This is not for me an e-collar situation, but others will have better and more detailed replies.

And "a few days" would not be my expected time-line.

Ms. Grebe,

I wouldn't use an e-collar and I think I know how to use one, and have.

I would work on the basics. If a dog barks, and you want it to stop, and it is ignoring you, the command to work on is "COME."

The result will be stopped barking, and the dog under your control.

The command that a dog must fully understand and comply with is "NO!"

I use "enough" because NO and COME and DOWN etc. are trained. When the dogs hear my voice they focus on me pretty quickly, get ready for a command, and stop what they are doing. And I can bellow with the best of them.

So, the basics lead to no or stopped barking. It is a lot of work but the reward is so much more than no barking.

An e-collar may be a kind of a fix but it isn't a solution.

15 minutes a day spent on strong compliance training. The basics. The dog or dogs need to see you as the leader in absolute terms human words. When you speak, they listen. Then need to be conditioned to want to listen for you. They should want to be tuned in to you in good ways.

If they bark and you command "NO" they should stop. Etc.

But that takes some conditioning. I'm not suggesting an easy path but one that will positively deal with the issue, and yield the results you want.

Dogs bark. You can stop it.

Got it. Thanks Mike and Connie. I'll shelve the e-collar for this one.

I feel like I've got a pretty reliable connection with my two year old and when I say something, he listens. I think the 8 month old helps to get him all lathered up with the barking...which is of course, another dog issue (I am working on her seeing ME as the center of the universe - not her handsome riotously fun brother who happens to be a dog). I'll keep at it with this (for as long as it takes - Thanks Connie).

So to review...dogs bark at whatever I come outside immediately and give the "enough" command and then reward for the quiet. Or...maybe you are right Mike...maybe I go outside use the "come" command to bring them to me and then reward the quiet? Or am I then rewarding the "come"?...ugh.

Ms. Grebe,

A deep breath. If the one dog reacts to your commands, you are half way home.

"Enough" is a distraction command for me. It is a word I use because a human understands what enough means. For the dog it just means 'oops, I think the big guy wants me to do something else.'

So when you use "come" it just refocuses the dog to a known command set and has the effect of distracting the dog from what it is doing to what you want it to do, which is to stop barking. The dog is just reacting to a known command.

After awhile, after basic training, the dog hears your voice and refocuses. You could probably command "cabbage" and the tone and sound of your voice would signal that you want the dog to refocus on you.

If you catch them mid-bark, then "enough" will focus the dog on you. If you don't catch the dog mid-bark, then "come" will focus the dog on you. If it barks, "enough" and the dog stops and focuses on you. Repeat, as in training over time, until the dog gets the correlation between "enough" and a refocus.

If the dog does not 'get' "enough" use "come."

It is all distraction and refocus. I think.

But in the final analysis, it has to do with the dog always responding to your command, what ever it is.

There are times we all want to yell 'shut-up!' but the reality is we should have trained commands and use them.

Whew. My turn to take a breath.

"maybe I go outside use the "come" command to bring them to me and then reward the quiet? Or am I then rewarding the "come"?...ugh."


If you use the recall and dog comes to you and you reward, then great! Yes, you rewarded for recall compliance .... and there's no problem there (for me, anyway).

But is your recall bullet-proof? Because we don't want to encourage you to start using an unreliable recall. So if you do not have a bullet-proof recall and there's no long line, then no, I would not start using the recall until it WAS reliable, because the last thing you want to do is turn your recall into a "maybe .... if I feel like it" thing.

So when Mike says "I would work on the basics. If a dog barks, and you want it to stop, and it is ignoring you, the command to work on is COME," I feel very sure he does not mean to start using it, reliable or not, for the barking problem. I think it means "get a 100% reliable recall and then use it."

So ..... how is the recall at present, under distraction? Because IMO (and kudos to Mike for bringing it up), there is nothing more valuable than recall work.

(By the way, my "lawn guy" info was about dogs inside the house with me, alerting me to someone outside.)

Oops. We typed together. LOL


ETA
I'm pretty sure we didn't contradict each other's posts, though.

Edited by Connie Sutherland (03/14/2012 05:16 PM)
Edit reason: eta ..... PS

The recall at present. Very good. Reliable enough that we go walking in the woods and I let him off leash. When I call come he boogies back to me. He was trained with an e-collar on recall and knows that it means business in the woods - I haven't actually used the e-collar in months and months...he gets it. Now around the house if he's outside and focused on something it's still pretty good. Sometimes I have to get gruff about it and repeat "come!"...and he does...he never runs away or ignores...more like he's saying "yeah, but there's a squirrel over there I know it! Ahhh, okay, I'll come..."

So, I am really going to work on that recall with him. The little one follows her brother everywhere in everything...so when he comes, she's always right behind him. She also has a nice recall, it's really coming along well.

So, I'm here now:

Dogs are barking outside and I'll have them come to me. If they are with me they won't be barking! I guess I could also work on the quiet command at all times and then transfer that to the outside when they are barking.

It's tricky with my 2 year old. He's as wise as they come and treats mean little/nothing to him. Now a ball on the other hand...it's my only ace in the hole for anything and it's how I get him to run an entire agility course without treats of any kind, just the ball at the end

I'm sure there's a way to use that dang ball in quiet training...

Definitely a no bark collar situation. If that doesn't work use the ecollar while you're watching them and your timing will be correct. 3 of mine are idiot barkers if I let them get away with it