Leerburg | QA on Barking

on Barking

I have a border collie female who is about 5 years old who barks incessantly on and off all day long. We've tried everything, what do you suggest?
I have a 21 month old working line dog. He has been having a little seperation anxiety when I leave the house. He has been barking a lot with occasional breaks. What is your thought?
If my 15 month old Doberman hears the slightest sound outside, upstairs or even if my wife opens the basement door to talk to me for something he just keeps barking. Is there a way to quiet him quickly or to distinguish between noises or perhaps could he grow out of this pattern?
I have a female Dobie and I am unsure what the best reaction should be when she barks at people or noises. What is the best way to handle this? Is this a socialization issue or just natural protection tendencies of the breed? Do I make her stop or let her carry on barking?
I have my dog in her crate pretty much all the time like it says to do. She won't quit barking!!! AHH!! It's making me crazy!!! What do I do!!!
We have two dogs, would it be safe to put the bark collar on our one dog even if the two of them are in their dog run together?
I have a dog that is territorial barking in our small backyard that I can’t seem to control. Is this an instance where you’d suggest use a remote trainer?
Our 10-month-old Brittany barks when dogs pass by our house, whether she is inside or outside. What do you suggest?
We have a Doberman who whines A LOT. I've seen the success decribed on the website regarding bark collars. Is there anything similar for whining? Something that would issue a correction for whining, but not for as bark?
My dogs go crazy in their crates when my son visits with his dog. They are otherwise well behaved, what should I do?
I want to purchase an electric collar for my 12 pound dog. I need to quickly control his barking. What do you recommend?

1. Question:

Dear Cindy,

It's been a really long time since I have written for your advice, but I find myself needing your help once again. I'm not sure why I never asked for your help before, but I guess better late than never. I have a border collie female who is about 5 years old. We've had her since she was a 7 weeks old. Any how she barks incessantly on and off all day long. We've tried the bark collars, which I really dislike. I've tried exercise, spray bottles and shaker cans. She only does it when she is in her kennel. Being that she is champagne and white she has very sensitive skin, and she can get a hot spot with the e-collar very quickly. What I'd like to know is what exercise can I do with her that will not only tire her physically but also mentally enough for her to calm down. She was the hardest dog I've ever had to teach obedience to since she does not respond to treats. We used to show her in conformation and not even a Mcdonalds hamburger, fresh cooked chicken or liver could hold her attention.She loves to go for walks with us and she fairly well behaved, but I just don't think that walks are enough.

She's not my first border collie, I have never experienced this kind of behavior before. So what ever advice you have would be so appreciated.

I don't even mind if I have to start all over again, I will attempt to do what ever you think would work.

Thanks,
Bonnie

Answer:

If your dog is having skin irritation from the bark collar I would guess that it's on too loose. If it's on properly it won't rub and irritate the skin. Personally for dogs like this, I would get in the habit of using the collar for some time every day to break the cycle of barking.

As for mental exercise, I haven't found anything better to engage a dog's mind than marker training. The Power of Training Dogs with Markers.

I would manipulate her food to increase her drive and I would make her work for all her meals.

I hope this helps.

Cindy

2. Question:

Hi,

I have a question about my dog. He a 21 month old working line dog. I purchased him about 3 months ago for schutzhund and he as developed a tight bond with me. He has been having a little seperation anxiety when I leave the house. He stays in an extra large crate in the basement when I leave to go to work. My other dogs stay in crates beside him when my wife and I are both at work. But when she is not working the house dogs usually upstairs with her. The problem is, he has been barking a lot with occasional breaks. It doesn't matter if the other dogs are with him in their crates or not. He doesn't settle down until I come home. He is getting plenty of exercise daily so I don't believe it is that.

On a regular house dog I would probably use a "bark" collar to help with this.

I hesistate with using this on him because I don't know if this will inhibit him from barking in protection work. What is your thought on that? Any suggestions would be appreciated. He does not respond this way in the car if I have to go into the store or anywhere that I go, if he is in his crate in the car.

Thanks,
Phil

Answer:

I’d use a bark collar for him. If you use it properly it should not interfere with protection work. I use bark collars on my dogs and they are actively being trained for protection. They know the difference.

Tritronics Bark Limiter is the bark collar I use.

I would direct you to the search function in the upper left corner of the website for any additional questions you may have.. If you type in your key words it will guide you to articles, Q & A’s and posts on our forum. Separation anxiety has been discussed at length on the forum and the website.

I hope this helps.

Cindy

3. Question:

Hello Cindy,

It has been a very long time since I last emailed. I ordered several of Ed's videos and searched his site on quieting a barking dog.

Simply my 15 month old Doberman is very obedient thanks to your videos but for some reason if he hears the slightest sound outside, upstairs or even if my wife opens the basement door to talk to me for something he just keeps barking. I don't mind him nor will I correct him for barking at stangers walking by or hears noises outside but its the inside noises which occur quite often as you can imagine that finds me needing to quiet him. Now I have basically used the shh command with some treats that does stop it eventually but even then only for a little while until the very next small sound. Is there a way to quiet him quickly or to distinguish between noises or perhaps could he grow out of this pattern?

Appreciate any thoughts and suggestions,
Jason

Answer:

I would not count on him growing out of this. If anything it may become more pronounced as he gets older. I have met many Dobermans who are like this (I raised them for many years) and there are a couple of options.

You can use a Tritronics Bark Limiter. Dogs quickly learn that when this collar is on, they need to be quiet. I haven’t had any issue with my dogs NOT barking once the collar is removed.

You could also go to a remote collar, so you could selectively shush him. The problem with this is that if you aren’t prepared to correct him at exactly the right moment, you may cause confusion. The benefit to this is that you can pick and choose when to quiet him. The bark collar will correct him for ANY barking, the ecollar lets you choose.

I personally use the Dogtra collars. I’d also recommend Electric collar Training for the Pet Owner.

I hope this helps.

Cindy

4. Question:

Hi Cindy,

I want to start off by telling you what a great help you and Ed have been with my training! I love your videos, especially the Training with markers video. My question for you is, I have a female Dobie and I am unsure what the best reaction should be when she barks at people or noises (for example: people walking through the neighborhood at night or noises outside). I want my dog to be naturally protective and watch/alert me when she senses something is not quite right. When she barks, I check out the situation and if I think everything is OK, I will tell her "No" or "Quiet" calmly but firmly. Usually that will stop the barking but sometimes she will get a couple more little barks in under her breath. In that situation, I have to get a little firmer and tell her "No" again or call her over to me and make her lay down. I believe she should listen and respect me when I tell her to stop barking. I worry that telling her "No" may be sending the signal that I don't want her to bark at all when I absolutely would want her to bark, for example, at someone approaching the house late at night. Most of the time she picks up on people or things that I would never even notice so I appreciate that. What is the best way to handle this? Is this a socialization issue or just natural protection tendencies of the breed? Do I make her stop or let her carry on barking?

Thanks!

Amanda

Answer:

I would try giving her an alternative behavior to perform when you want her to stop barking (similar to what you are already doing). I've had a lot of Dobermans, and typically you don't need to worry about them NOT barking :)

In other words if she barks and you want her to stop, then I would say Down or Sit or use whatever command you wish and if she persists in barking I would give her a correction of some sort. I would not keep repeating NO or Quiet, but teach her that when you say Sit, it means sit and shut up or when you say Down, it means lay down and be quiet.

I have a Malinois right now that does this, and I always tell her Good Girl for letting me know someone is there but then I shut her down right away with a Down or a Sit. For this particular dog, using the remote collar on a very low setting is the most effective way to reinforce this.

I hope this helps.

Cindy

5. Question:

Cindy Help!!!!

OK - I have Izzy in her crate pretty much all the time like it says to do. (in the groundwork article). She's never had an accident or anything. I'm sure to take her out to go to the bathroom and I take her out for a long walk everyday too. As per what Ed says about 'social isolation' I don't talk to her, I ignore her and everything. I'm trying to be as aloof as possible!! Here's my problem. She won't quit barking!!! AHH!! It's making me crazy!!! What do I do!!! So far I have not even acknowledged it. She's been in the crate since Friday morning. Tell me this is going to get easier soon! Thanks.

Answer:

You can put the crate somewhere that the barking won’t bother you or you can use a bark collar.

This is something some dogs need to go through, just make sure you aren’t giving her ANY attention at all when she barks. NONE. The only time she gets attention or gets to come out is when she has been quiet even if it’s only for a few seconds at first. You can also try covering the crate with a blanket so she can’t see what’s going on around her, that helps sometimes.

I would direct you to the search function in the upper left corner of the website for any additional questions you may have. If you type in your key words it will guide you to articles, Q & A’s and posts on our forum.

Cindy

6. Question:

Hi,

I have a question, I'm sorry if I got the wrong email address. I have two dogs, both almost 3, a Golden Retriever and a Great Pyrenees. The Golden doesn't bark at anything. He will be surrounded by barking dogs and not even turn his head. Our Pyrenees, however, will bark if the grass is too green or growing too quickly. They also don't play with each other a lot as our Pyrenees is much more laid back than our Golden and he gets bored with her and she tires of him. My question is, would it be safe to put the bark collar on our Pyrenees even if the two of them are in their dog run together, since they don't really wrestle a whole lot and she doesn't really get aggressive... ever?

Thanks,
Amber

Answer:

I don’t like putting bark collars on dogs when they are confined together. The problem is that the one that barks may become aggressive with the other dog if they receive a correction. The dog sees something that elicits a bark, gets a correction and then may turn and bite who or whatever is closest. It’s called re-directed aggression and I don’t feel it’s worth risking. If they are in side by side kennels or separate yards, it’s fine but together I would say “no.”

Cindy

7. Question:

Hi Cindy!

I have a 5-year female German Shepherd that is territorial barking in our small backyard that I can’t seem to control. We no longer allow her access to the backyard when we are gone during the day because we can’t allow her to be a nuisance to the neighbors. When we do let her into the backyard to ‘do her business,’ she races out the petdoor and barks loudly with her hackles up the entire time she’s outside. She also barks along the fence. Is this an instance where you’d suggest use a remote trainer? Thanks for your opinion and thoughts.

–Cindy

Answer:

I’d recommend a Tritronics Bark Limiter for nuisance barking it is much more accurate than a remote collar. The correction will be timed correctly for each bark, even when you are not watching her.

We use these on our own dogs every day.

You may want to read over some of the questions from other customers with similar problems. I hope this helps.

Cindy

8. Question:

Hi,

Your site has been a great help. We have a 10-month-old Brittany, and until a month ago, I thought we had just been lucky because our dog never barked. Now, she barks when dogs pass by our house, whether she is inside or outside. If we are on a walk, she rarely barks at a dog passing by, even if it barks at her. She gets excited, but doesn't make a noise. The one thing that has changed is that we have had Invisible Fence installed during this time. I have read questions on your site about barking and the use of a bark collar, but we already have a normal collar and the Fence collar on her at all times (except during a walk and at night). We use your prong collar with a regular collar for walks. Can we really use another collar? When she barks, we have been saying "No bark" while we hold her muzzle. What do you suggest?

Thanks,
Mary

Answer:

For nuisance barking, the best solution I have found is the Tri-Tronics Bark Limiter. I think you’ll find you only need to put on the bark collar when she’s in your yard or the house. I use it situationally on my own dogs, for when I can’t perfectly time an interruption or correction. You shouldn’t need it when you are on a walk or have her on a leash, because you can give her instant feedback should she decide to bark inappropriately.

I have one dog that needs the collar on when he’s in our fenced yard and at no other time. I have another dog that needs it when she’s crated. They learn very fast that when the collar goes on to be discriminatory about using their voice.

Cindy

9.Question:

Cindy,

I'm sure you've heard this many times before....we have a Doberman who whine. A LOT. Barking isn't a huge problem (he does bark, but not to the point that it's an issue). I've seen the success decribed on the website regarding bark collars. Is there anything similar for whining? Something that would issue a correction for whining, but not for as bark? I see no reason to correct his barks, given that the problem is the whining.

The dog does seem to have general SA issues. We crate him when we're gone. If we don't, he may chew something or he may not. He's gone weeks with no incident but then has a big one, such as chewing the couch! Since then, he's been crated while were away from home. The whining is a problem whether we're home or not. He does it all the time for many reason...all dumb. We actually think he's a little off for a doberman, but he's a total sweetheart.

Any thoughts?

Thanks,

Caahlen
Aurora, IL

Answer:

I'd try a bark collar ---Tri-Tronics Bark Limiter.

The problem is anxiety and vocalizing, and if you can get a handle on it with the bark collar I think the anxiety will subside as well.

The skill, timing and consistency required to correct whining without a bark collar is something that would be very difficult to do with another training method. You'd have to be there 24/7 to catch him when he's not whining and use marker training to reward him. This is so difficult to do, that I couldn't recommend it as a viable option.

Cindy

10. Question:

I am hoping that you can help us. I have two ½ Australian Cattle Dogs. The ½ comes when my step son’s Australian Cattle Dog (neutered male) (Ryder) comes to stay with us for two days every two days (my step-son is a fireman at Otis AFB, here in Mass.). I have a spayed female (Libby) and a Champion show dog (Diesel). ALL these dogs are crate trained. All these dogs are registered ACDs. When Diesel and Libby are home and out of their crates, they are very good together, I am the pack leader as well as my husband. Libby and Ryder don’t usually make a peep when they are in their crates. Diesel sometimes whines (very distracting).

My house goes into chaos when Ryder visits. When my step son drives in (the dogs have excellent hearing), Libby starts barking, and Diesel gets to the very corner of his crate, barking and raising quite the ruckus. Then Ryder comes in the house. All Heck breaks loose. Diesel actually moves his crate to try to get to Ryder. There is a mutual hate by both Ryder and Diesel. Libby gets along with both, but sometime has a little difficulty with Ryder. (He’s a 75 lb. ACD!) When Diesel is out of the crate with Libby – Ryder will charge his crate as well trying to get to Diesel. We don’t let Diesel and Ryder out together AT ALL. We’ve pretty much resigned ourselves to that fact. We’d like to bring peace back into our lives though.

We do have bark collars – we’ve found that if we have the bark collars on Libby and Diesel when my step son drives in that sometimes the aggression isn’t there. Do we need to step this up to a training collar? We’ve had a difficult time with Diesel in correcting him for lunging at the corner of his crate when Ryder comes through. It is impossible to correct him in the crate.

My dogs all get taken out to the arena to catch balls, run around, and my dogs do agility, so Libby and Diesel get worked and get tired. Ryder, sometime has no interest in the ball, and will just just run after Libby.

We are running out of choices, ideas, etc. this is definitely affecting not only the dogs, but my marriage. We’ve tried contacting another trainer about the red zone aggression and have gotten no response.

Ideas, thoughts, help please!?

Margaret

Answer:

I’d use the bark collars, every time you put the dogs in the crate (even if your son is not going to be visiting) I’ve found that the best way to instill new habits in dogs is to simply be consistent. If you wait until they already are showing aggression or barking, then they’ve gotten a rehearsal of behavior you don’t want.

We like these Tri-Tronics Bark Limiter

11. Question:

Cindy,

I talked w/ Donna today and she requested that I write you for advice on which e-collar to purchase for my dog. Charley is a 15 month old miniature poodle, about 12 pounds. Charley is a an extremely active, athletic dog. We do a 3 or 4 mile run most days. He’s not aggressive, very social, a poodle, but a “soft” dog, mild and loving most of the time. He’s probably the best dog I’ve ever had. I am working w/ Charley steadily on obedience training, aiming for trials for CD title in a few months.

We recently moved into new offices, and Charley comes to work w/ me. I had him in a sit-stay, in a restricted hall ,for training purposes, while I went to the men’s room. Normally he will sit silently for several minutes, but another dog on the floor below started barking, and Charley responded, which led to a complaint. I won’t leave him in that hall again, but will keep him in our office suite. Nevertheless, I need to be able to quickly control any barking.

He also barks when he sees other dogs outside, from his window perch at home, and I want to control that too. However I don’t want to go to an automatic bark collar, because he barks infrequently, and my wife likes a certain amount of the barking when a visitor appears at our house. I have resisted an e-collar before because I’m heading for competition obedience, and don’t want Charley dependent on it, but now I need to do something.

Donna said that both the Dogtra 280 and 1900 would be too large for Charley. She asked me to have you suggest a “lap dog” e-collar. I hardly think of Charley as a lap dog, but I suppose size is the determining factor. What do you recommend?

-Mark

Answer:

I’m not a fan of using an electric collar to correct nuisance barking. The timing of the handler is almost never good enough or consistent enough to correct barking. I have found that using the bark collar is best because you don’t have to hover and wait for the dog to bark. The collar does it’s job much better than I could. If you want to allow the dog to bark at specific times, you simply don’t put the collar on. They figure it out quickly. This is how I handle my own dogs.

I only use the electric collar for training, not for punishing behaviors like barking.

If you need a collar for training, then I’d go with the Innotek Lap Dog trainer.

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