I have a problem. My 2 year old GSD barks to alert me of any kind of presence around my home and now his little sister (age 8 months) does the same. Recently my neighbors complained about my "excessive barking" dogs - this neighbor even went so far as to recommend a "bark collar" be used on my dogs - ugh.

The dislike of German Shepherds oozed from this neighbor's letter - needless to say, I was pretty put out and responded that they bark for a reason, not randomly, and they are dogs and they are "doing their job", and that I will not consider a brake collar.

Anyway, now I am sensitive to their barking and when they do get going I bring them inside or redirect them. Thing is, I don't have a "quiet" command that they respond to for more than a minute. I've tried training the quiet w/ treats and rewarding the quiet, but when there is a deer in the back yard that all goes out the window.

Any suggestions on getting a better "quiet" command that will stick? I have not used the e-collar on this one as yet because I don't want to extinguish their alert barking - I treasure it really because it always gives me a heads up...I just need to be able to silence them after that initial alert barking consistently. I want to be able to say "thanks for the heads-up but now you need to be quiet"...if only I could teach them English

Thanks.

IMO, your neighbors, reasonable or not, are the LAST people you want to have enmity toward your dogs. I would urge that you tell them you are working on a no-bark so a quick warning is all they give, and I would even urge that you friendly up. I'm not fond of having tension between neighbors and me, but far more important is not wanting my dogs ever to be so much of a peace-disturber (even in perception) that they could conceivably be in danger. People buy ultrasonic anti-bark devices against neighbor dogs, and people even toss poisoned meat over fences. I go to a lot of trouble to make my dogs popular in the neighborhood. JMO!

I've detailed at great length here my own steps for relieving my dogs of responsibility after one warning bark. It's not quick, and it takes absolute consistency. Every single time the dog barks, I would come to the dog, look outside, and use a word meaning that all is well, and I'm now in charge. If you use "advanced search" with the term lawn guys and my name, you'll find threads with my own and many other people's suggestions for ending the warning bark by acknowledging it (every single time!) and THEN commanding quiet. ("Lawn guy" is my code for my dogs meaning that the intruder is acceptable. {It grew from the "OK-ness" of the landscape people going back and forth mowing, etc, and making the dogs crazy.} It's the only unusual term I can think of that will lead you to those threads.) You will probably want to expand the search to four years or so.

Let me know if you can't find the threads. I remember at least three.

Thanks Connie. I completely agree with your opinion regarding keeping my neighbors on good ground with my dogs. I tried an advanced search using your "lawn guys" keywords and I came up with a tremendous amount of posts and lots of tips/techniques from other posters...I am so very interested in learning your steps for correcting this...any chance you can point me to your older posts regarding this issue? Thanks so much.

Here are a few of the many that popped up.

http://leerburg.com/webboard/thread.php?topic_id=27347&page=1#293796

http://leerburg.com/webboard/thread.php?topic_id=24875&page=1#259026

http://leerburg.com/webboard/thread.php?topic_id=18973&page=2#191079

http://leerburg.com/webboard/thread.php?topic_id=25541&page=1#267261

http://leerburg.com/webboard/thread.php?topic_id=28274&page=1#306395

http://leerburg.com/webboard/thread.php?topic_id=29044&page=1

"It's not quick, and it takes absolute consistency".

Should be cut in stone for ANY dog training.


"Lawn guy?" Why would I want my dogs to bark at me?

Are your dogs barking AT the neighbors? Or just at other stimuli? What Connie said is what I do with Logan and it works (just very hard with all the cats). You have to be OCD and do it every time. He pretty much ignores the new neighbors now. With him he's not that territorial its just if they do something suspicious or touch the fence.

I have nice neighbors on that issue, they never have complained...only once because I didn't realize this one lady worked all night and was trying to sleep while I played the "Pteradatcyl" game with Logan. But she was nice about it, she told me.

I have a battle with barking because of my neighbor's cat farm....just recently I took several of their cats to a rescue. But they have two females left, not spayed and the cat traffic is heavy with stray males.

This drives Logan crazy, I have no peace either...bark collar turned up has no effect but to make him worse. It totally unfair to say he can't run cats out of his own yard or even bark. I use the water hose on them or chase them away myself. I signed those two females up for getting a free spay, if they don't take them, their getting trapped, enough is enough. We are going to trap the males for sure. This has gone of way to long.

Good morning Ms. Grebe.

I use a command 'enough' as a distraction. When I use the command it is a signal to stop what you are doing and do some thing else.

If they are barking at some thing, I command 'enough' and when they stop and refocus on me, I either note 'OK' or 'good.' The issue is not the barking to me, but the focus on me and my authority.

I expect a dog to stop what it is doing and refocus at my command.

An aside, I went next door to apologize to my neighbor because one of my mutts seemed to be in a bark at anything mood, and the neighbor responded that they felt more secure when they heard the dog or dogs. Very nice neighbors.

At issue is your ability to get the dogs to react to you and your command. No means NO.

As an example, if there is a dog out back in the fenced in yard, and it is barking, I expect it to stop barking and look toward me when I open the door. I love my mutts but I respect the quietude my neighbors should enjoy.

That said, I love to let them howl at a siren. One is tone deaf but the other three have nice voices.

My dog's barking now, I must get off my arse.

Thanks everyone for the helpful advice. I am trying (wow, this is a tricky one) to catch them immediately when they are barking, use the "enough - quiet" command and reward them when they get quiet.

I am hoping that this will work after a while...I am wondering if the e-collar has a place here and how I might use it?

Thoughts?

Fro example, last night when I had the dogs out for their last time they were both going crazy because there was something in the woods...my "enough!" command fell on deaf ears. Could I then use the command and when I am not getting response use the e-collar? (after training with commands/treats for a few days I mean)...