Anyone have any tips on how to teach the "howl" "sing" command? I've been trying and trying, Cally just barks at me. The only times she howls is if I leave her alone, she's in the crate or she needs to go outside. Anyone actually taught there husky to do this and what tricks did you use? I've tried using youtube, other dogs howling, squeaky toys, treats.... lol

I sat there like an idiot saying "Speak" forming my hand into a mouth and opening it and whooooing while the "mouth hand" was opened.

Videos of Mel's Kody worked well too.... I don't know what it is... But the videos of Kody tend to get Tika all ramped up.... she will tilt her head at others.... But she responds to Kody for some reason.

I think it took a week or two before Tika really caught on to it and understood what we wanted.

Now she talks whoos if she wants to go out, or disagrees with us in some way shape or form. Oh I'm sorry, is it 7:32pm and you should have been fed at 7:30? Please let me know how unhappy you are about me being 2 minutes late.


Remember... Once you teach them to speak, You sometimes wish you didn't

~Chris~

I'm very interested in learning this also. My girl won't sing or howl either. I've even tried howling to see if she will do it with me but she just looks at me like I'm crazy. She doesn't even bark. I hope someone knows some tricks to get them to do it.

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Tika wrote:

Remember... Once you teach them to speak, You sometimes wish you didn't

This times a million. And we didn't teach Bode to speak/howl. He picked it up all on his own. And he is MOUTHY! "Sit?" Oh he'll sit, but not after letting you know he doesn't want to. Not paying enough attention to him? "Woooowoooowoooo".

It can be adorable and hilarious, but sometimes it's just downright obnoxious. If you've got a quiet one, think seriously about whether you want to change that or not!

Haha I talk my lab to "speak" but opening and closing my mouth really fast and sorta smacking my lips, works everytime lol. Balon I haven't begun to teach that yet....

Rogue took for effing ever to howl. She only started doing it after we made all the dogs howl in harmony at Claudia's.

Cally will do it but as I said only in the crate or when I leave, I want to teach her to do it on command :p she will speak (bark) just not woo or howl! I know the nuisance that comes with a howling husky, but it's all part of the husky fun! lol I might try taking a look at Kody's videos

If you can get her to do it in the crate that you can reinforce it. It will just take a little bit of time.

Before letting her out ask her to "HOWL" make your hand into a mouth and open it (As long as that isn't the sign you use for speak or bark). The second she does it give her a treat through the cage. Don't let her out just yet.

Repeat until she does it 3 times. Then let her out and do all your normal play or what ever else you do.

Continue on like that for a couple of days, it will start to sink in. Always reward a treat when she howls during this time period, in the crate or out. If she does it randomly say "good girl. Cally Howl" make the hand signal and reward.


Then change it slightly. before letting her out of the crate she will be howling. This is going to be a little bit rough on both of you for the first little bit. Make your hand into mouth again but this time don't open it. Every time she howls tell her "No. Cally Quiet" Leave your hand closed.

If she doesn't do it in like 5 mins go back to rewarding just the howling and then try again tomorrow and so on.

If she does quiet tell her "Good Cally, Call Quiet". REWARD QUIET Treat!!!!! Then Open the crate and let her out when she is quiet.

From this point on if you can trigger a quiet easy enough or if she isn't barking on a day you come to let her out ask her to Howl and make the sign.


If you can find a way to make your pup howl it is pretty easy to reinforce the behaviour (Normally) after. You just have to keep at it.




It's the same way I thought Tika to crawl..... She was crawling on the ground one day and I saw her... So I grabbed my bag of treats fast and reinforced it. Now she can do it on command.

~Chris~

Mine will do it if he is backtalking, singing with me, or sirens are a no-fail trigger! We have a tsunami siren test every Wednesday and he howls along, usually directly in my ear.

I'll try that Chris, thanks! And ahaha there such a pleasure though :p, even when backtalking lol

Just last night my husband got Lindor to 'sing'. He made low deep moaning noises to her and she moaned back.

When I realized what was going on I jumped up got the clicker and snacks and started clicking.
Hopefully tonight we can practices it again.

Sham Zimba was sitting there giving a bark now and then asking where is my snack?

Let us know what worked for Cally.

I will for sure let you know

Sometimes I think Danzig howled from birth. He's a very noisy/talkative dog and even taught our GSP to howl. We taught him to speak when saying "What did you say?" and we did that by asking him and then immitating him talking. He also likes to howl when you roll your tounge. Oh and showing him Gone to the Snow Dog videos really sets him off.

Good luck! It's always fun to hear them talk and howl at you.

Well I think I'll just post this clip here of my boy and I singing haha
Usually when I pick up my guitar to practice some tunes, Mylo starts howling/singing for the first few minutes then stops. Today I put my phone to capture this phenomenon

Rune and Zoey do it randomly. I encourage it because my whole family gets a good laugh from it. Zoey is very vocal. My daughter will "talk" with her for about 10 minutes sometimes. Rune is starting to do it. I just mimic what they do and we talk back and forth.