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View Full Version : I am desperate- another barking problem



Molly's Mom
03-10-2003, 03:42 AM
I am really hoping you guys have got some ideas to help me.

When we got the dogs last year, as soon as they were old enough, we had an invisible fence installed on our property. That's kind of the problem, as our property includes the lot in which the house is on, plus the lot beside it. Our family was in disagreement at the time on exactly how much freedom the dogs should have. My dad wanted to include all the yard right up the neighbor's property line, where as my mom and I only wanted the lot the house was on and a small portion of the other lot to be included so we could have better control of the animals. Considering dad was the one who dealt with the guy who installed the fence, it does include both lots.

Molly and Sammy quickly grasped the concept of the fence, so we have had no problems with them trying to go over it. Last year when they were little, they were too scared to go in the second lot. All has changed now, as they are fearless and go wherever their hearts desire.

That would not be a problem except they bark at anything and everything they see outside and often go to the property edge to observe the neighborhood better. Not only is the noise extremely annoying, but we live in a restricted community and dog barking is considered noise pollution! Why we have not be turned in is beyond us.

Problem is when they are barking, we are having difficulty stopping it. While we are doing anything we can think of to scold them when they bark or praise them when they don't bark, that isn't working. Considering they are so far away from the house, it's hard to get close enough to them to really do anything to them. Even rounding them up to bring them inside is a big production.

Considering warmer weather is approaching, we really need to fix this problem. Yes, I know changing the fence is the most logical thing to do, but my dad is dead set against that. Is there anything else that we can try?

Otto'sMom
03-31-2003, 07:05 AM
Clicker training? My girl Dolly is a BIG screamer/barker/yodeller and we've just started clicker training. One of the concepts of controlling barking is to get train them to bark on command, then you can stop it too. I'm sure any sort of training might help your dilemma.

2DogsLong
03-31-2003, 01:03 PM
Try citronella bark collars. They spray a puff of citronella when the dog barks and most hate it. Canadian Dachshund Rescue sometimes has them for sale and the price would be great for americans because of the exchange.

If you are interested, send a note to info@wienerdogrescue.com.

Sue

dutchman
03-31-2003, 01:44 PM
I second the citronella anti-bark collars. Here is a link to one vendor that was jsut the first hit to come up when I did a google search. http://www.fuzzytummy.com/2/cat2.htm?751 This is in no way meant as an endorsement of that particualr vendor however the brank collar shown is he most widely used model and I would strongly suggest you consider that manfacture so that you can be sure that you will be able to locate supplices (batteries citronella refils. The price at that site is decent. I've seen that model selling any where from a low of about $90 to over $150 (US). OF course if you can get it from a rescue group at a decent price all the better. Or perhaps Mark knows of one of the vendors on the store link that carries these collars. I would suggest checking the shop link and the rescue routes first if you decide to get one.

My only concerns about your two and the collar include one, that I don't know if you will be able to utilize this collar at the same time they have their wireless fence collars on. Two to avoid having tages that jingle setting of the collar I have to remove my boys conventional collar and I don't know how far you feel you can push your luck with the wireless fence. Three other dogs barking very close by can trigger the collar. I've have which ever boy was wearing the collar become a victum of one of the othrs standing next to them barking setting off the collar. My trainer claims they work in voer 90 percent of the barking dog cases. It works for Tanner and Dexter my outdoor barkers when they have it on but doesn't seem to carry over well to when they don't have it on. Frank who barks at many things on TV does not react at all to the collar.

Good luck,

Tom and the boys (Frank, Tanner and Dexter)

Molly's Mom
04-23-2003, 03:19 AM
Sorry it too so long to reply....I forgot about my post.

I have heard about the collars too, and like dutchman mentioned, I worried if they would affect the collars for the fence. I know Molly probably would be okay if she went w/o her fence collar for a while, but Sammy would think nothing of running all over the busy road if he didn't have his.

So far, we have set back the settings, so they can't go quite as far as they used to near the sidewalk. That has helped a little bit. Also, we have taken note of the neighbor's schedules, and if we know someone is going to be outside for a long period, we leave the dogs in the house. Weekdays work out well this way since most of our neighbors work, so we let the dogs play almost all day, bring them in as worktime winds down so people can arrive at their homes in peace, then take the dogs out one final time right before bed. The only big problem we are experiences are the weekends when there are a lot of people around. People know not to approach our yard because the dogs bark so bad you can't hold a conversation.

Things are getting better now that the timing issue is under control, the only thing we can't control are the neighborhood dogs. They don't do anything to help this situation, but at least it isn't just our dogs that are the problem.

Can someone tell me a little about clicker training in case we need to explore this opion?