Posted on 07/08/2005 4:51:56 PM PDT by LadyShallott
I know a guy who used hot dogs soaked in antifreeze to make his neighbor's dog stop barking.
This is going to sound counter-intuitive, but teach the little footlong a bark command. "Speak" works just as well as anything. Praise the animated frankfurter (all the while gritting your teeth) when he barks on command. Once the little badger hound gets this command down pat, you teach the "Hush" command, and you should have control of his vocal exercises from then on.
Good luck!
"guy who used hot dogs soaked in antifreeze to make his neighbor's dog stop barking."
That's horrible. How many dogs did he kill that way?
Yes, and I hate to say it, but your dog may need a tranquilizer to help calm it down. Ask the vet. My vet once suggested Prozac for one of my cats. The cat has a mental disorder, but I did not put her on Prozac. It was too expensive at the time. She is 17 now and has calmed down some.
I tell you, if I had to live in Columbus again, I think I would start barking, too. LOL!
Well done!
Other posters beat me to it, so I gotta agree with posts 40 and 44, and if you go with the shock collar, most definitely take the advice in 48. Innotek is cheap because they ARE cheap, and aren't convenient when it come to adjusting the shock level. Try not to let the little guy see you actively shocking him with it when you offer correction. You want him to connect the zap with disobedience to your command, not that weird looking black thingy held in your hand like a baton.
I've heard of the citronella collars as well, but have never tried one.
Go to - lemme see if I remember it correctly -
www.drsfostersmith.com
If that URL doesn't work, try googling Drs. Foster and Smith. They're vets with a huge inventory of pet supplies by mail order.
If you want to try out a collar before putting your money down, the staff at a farmers/tractor supply would probably be more helpful than the clerks at a big box pet supply store.
Good luck. My collie could be mouthy, but I've never had one that was too obnoxious about the barking.
Other posters beat me to it, so I gotta agree with posts 40 and 44, and if you go with the shock collar, most definitely take the advice in 48. Innotek is cheap because they ARE cheap, and aren't convenient when it come to adjusting the shock level. Try not to let the little guy see you actively shocking him with it when you offer correction. You want him to connect the zap with disobedience to your command, not that weird looking black thingy held in your hand like a baton.
I've heard of the citronella collars as well, but have never tried one.
Go to - lemme see if I remember it correctly -
www.drsfostersmith.com
If that URL doesn't work, try googling Drs. Foster and Smith. They're vets with a huge inventory of pet supplies by mail order.
If you want to try out a collar before putting your money down, the staff at a farmers/tractor supply would probably be more helpful than the clerks at a big box pet supply store.
Good luck. My collie could be mouthy, but I've never had one that was too obnoxious about the barking.
What the heck's going on with posting? Trying this again...
That funky dialup, I swear! Sorry for the double post.
I don't know if the dog has a FE-ver . . .
Last I knew--years ago--there were collars which could shock the dog harmlessly but a bit painfully on button push from the owner. Such can be used to train the dog to bark only at close things vs far or very loud things vs quiet--though some dogs will find such discrimminations tedious over a significant training period to instill.
SOMETIMES, a SHARP, EMPHATIC "!!!NO!!!" at every bark will over less of a training time but still a significant training time teach the dog not to bark.
SOMETIMES, with significant effort, a dog can be trained to avoid barking at anything outdside the house walls--or outside the house walls EXCEPT against the doors or windows. But such training about such fine discrimminations can take sitnificant time. Perhaps a weekend or a couple of weeks or some such would need to be essentially set aside by someone or even the family to establish such discrimminations successfully.
Sometimes, a muzzle can be put on the dog which limits considerably their capacity to make much noise.
Reward is best paired with the desired behavior within a few seconds.
Tricky when one is waiting for a sufficient pause in the barking to reward the quiet vs the barking.
I think it works best when one shouts a stern
!!!!NO!!!!
immediately to the barking.
THEN after a few seconds or so of quiet, rewards the dog for the quiet.
I would hire some rougher looking and smelling somewhat distant teen friends of some family members to play the roles of intruders.
When there were noises not in the house and not at the door of the house nor close to the windows of the house, shout NO!
Spray bottles on stream are also good to pair with the NO! as well as alone.
After the dog has begun to show good learning of not barking at more distant sounds, introduce the paid 'intruders.' If the dog does NOT bark at them--you can bark as much like a dog as you can manage and leap at the door barking until the dog joins you.
THEN
shortly thereafter, have another hired or friendly assistant make a more distant but detectable noise. Perhaps timing it with trash delivery etc. If the dog barks THEN, shout NO and squirt; zap etc. into silence.
Give the dog 8-48 pairings of the 2 conditions. At first--make them all one or ther other several times straight in a row. Then start mixing them up randomly.
Of course, some dogs like some people
are REALLLLLY DUMB, DENSE. They just are unable and/or too stubborn to learn such fine discrimminations.
IN such cases--send the dog to doggie heaven; move back to the country; give the dog to a loving farmer; . . . or some such.
Remember--constant reinforcement of the desired behavior to establish the behavior.
Then intermittent.
Then randomn, unpredictable. Like fishing or gambling--irregular, unpredictable reinforcement makes the behavior most resistent to extinction.
Kept them off the counter tops at least when you were at home. Cats are excellent at discrimminating between different contingencies.
True enough!
There is nothing you can do. He's a German. He's going to be stubborn and argumentative with you.
Try to train him. That may change some of his behavior.
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