Teaching your dog or puppy to "speak" on command is often considered a "trick," as in a playful command to teach the dog. However, it can also be a very handy command at times, for your puppy or dog to know, no matter what breed it is.  By teaching your puppy to bark on the command of speak, you are also exerting some control over when the dog barks,  If it knows to bark at your command, there is more liklihood of obedience when you command the dog to stop barking.

As well, there could be situations where you do want your dog to bark – perhaps not constantly, but just a bark to let others know you've got a dog with you.  There could be safety reasons why you might want to teach your Boston Terrier or other breed of dog to bark on command.

Some dogs can be quite stubborn, but teaching your dog to "speak" can be fun and entertaining if you approach it the right way and understand how and why dogs usually bark in the first place. I'm not talking about dogs barking as a warning, but that barking noise you hear from the neighbours backyard, or from inside a house where the master is vacant. Sure, it could be "lonliness," but if you think about it in other terms and notice when your dog barks, it's probably more out of an emotion that us humans would identify with as frustration.  Now, I want to stay out of the whole anthroporphism debate; I tend to agree that we as humans use our own understanding of emotions and apply it to animals in a way that can be incorrect.  But for this purpose, a good description of perhaps what is going on in a dog when it barks is something similar to what we would call frustration.

So, how did I teach Beans to respond to the command, "Speak?" I took advantage of this "frustration."  I have not used this technique with all dogs I have trained – my German Shepherd/Lab named Tara seemed able to "get it" pretty quickly by mimicing me, and when she did, she received a treat.  I'll write more about the method I used with Tara. It's probably safe to say though that for most dogs, using frustration and their barking when they are frustrated is the best way to teach a dog to bark on command of "Speak."

I should also point out that you might want to use a different command like "Talk" or even "Talk to me."  I prefer one word commands as much as possible, at least at the beginning of the training of a particular command.  And you need to be consistent.  If you are trying to train your dog to "sit" and then a different position for "down," telling the puppy to "sit down" can be confusing.  Keep that in mind, and always be very consistent with the commands you use, and keep them as simple as possible, especially at the beginning.

Now, think about your dog's favorite toy or treat and get it. What we want to do is "tease" the puppy with the toy. In my case, I started the other night using a big fluffy ball that Beans like to chase, and then tug with me. I lay down on the floor, as Beans enjoys chasing the ball as I move it over my legs and toward my back, and then back to my front, with Beans jumping over me.  But this time, I made sure that I always kept the ball far enough away from his mouth that he could never reach it, no matter what he did.

This of course frustrated him. And as we played "keep away," Beans chased and chased, and never was quite able to get the ball into his mouth. While this was going on, I repetively said to him in an excited voice, "Beans, Speak!"  This went on for quite some time; Boston Terriers can be stubborn and maybe some of them have a higher tolerance for frustration, but finally after about ten minutes, Beans let out a little bark. At that point, I let him have the ball and praised him over and over, "Good speak, Beans! Good boy!" And I let him have the ball to chew on.  Then I took it away from him, and we repeated the process.  We probably played this game for about an hour – and during that hour, might have had 4 times when Beans was successful in getting the ball after letting out a bark.

The Key To Puppy And Dog Training – Repitition, Repitition

The first time you do this with your Boston Terrier or any breed of dog, you might think after a bit that they've "got it." Chances are, they sort of do, but not really. And there's also a good chance after the first session, that the dog will get tired out and totally lose interest. And that's ok.  Don't be discouraged.

Today, we had another opportunity to play the "keep away game," this time with a rawhide that Beans was enjoying chewing on. He let me take it away from him, and then he chased it as I kept it just out of his reach. He'd try to pounce on it, chase it, wait for it to stop moving and then pounce again, and every time, I would not let him get it.  Finally the "frustration" set in and Beans barked, while I continued to say repeatedly as this game went on, "Beans, Speak!"  When he barked, I let him chew on his rawhide for a minute or so, then took it away.. and we started all over. Repitition, repitition. At one point, Beans abandoned the rawhide and decided he wanted to play with his Kong Snubba Wubba. (This is a favorite of Beans, and it is very durable – I highly recommend you get one). We did the same thing with the Kong toy… always JUST out of reach of Beans, while I continued to say, "Beans, Speak!"  When he barked, he got the toy.

This continued for awhile until I got to the point where he would sit in front of me, I would say "Speak, Beans!" and he'd let out a bark.. sometimes a good strong bark, sometimes more of a playful yelp – and each time, he'd get to have the toy in his mouth.

Finally, we used treats – the liver treats I made up for him the other day. He LOVES those treats. I made him sit and told him to "Speak" several times. Stubborn Boston Terrier that he is, he really did not want to do this, so I put the treat close to his mouth, he tried to lick it, and I'd as quickly, pull my hand away, commanding him to "speak."

Finally, he did bark and he got the treat. We repeated this with the treat several times, until I could just say, "Beans Sit!  Good boy.. Goood Boy… Speak!" and he'd let out a bark, and get the treat. Sometimes he'd whine… but that wasn't "speaking" – to me, that is another command I want to teach him – to "Sing."

Has he fully "got it?" Probably not – but we ended the session with about 15 sequences in a row where I'd command him to "Speak" and he'd bark immediately and receive his liver treat.

Tomorrow, we'll reinforce this, and if we have to start at the beginning, so be it. That's what we'll do until every time I am confident that whenever I command "Speak," I will hear a bark from Beans.

Now as i said above, it doesn't always take this kind of work. With my Shepherd/Lab, Tara, I just would command "Speak" and then I'd let out my closest version of a bark – and after several tries, she just mimiced me and received a treat.  And it's not a bad idea to try to mimic a whoof sound when you are commanding your dog to speak while playing the "keep away game." If you don't want the neighbors to hear, just close the windows!

Have fun with this – I know your Boston Terrier will have fun too, and when he/she finally "gets it," they are going to have a really proud look on the face and will show you they understand what it is you want them to do. It's a lot of fun!