Help me stop my dogs barking

ricecakes1216 · March 2014

Once upon a time I had a very relaxed, well behaved dog. He would listen and respond when told to do something. He never barked unless something really got his attention and startled him.

Fast forward to about 10 months ago when we made a move from CA back to WA and our living situation was complicated so he went to stay with my parents. Biggest mistake I've ever made. My parents have two dogs that never stop barking and never listen. I didn't realize how bad they were as we weren't around to see their behavior. When we got into our house we discovered our once awesomely behaved dog picked up the habit of barking at every little thing.

He won't listen when told to stop either. Our fence between our yard and the neighbor is weak and he has jumped on it and broke part if it. With the weather getting nicer, he wants to be outside but our neighbor is usually back there and he barks out of control.

What are some tips to help this? He's a boxer/mastiff mix, if that makes a difference. My H is fed up and I'm worried the neighbor is going to throw a fit. Plus I want my well mannered dog back.

ricecakes1216 · March 2014

CharSamm said:

We tried a "No Bark" gadget which makes a high pitch noise every time the dog barks. We left one day and the gadget was taken off the counter (only item ever taken off the counter) and chewed into pieces and the pieces were all over the house. Needless to say I don't think she liked it.
I would probably call a trainer and hope they can get figure out the main reason for barking and how to work with the dog. I hope you find some barking relief!

Did the noise seem to help the barking at all?

jtaylor199 · March 2014

Kbinford01 said:

We just went to dog/baby class. Our dogs bark like crazy animals at the front door. The trainer said you have to praise them when they are doing something good (go lay down, dog lays down, lots of praise) and break their concentration when they are bad. For us barking at the front door is a stern NO, followed by making them sit and wait, if we start to open the door and they move then shut it loudly and say NO therefore getting their attention. Make them sit and wait again. Try to open them door. Repeat until they wait quietly to go out. Working great so far. Maybe you can start working on that before he goes outside. As soo as he starts barking go out and tell him NO and remove him from the situation. Good luck!

This is pretty much what we do too. It's VERY tedious but works. We had a very mellow puppy but once he got a little older he felt the need to protect us and the house. We also use the "settle" technique that helps break his concentration and relaxes him. It helps a lot too. Good luck!

dragonfly711 · March 2014

They also have citronella collars. They are not has harsh as shock collars.

When the dog barks the citronella is sprayed in front of the dogs nose. Works pretty well.

You might need a trainer as well.

babyglo350 · March 2014

I know people have strong opinions on bark collars that give a little shock but we used that with our mini "loud mouth" schnauzer. It was a true God send. It was the only thing that worked. When the dogs has it on and starts to bark it will make a high pitch warning tone. If after 3 seconds he continues to bark it will give a small shock ( we tried it on ourselves....it's not that serious. Feel like the shock you get when rubbing your feet on the floor and touching a door knob). Soon he realized that the tone signaled that a shock was coming. So he would start to bark hear the tone and immediately stop. After 1 or 2 days with the collar he didn't bark incessantly anymore. Don't get me wrong. He's a dog and he's allowed to bark when appropriate and now he knows the difference. From time to time he pushes the boundaries and all we have to do us show it to him and he stops. He hasn't worn it in over 2 years. It's tough love but it works. Good luck!!!

jshrop · March 2014

I had a lab who barked 24/7. I got a citronella collar. It stays citronella every time she barked, so it tasted bad, smelled bad, and the "pssssht" noise scares her. It worked like a charm. 3 barks later, no more issues. You have to make sure that the container stays full and the batteries are charged tho. You can get them on Amazon.com. I used it with a beagle that bayed like crazy too.

ricecakes1216 · March 2014

I'm going to look into these citronella collars. H wants to get a shock collar. We did obidence classes when he was little and that really made him well behaved. He didn't have a barking problem then and he still minds his manners expect the barking.

supgabs · March 2014

Please don't put a shock collar on your dog...It doesn't teach him anything just that barking=pain.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jp_l9C1yT1g

Clicker training is awesome and pleasant for both you and your dog

Unknown · March 2014

This content has been removed.

ElTrain5 · March 2014

I've seen Cesar Milan use a clicker trainer on barking dogs before and it seemed to work. There was a technique behind it too, might want to google that part, but the dogs seemed to respond well to the click-command combo.

ricecakes1216 · March 2014

ElTrain5 said:
I've seen Cesar Milan use a clicker trainer on barking dogs before and it seemed to work. There was a technique behind it too, might want to google that part, but the dogs seemed to respond well to the click-command combo.

That sounds interesting. Thanks for that suggestion. I'm off to google that.

otter1103 · March 2014

We have a remote training collar that works pretty well. It has a vibrate level that does the trick before we have to escalate to a shock level. We also use it when the dogs don't come as called. The dogs don't wear the collars all of the time either and seem more well behaved when they are on since they know those are what creates the vibration. We had one of the no bark shock collars that automatically zaps but the results were less than desirable.
This is the one we have https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B00CX6LJ22/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?qid=1395669018&sr=8-1&pi=SY200_QL40

MSUMands · March 2014

I struggle with this too. I want them to bark when someone is at the door, but not jump at/lick whoever is coming in the house - unless of course that person is uninvited. How do you guys distinguish between friend or foe? Obviously any kind of barking deterant is set to curb all barking, correct?

abastian00 · March 2014

Agree with above PPs re: praising for good behavior, our Pit/boxer mix responses well to that. I'd also say consistency is king - even though it's exhausting you have to tell them no Every. Single. Time. And use your "big-deep-strong" voice for it. A former trainer for Emma once told me that Emma won't believe I'm the leader unless I believe I'm the leader, so when I yell at her I (inside my head) am saying "I'm the boss, you better listen to me or else" and be as authoritative as possible.

We never used, but heard good things about, citronella bark collars. Less painful that the shock collars, but release a spray of citronella every time they bark which is super unsavory for them.

otter1103 · March 2014

MSUMands said:
I struggle with this too. I want them to bark when someone is at the door, but not jump at/lick whoever is coming in the house - unless of course that person is uninvited. How do you guys distinguish between friend or foe? Obviously any kind of barking deterant is set to curb all barking, correct?

When we took our dogs to training, the trainer said to use "Quiet" as our command to get dogs to stop barking. This way they wouldn't associate No with it as in no barking. With 2 teens in the house, we have kids coming and going all of the time. The dogs are learning one said person is at the top of the stairs is when they get the "quiet" command. We also give our dogs a verbal commands before we buzz them if they continue barking. That's why I like our training collars more than a traditional "no bark" collar. One of our dogs is scared of the clicker used for training (Weird, I know) so the collar with remote works for us. A quick tap and they get a quick buzz, if not responding, a longer press for a longer buzz. We rarely ever use the shock levels.

jshrop · March 2014

Just to add, the citronella collar works on it's own. You don't trigger it, the noise of the bark does. It's nice because the behavior always gets corrected (unless the battery dies or the spray is empty). Also they make lemon scented spray so the dog smells awesome if she gets sprayed!

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