Bark on command

Who has taught their dog to bark when commanded?

One of my collies is excellent at this, as he loves the sound of his own voice!

I found it impossible to train Flame to speak on command, and tried all different ways without success. It wasn't really a problem with her though, as she will give a warning bark when strangers approach the house, and will also growl if a stranger comes up to me in the dark or catches me unawares etc.

Yogi is a large GSD, but is also very soft with it . He never barks at people entering our garden or knocking on the door, he treats the postman/bin men etc with complete indifference and doesn't bark or growl when I am out alone in the dark and am approached by strangers. Therefore I want to train him to *speak* on command, just in case I should ever want him to warn someone off.

What is the best way of doing this? I trained my collie by teasing him with his ball until he gave a bark of frustration, and I praised that until he got the hang of what I was wanting.

I have tried this method once or twice with Yogi so far, but he just sits and looks at me, patiently waiting for his ball!

What other methods can I try? I obviously don't want to praise him for barking when it is unwarranted barking (he barks when hubby's dogs are being let out of the kennels, and he barks at the sheep in the field in front of our house , he also barks at passing pheasant and grouse !

So, suggestions please

Jess can speak on two commands - speak and "say hello"

I can't however explain how I did it lol. I just managed to do it. Sorry its of no help. I will have a think over the weekend to try and remember how I did it.

Loki is not much of a barker but will give a bark if I tell him to "speak", or if I say, "woof" .

I have Ben speaking on command but it was difficult

He only used to bark when in a training class waiting for his turn, then when we were getting ready to go out for a walk

I just turned the going out for a walk bark into a learning a new trick game - said speak and rewarded him when he was alredy barking, did it every time he did it - really wound him up
took ages
I did it to try and teach a quiet command - which is happening - but really slowly

I wouldnt worry about rewarding when they are barking at the wrong thing - just capture the bark and reward it, then you can work on getting them to shut up!!

Oh sorry, I should have added that I used the command "speak" when Loki wanted something - like a game or food and I demonstrated with a bark when he was young. Then when he did it, I rewarded him with the piece of food, game, etc. He also responds to, "tell me", as in "what do you want, tell me".

Do you use a clicker Kirsty?
You could train him to do it using the clicker when he is actually barking.....you will however also need to teach a quiet......

Mo will speak on command, we did it by praising when she barked naturally. She is a fairly quiet dog so barking took some provoking.
Stopping her barking was more of a challenge but used more or less the same method. She now stops to the command "quiet".

I did it with vinnie by...wait for it..

crouching up and walking towards him all funny -creepy... when he barked I gave him a hand signal, { hand being opened up}
after a few times, he would do it when I just opened my hand in that manner, then I put a voice command with the signal,

vinnie being vinnie {he forgets stuff to start with} he needed the odd reminder of how to do it going back to scratch....lol

Oh dear...I don't quite understand Shona...you creep...you open your hand...no I don't get it.

I know.....could you video it for us so we have a more clear picture????!!!!

I'm up for seeing that!