First of all, let me say that my dog does not bark very much. I consider her the quietest dog I have ever owned. She will give a few barks here and there at things like the mailman, people walking past the house with a dog, etc. and stop when I tell her to. I have also been using OB commands as distractions, and rewarding her for quiet looking, when I am there to do so.

But my DH has an extremely low tolerance for barking. And the other day Mitzi made the grave mistake of barking at him thruoght the fence, and not stopping when he spoke to her. IMO she barks first and figures out who or what it is after... and she did not realize it was him.

Since the day she barked at him, I have been putting her in her crate whenever she barks, just quietly picking her up and putting her in for 15 min. or so, instead of any corrections. More of a zero tolerance approach. I am possibly seeing some improvement, but hard to tell. Do you think this is a wise course of action? My husbands solution is that she must wear a bark collar till she learns to stop barking at anything. If I thought my way would bring the same results, I would argue for trying it first...
I would appreciate opinions. Thanks

That's the method I used with Ryuk, though he's always been a quiet dog he went through a 2 week butthead period as a puppy where he started barking at every bang on the ceiling above us (and we had two tap dancing elephants as upstairs neighbors). If he barked and was not quiet on the command (which he knew at this point) he went into his crate to cool off, he always got a chew or a toy, it was never a "bad" thing but since he wanted to be out and about it was very effective. Took him about 3 times of this before he figured it out.

He now gives a single low "what was that?" bark if there's something new. If I want him to keep barking (someone is sneaking around or I have to answer the door for someone I don't know) then I tell him to, if not he will stay alert (quietly) until he feels he doesn't have to an he'll lay back down.

I personally wouldn't want my dog to never bark at all as I really like the security that he provides letting me know where there's something around I should be aware of....

I would advise against picking her up and putting her in her crate. Instead, teach her to go her crate on command when she is barking. That way, she won't associate being picked up as something to be avoided. And she is making the decision.

Throw in a nice marrow bone or whatever she likes to chew on. Soon, you might have a dog that happily goes to her crate after a few barks. I've used the 'place' command with my dogs when they are barking at a disturbance outside. No anger or correction, just a quiet, 'good girl, that's enough' and then 'place'. It works for me. And I like that this will also carry over if someone is at the door and I want the dogs to go lie down. Barking an alert is great- I like people knowing there are large dogs in the house when they come to the door. Nuisance barking or barking just to bark. Not so great.

Hi, Cindy,

Have you seen the threads here about teaching the dog that you will come and check after a bark and that you will give an "OK" command?

This does not eliminate an alert bark but does put you in the role of saying "all is well" and stopping it.

Or have you taught a command to stop barking? Jamie says: "If he barked and was not quiet on the command (which he knew at this point) he went into his crate to cool off, he always got a chew or a toy, it was never a "bad" thing but since he wanted to be out and about it was very effective. Took him about 3 times of this before he figured it out."

Thanks for all the replys. She does stop barking when I ask her. Husband wants no barking whatsoever. I don't want to argue with him over this, I want to attempt to teach her not to bark. (sigh... life. it's all about compromise)
Thankfully, I don't care much about about the security aspect, so that is not an issue.

After day four of the crating regime, she is giving a bark and then lowering her head and turning away from the source of her concern as if she knows she will go in her crate if she continues. I hope this is progress.

I understand why it would be better for her to go to her crate by herself, but I'm not sure how it would fit in to this scenario - if she likes to go in the crate, how will she learn not to bark? Won't it be more like bark-go in crate-get bone to chew-yay! I want her to choose not to bark, because she doesn't like the consequence...

Cindy, I admire that you are trying to compromise with your husband, but barking is a normal part of dog behavior. It sounds like you have a great girl. I don't think the crate should necessaritly be a consequence, just a place to have a distraction if she barks. If you need a consequence, perhaps it should be more of a social isolation in a bathroom for 2 minutes or something that doesn't occur on a regular basis such as the crate.

I like Amy's idea. I don't use our crate for punishment, as I don't want Sadie to make a superstitious association. She does accept it as temporary banishment if a repairman comes to the house or if she tries to herd the lawnmower, but I use other corrections and timeout spots for undesirable behavior.

My ex husband had quite a few issues with my dogs, mostly to do with the amount of time I dedicated to them, guess who lives alone and blissfully happily with her dogs now?!

Obviously I'm not suggesting that's the solution here.... ish!

Lol, like who doesn't think about that...
When we met, I didn't have any dogs, and I knew going in that he did not like dogs at all and did not want to ever own one. We've been married ten years and dogless, till now, and amazingly, getting Mitzi for me was his idea! So he considers just having the dog a huge compromise on his part, and having it not bark (especially not at him) is a small thing to ask.

I think you are all right in that I shouldn't be using the crate for this issue. She hates being in the basement, so maybe I should try putting her in there, instead, and only for a few minutes. Today she did not bark when the mailman put the mail in the door slot!!!
Thanks again for the understanding and support.

I hate to sound like the bad guy here and if your method is working I would just carry on but ….I tend to agree with your husband on what would make more sense to the dog.

Vince is my only barker and he will settle when I say “Thank you” and acknowledge what he’s alerted to. Sometimes it takes a bit to figure out what it is and I will let him go until I do. Hubby actually rewards him with a lot more praise than I ever do so we’re good in that department.

But if I had a sharp little girl that was causing a lot of unnecessary noise I may look at using a bark collar. I’d want her to be in the situation, performing the behavior I expect.

I’d probably have it on her but turned off. If a situation arose where she didn’t settle after the alert, instead of picking her up and placing her in isolation, I would flip the switch at that time so that the correction was immediate and timely, identifying exactly what she was doing was inappropriate, at exactly that time.

Once she settled (probably one or two barks) I’d turn it back off, allowing for the alert next time.

Disclaimer: I’ve never used a bark collar on my dogs but have seen many in operation. They all seem to accomplish their intended purpose with the dogs they were used on.

Just a thought.