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I have seen some people suggest that it is easier to teach "quiet" by first teaching the "speak" command. Is this effective? It has been suggested to me by a number of people, but the absence of it on this site made me wonder whether it is not as effective (or for some reason should not be taught) as I thought? My 9 month old mutt is generally well-behaved and has basic obedience commands down reasonably well. We have only just started Module 4 of the course, and she is taking to the exercises wonderfully. The biggest behavioural 'problem' I have that has persisted over these past months is barking, mainly at noises outside the house. I have tried a number of things, including those in the 'barking' section of 'behaviour problems' on this site, and they certainly SEEM to be helping, but the barking still happens. If anything, it is just getting a bit easier to interrupt her once she starts. She doesn't seem to understand at all that "quiet" means "not barking", despite me constantly rewarding her for being quiet after barking. Should I just accept that I am going to have to constantly be redirecting her to slowly train this behaviour out of her? I really fear that I am inadvertently training my dog to turn her "barking at nothing" or "barking at outside sounds" (i.e. territorial) behaviour, into "attention seeking" behaviour as I try to reward her for being quiet, and constantly engage her by redirecting to perform other commands any time she barks.