Teaching Your Dog to Bark to Go Out

Some people do not want to use a doggy door for their dog's house training. For Fido, this represents an issue- even if Fido is very well housebroken and really knows he should only potty outside, he can only get there if his person opens the door for him. This will work fine as long as the person sticks to a predictable schedule, but what happens when Fido gets sick? Or when he waits by the door for hours but no one notices him? Some dogs that we call "housebroken" still have accidents because they do not have a way to tell their owner they need to go outside. These dogs need a clear signal that they can send to their owner saying, "Open this door. I've got to go!"

Before You Start

This training is for you if you have already started a housetraining program with your dog and are ready to take it to the next level. Make sure that your dog is already doing well with his housebreaking before starting this training. If your dog isn't sure yet where he is supposed to be going potty, you'll have poor results with this training exercise.

Before starting this training, make sure you really want to have a dog that barks for what he wants. If you have a dog that already barks excessively or you really don't like dog barking, you may be better off teaching your dog to ring a bell to go out . If your dog just generally enjoys spending time outside, he may begin to bark when he just wants out, not because he needs to potty. He may also decide to try barking at you to get you to do other things after learning that it works to go out (get his toy from under the couch, give him a massage, pick up some KFC for dinner, etc.). As you might imagine, this can be rather irritating, so if you think your dog might be the type looking for a butler, you may also decide that this training isn't right for you.

But if you find that you forget to let your dog out, or that you don't notice his subtle signals saying he has to go out, or if you sleep through them sometimes, this training may be just what you are looking for. Your dog will learn how to communicate with you, taking some of the responsibility off your shoulders and really reducing the chance for future accidents (at least when you are home). And, if he does decide to try to make you into a butler, you can always tell him no.

Getting Started

There are two basic methods to train your dog to bark to go outside. Read the brief descriptions below and pick the method that you think will suit you and your dog.

Method #1: Give Fido time to figure it out

This method will definitely work well if you've already started "umbilical cord housetraining". It's also the best method for dogs and puppies who are not very excitable and owners who do not want to work at getting Fido "worked up" and would rather take the patient approach.

Barking Training, Method #1

Method #2: Encourage Fido to get excited to hurry the process along

If you aren't the patient type or don't want to use the "umbilical cord housetraining method" for some reason, there is another option to train your dog to bark to go out. You can start with treats, teaching your dog to bark and then make use of this skill in your housetraining. This technique works well with excitable, energetic dogs and puppies. For calmer dogs, Method #1 will probably work best.

Barking Training, Method #2