Don’t let your pup learn bad habits! Most behavioural problems are caused by boredom and isolation. This is why it is essential to spend time every day with your pup and have him with you in the house or in the yard while you’re home. When you’re not home the pup should not be loose in the house but should be either in a crate, in a small puppy proof room like the bathroom or baby gated into the kitchen. Barking Now is the time to develop a pattern of control for barking.
This is probably one of the most frustrating problems facing a dog owner. It can create enemies of neighbours and can result in warnings and fines from animal control agencies and justifiably so. Any dog that won’t stop barking for long periods of time is causing much distress for many innocent people and is contributing to anti-dog sentiment. The responsible dog owner begins avoiding this problem by training his puppy to the quiet/shush command.
Barking is a natural canine activity. There’s no reason to expect a dog never to bark, but you can expect him to learn to stop barking. I usually will try to use a shush noise; it seems to be very effective. When the pup has barked a few times, give the shush command and or take him by the collar and walk him away from the thing that is making him bark. Put the dog into a sit/stay and distract him, if the dog continues to bark continue to move from the area using gentle tones and once the barking has stopped praise the pup. This is an ongoing process. Some pups learn the shush command quickly while others have regular relapses. As with many other aspects of puppy behaviour, you automatically work on the problem every time it occurs. Yelling at the pup to stop barking, is like you barking as well and it increases the pups anxiety or fear. The pup is likely to think that you are joining in and will only continue to bark.
There are many levels of barking some are just as simple as “did you hear that” to “go away, I’m big and threatening”. The cause of some barking problems is similar to the cause of some excessive chewing and digging problems, not enough time spent with the puppy, and not enough exercise for the puppy. Practice makes perfect!
Set up friends coming to your door and ringing the bell. Use the techniques above. Sit/stay or down/stay works well for this. Have treats ready so when the barking stops and a sit/stay is reinforced the dog gets a reward. Make sure not to run to the door and tell the dog to be quiet in harsh tones or the dog will think that there is a threat on the other side of the door. Negative reinforcement is still reinforcement so try not to get into the habit of yelling at your dog.
What you are citing as an example of ‘negative reinforcement’ (-R) is actually an example of ‘positive punishment’ (+P). I do agree with you though that giving attention (even if it is negative) can reinforce behavior causing it to occur more frequently or at a higher intensity rather than make it stop.