How to Teach Your Dog to Howl or Sing on Command

Have any of you taught your dogs to howl on command?

This is a fun “trick” you can teach some dogs more easily than others.

Although, some dogs are naturally more vocal so maybe you don’t want to encourage them to howl more than they already do! 🙂

My dog Ace is not much of a barker, so the first time we got him to howl, I think he was just as shocked to hear his own howl as we were.

The following are my tips for teaching a dog to howl/sing on command, but let me know how you taught your dog in the comments.

How to teach your dog to howl or sing

Here’s what we did … I imagine there are other, better, ways.

1. Our friend Justin started “howling” to get Ace to howl.

2. Ace howled too!

3. We started using the cue “sing” and rewarded him with praise and food.

Today, Ace will howl when we use the “sing” command, but he’s reluctant to do it and I’ve pretty much trained him to howl once I start howling first. 🙂 Then, once he gets started “singing,” he doesn’t want to stop!

Here’s a video:

Ace gets a little stressed out and is reluctant to “sing,” but he gets rewarded with pepperonis, so don’t feel too bad for him!

Other tips to teach a dog to “sing”:

1. Some dogs may be tempted to bark instead of howl. Just ignore the barking and reward your dog for even the tiniest howl.

2. It may be easier to teach “sing” if your dog already knows “speak” (bark).

3. If your dog howls naturally, like when he’s excited, mark the behavior with “sing” and reward him.

4. You may want to teach your dog a command for “quiet” to get him to stop howling! 🙂

5. Tilting your head back and making silent howling gestures just might become your dog’s cue, just to warn you. 🙂

6. Have fun with this. It ain’t meant to be so serious!

How about you?

How did you teach your dog to howl or sing?

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