Dog Community

B A R K I N G **********************

Posted : 3/11/2013 4:13:44 AM

IN AUGUST OF OF 2012 WE HAD TO HAVE ANDY PUT TO SLEEP. THE POOR OLD GUY WAS SO MISERABLE. HIS QUALITY OF LIFE WAS HEARTBREAKING. WE STILL MISS HIM SO VERY MUCH.

In January 2013 we adopted Bella from the Humane Society. The fee was only $85 because of her age. She's 9. She was listed as a Corgi Mix, but we aren't sure what the Mix part is. We have read online that Corgis are herding dogs and it certainly seems as though she's trying to herd her people at times. She's an amazing animal and beautiful and has such good manners. The only problem is her barking. We live in a single story apartment and she hears EVERYTHING and she barks! We are glad that she seems so protective of us but something needs to change concerning her barking or we're going to get kicked out of here. We don't like the use of shock collars and won't even try them. We try getting her to calm down and tell her "no barking" and rewarding her when she's quiet, but it doesn't seem to work very often. Any suggestions?

JackieG

Posted : 3/11/2013 8:31:10 AM

Since barking can be a self rewarding behavior it can be hard to eliminate. I've never tried the Manners Minder developed by Dr. Sophia Yin but I think it's probably something I'd try if I had a dog that was barking so much I might be evicted. Here's some info on it. Like any tool or training method, it's all about being consistent. Good luck.

http://drsophiayin.com/about/protocol

Freedom

Posted : 3/11/2013 9:25:17 AM

The hard part is when the dog is home alone. To completely break a habit, you have to not allow the dog to engage in the activity and get rewarded for it, at all, ever. And if no one is there, the dog will bark and self reward.

That said, you can do things to calm her down. I only recently heard of the Manners Minder, someone on my Bichon Agility group go one. I was going to say use a water squirt bottle. This will get the dog's attention and in that split second, then you call the dog to you and reward.

Jewlieee

Posted : 3/11/2013 10:20:04 AM

Unfortunately, corgi's are notorious alert barkers. On top of that they can be nervous little dogs with high energy. It makes for the barking at every little noise thing. The best thing to do is work on rewarding the dog when it hears something but doesn't bark. It is going to take a lot of work. a LOT. But you can practice every day and you should get improvement. The other thing you can do is get a white noise machine. Similar to the ones you find in doctor offices. This will drown out some of the noise the dog is hearing so it won't alert so much. Here's an example of one:

http://compare.ebay.com/like/280874849986?_lwgsi=y<yp=AllFixedPriceItemTypes&var=sbar

I have an alert barker who is crazy when we go camping. Every little noise makes her bark - which is not good at night when the camp ground is trying to sleep! I always bring some sort of white noise to have going at night - like a fan or a heater or whatever (depending on the time of year).

When you are not home, you can turn on the stereo to some classical / spa type music. Studies have shown that dogs relax with "mood" music.

JackieG

Posted : 3/15/2013 8:31:36 AM

Creating white noise is a good idea. We sleep with an air cleaner in our bedroom and it masks a lot of noises from outside. We have it for ourselves but it could be the reason our dogs rarely bark while we're sleeping.

This morning this article was in my mailbox. It's something that might be helpful.

http://www.clickertraining.com/node/3968?source=mnl_01_0313