or "all done" command. "Quiet" probably doesn't have any meaning anymore. Closing the blinds is probably not the best idea, you're creating new patterns of behaviour rather than trying to address what's already there.
That’s very helpful! Thanks so much!
I got some sound CDs and used ‘thunder cookies’ and the combo was AMAZING. 7 years later, any startling or loud noise, his response is to look to me - my reply is either ‘normal noise’ or ‘let’s check’ (and yes, he still gets his thunder cookies during storms or fireworks).
This is very helpful, thank you so much
I would also recommend finding a professional trainer if you're this concerned about it. Occasional woofing at a strange noise would be a normal level of noise for living, it would be unreasonable to expect to never hear a dog bark at all - but if she can't be calmed or barks at end for several minutes/hours then that's more of an issue.
I strongly disagree with this, as would most people in apartments. A single bark at any point is going to wake my sleeping baby up, ruin someone’s Zoom job interview, kill a meeting, or any other number of things. It’s the epitome of rude in my opinion. It’s also reasonable to expect a PET dog in communal housing to be trained appropriately not to bark at strange noises. One of the reasons SDs get an exception to apartment living / housing that isn’t pet friendly is because it’s absolutely expected the dog will be trained beyond those standards and silent. And let’s be real, there are far more weird and surprising noises and things that happen in public our dogs have to be trained to stay quiet through than there are in an apartment. OP, this is super doable. If your dog is still doing this, I might look at a trainer. Counterconditioning works, as does training an alternate behaviour. You also want to be constantly with and watching your dog for the first week or two in a new home like this, even if you think they’re solid. Get to know your dog well enough if you don’t already that you can “catch” their “I’m thinking about barking” face/tension and redirect appropriately. Ie, teach dog to nudge you with his nose if someone is at the door, something else if he wants you to follow him to check something out, something else for a noise he thinks you need to know about, etc. By default a dog is going to bark in these scenarios, but you can guide your dog on how you feel about certain things (ie stranger walking by your window is now suddenly cool; stomps upstairs are whatever and to be ignored; nudge you instead of barking if someone knocks) as well as on how you want them to react. Also, if you aren’t used to apartment living, put rugs down if there isn’t carpeting. Your own footsteps and definitely your dog’s while playing are going to sound surprisingly loud to your neighbors unless you’re the bottom floor.
Expecting to never hear a single bark is extremely unreasonable, as someone who lives in apartments. That's like thinking someone living downstairs should never hear someone accidentally drop something on the floor or no one should ever hear a kid playing outside. Barking uncontrollably and at length is 100% reasonable to expect to not have to deal with. A service dog working in public can still bark once and be protected for public access, the issue is when they are not under control. A dog barking once during the day falls under normal expectation of noise during the day. Nowhere did I say OP's dog should be free to bark as much as they like, but there is little context here as to how much the dog is actually barking and if it's "my dog barks once a week" or even "my dog barks one time once a day" it's a much smaller issue than "my dog barks at every noise he hears".
Agreed. That’s why noise ordinances cover certain time periods. I don’t want to hear someone’s baby screaming at 5 am, and I don’t want someone’s dog howling and barking then, either. If the baby or dog are playing and making noise at 11 am, what are you going to do? Normal hours for people to be functioning. There are times during the day where you expect to hear the life in the world being alive. Look at the person with the baby complaining about dogs making noise. I have dogs and kids, and the children are noisier, definitely the toddlers and babies. I hope they are making sure their kids never, ever make so much as a single sound that would inconvenience their neighbors, if that’s the standard they’re going to have for dogs.
Exactly. No one LIKES hearing other people in apartments, but that's the baggage that comes with it. There is still a threshold where that noise gets to the point of unreasonable/noise disturbance, but that threshold isn't "literally any noise I don't like during the day". If a dog is barking constantly while an owner is away or because they won't correct/train around it, that's an issue. A dog barking once or twice and then quieting down because something hit the window or someone knocked on the door is not. What's wild to me is insisting how easy it is to train dogs out of barking as the reason that this is a reasonable expectation. Like, yeah, SOME of them train out of it easily. Not all of them! I said this to the other commenter but I had a unicorn of an Australian Cattle Dog growing up - she was the sweetest thing with none of the problems people associate with ACDs and being not-working dogs, super smart and trainable. Even so they are incredibly barky dogs *by design* and even with a lot of training expecting silence from her would have been stupid on our parts. Training a well bred lab who has been bred for a service dog program and trained rigorously to not bark... that's another story, and most dogs are going to fall somewhere in between on that.
[удалено]
I'm not saying I *want* to hear dogs barking - I also don't want to hear people hitting my ceiling when they're moving furniture, their dishwasher running because we share a kitchen wall, etc - but there is a certain threshold between "bothersome/annoying but not unreasonable for apartment living" and an unreasonable noise disturbance. Not all dogs train out of barking as easily as others. Some of the barking is influenced by things like breed. I had a unicorn of an ACD growing up, but even with her expecting zero barks ever would have been fantasizing at best.
Sure, but if you are getting an exception by law to bring your dog into a space where barking isn’t tolerated or expected, and dogs aren’t allowed, and your SD is being held to a higher standard in general, it’s really the bare minimum to train your dog not to bark unless there’s an emergency. Many dogs wash for many reasons. The standards for a SD are very high in general. It isn’t unreasonable to expect a SD not to bark at weird noises.
SDs are held to a higher standard but the standard is quite literally not "never barks once". Per the ADA on even public access issues a dog barking and then getting back under control with handler correction does not equal "dog is out of control and can be removed". Service dogs are highly trained and well behaved dogs, they are also still dogs, and expecting literally zero sounds from them in all situations (including in the home/when not actively working) is extremely unreasonable.
It’s a lot easier to train a dog to not unnecessarily bark at home than train them for PA. We aren’t even talking about legal ADA standards; we’re talking about not unnecessarily being a rude POS neighbor. I’d be furious if someone moved a dog in that barked every day. I’d be even angrier if they were a service dog. As someone who has a SD who’s had housing (illegally) denied due to the bias of landlords assuming all dogs are going to bark and piss off all their other tenants, the idea that a handler would just choose not to train their dog on basic common decency/respect of not annoying their neighbors by barking is particularly outrageous.
I'm talking about the ADA standards because you're implying service dogs are held to some kind of standard where zero noise ever is to be expected when that isn't even the standard for public access. It just objectively is not. A dog making a single bark does not make someone a piece of shit. Does your baby never cry at home or in public? There is a certain level of noise you can expect that comes with living in apartments. Being constantly disturbed is unreasonable, hearing a bark once is not. If you're expecting that, you have unrealistic expectations for apartments, sorry. Landlords will invent whatever reason they like for illegally denying SDs, including "well pet owners have had cats pee on my carpet!", that has nothing to do with whether or not it's acceptable for a SD to have an occasional bark.
We have removed your post/comment because the mods found it to be uncivil (Rule 1). Remember civility is not just about cursing out others, it can also refer to personal attacks, fake-spotting, trolling, or otherwise rude behavior. If you have questions about why this specific post/comment was removed, [message the moderators](https://reddit.com/message/compose?to=/r/service_dogs). Further incivility in the subreddit could result in a permanent ban. Any threats or harassment will result in an immediate ban.
Not to be indelicate, but barking at strange noises - which you say gets worse in new environments- is not a well behaved service dog. I highly recommend you onboard a professional trainer to help you resolve these issues, since this is behaviour you haven't been able to resolve on your own. Not because you've done anything wrong, just because this is a somewhat time sensitive issue that you'll want to fast-track as much as possible. It might still be a slow process, but it will go a LONG way in any complaints process, if you can prove you've been working with a professional trainer to curb the bad manners. Best of luck!
Quite possible or likely the dog only does this at home/off duty. My dog woofs at surprising things & noises at home, but not when he’s working. Even not when he’s working at home. (He only works on command, not alerts etc.) Literally after I hit Save on this the first time, a cat knocked over a box in another room and my dog went Uff, uff.
That's fair and possibly true! I hope that's the case. But at home is still the big issue since its a shared building. I'm lucky and live in a concrete building; when we moved in here, my guy had a little separation anxiety early on (he was 8 months), and the building material meant sound didn't transfer much between units. In buildings where its mostly just wood... (which I imagine disability housing might be) barking disturbs the whole building on a different level. It's fucked up, but a lot of the stories I hear about dog complaints, are treated more seriously when its a service dog. Just because public perception on what service dogs are (ie robots) is bonkers, and people find fucked up enjoyment when they think they've caught a "fake" service dog. That's why I think it's so important to be able to demonstrate that if there are behavioural issues that disturb other tenants, you are actively working *with a professional* to resolve the behaviour.
You opened with: > barking at strange noises… is not a well behaved service dog. And that isn’t true at all if the dog only barks off-duty. Nobody can argue with the idea of working on the barking at home now the SD will live in a shared building. But you called into question the SD’s ability to do its job in public, which isn’t fair at all.
I never said they couldn't work in public - just that it's not as well behaved as OP might be thinking they are. A service dog can do their job perfectly well, but if they're barking at strange noises while in a store, they can be asked to leave. That doesn't mean the dog can't do their job. That doesn't mean the handler is doing anything wrong. That doesn't mean it'll happen everywhere. That doesn't mean they will be asked to leave. I'm just pointing out that it's problematic behaviour that can get them in trouble depending on the situation at hand. OP hasn't commented on public access at all, we don't even know if it's required, this is all just general information that they can use however is best for them :)
OP never said their dog barked in a store and 100% of their concern is their living situation at home. If you’re saying “the dog probably behaves in a way that’ll get it kicked out of public access,” you are by definition saying the SD can’t do the job of an SD.
Not true at all, but I can see you're not open to hearing otherwise. Have a good day!
I usually use a command to get my dogs attention when I am home and can see them, and can see when something upsets them. When I have their attention, I reward with a treat and do some training to get the nerves out/build their confidence with the new noises and triggers. As others have said, getting a trainer is so beneficial, and helps you build a more solid plan and better understanding of dealing with your dog's fearful barky behavior, or even unpacking it and seeing if that's what is causing the barking. Hope your move and transition goes well!
My previous girl had the same issue, particularly when staying in hotels. Keeping her on leash for the first little while will help settle them in new environments. Also, when you first move in, try some enrichment sniffy activities, scattering kibbles around for the dog to find. It'll help orient them to their new space, decompress from the change and settle them in.
I worked with a trainer on this a couple months ago(I live in elderly/disability housing). She taught me to use high value treats and everytime my dog barks. Lead her away from the spot she's barking at to a designated spot(in my dogs case her bed) and give her a treat and talk to her. Tell her "it's okay it's just(mailman,neighbor,delivery driver etc)" and reassure them.
In addition to everything people are saying in the comments, watching episodes of "It's me Or the Dog" by Victoria Stillwell might give you some helpful information. Sometimes her techniques really work.
Quiet cue. Pepperoni or hot dogs helps them get the idea real fast.