How to Teach a Dog to Hush on command, you should first get them to SPEAK on command.
Teaching your dog to HUSH on command requires the SPEAK on command trick prerequisite. As an alternative, you can replace the verbal “HUSH” with a hand signal of your finger in front of your lips.
Here are details how to teach a dog to speak.
STEP 1
Use the “SPEAK” command to get your dog to bark.
You can’t get your dog to hush unless they are making a little noise. So, get them to speak up.
If you need help with this, see our link above to the speak trick.
STEP 2
When your dog stops barking for a few seconds, say “HUSH” in a firm, but not too loud voice (Alternate: finger over lips). Then, PRAISE and REWARD your dog.
In this step, you are associating the quiet period just after your dog stops barking to the verbal “HUSH” command.
Wait for those two to three seconds of peace and then give the command or use a finger over your lips.
To make sure your dog gets what you’re doing, give them a hearty verbal praise (Good Girl, Good Boy) and a tasty treat when they do it right.
Do it right means when they recognize you are doing something and it is related to them being quiet.
STEP 3
Now, once you’ve associated “HUSH” to when they stop barking, say “HUSH” to stop them when they are barking. When they do, always PRAISE and REWARD them.
In this 3rd step, you want to use the “HUSH” verbal command or the finger over your lips to cause your dog to stop barking.
If you got the correct results from step 2, your dog will realize your commands mean for them to be quiet.
You reinforce this positively by giving a verbal praise and treat for reward when and only when your dog earns it.
If you are having troubles here, go back to step 2 and keep working on it. You will eventually get it with some effort and patience.
FOLLOW ON:
How to Teach a Dog to Hush is crowd favorite of our dog tricks.
This may take a lot of practice with some dogs, but with time, patience and consistency they will be quiet before you know it.
Tell us how you hush training went in the comments below.
