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Just wondering if anyone has any suggestions on what brand works the best. I have an 8 year old dog that I have never used one on before and would never use it regularly or have it on him when he is just hanging around my house, etc and he doesn't really have a problem aside from whenever I leave him in my Jeep to just run into a store for 15 or 20 minutes and then he goes into an insane barking frenzy that if you noticed it would seem like he had been trapped for days and it is getting obnoxious on multiple levels. When people in a parking lot start making comments about an "abandoned" dog (15 minutes and he turns into a drama queen) I need him to settle down.
Location: Montreal -> CT -> MA -> Montreal -> Ottawa
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Can I just ask if the car (and air conditioning) is running while you go into the store? It gets REALLY hot in AZ and dogs should never be left in heat like that.
Onto your question:
My guy, Artie, is a barker out in the yard. Y'know... at the squirrels, at the birds, at the... air.
That's fine -- he doesn't go on for too long -- except if it's before 9am or after 9pm. I don't want him disturbing the neighbors.
We got a citronella collar. I'd read that it's hit or miss, and I guessed that it would be a "miss" for Artie because he's a stubborn fellow. Well, it was a "hit," that's for sure. I put it on him, I let him out in the yard, he barked, it sprayed him, he looked down at it with a "WTF???" look, and that was that. It took a few (3 or 4?) times, but now all I have to do is put the collar on him and he knows: "If I bark, I'm gonna get shpritzed. And I don't like that!" It's interesting, actually, because he doesn't even wander far away from me when the collar is on... I guess he doesn't even want the temptation of barking, should he go farther into the yard and see a squirrel... or a bird... or AIR! Funny monkey.
Anyway, the citronella spray collar is something that you might want to try.
Location: Visitation between Wal-Mart & Home Depot
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Skydive Outlaw
Just wondering if anyone has any suggestions on what brand works the best. I have an 8 year old dog that I have never used one on before and would never use it regularly or have it on him when he is just hanging around my house, etc and he doesn't really have a problem aside from whenever I leave him in my Jeep to just run into a store for 15 or 20 minutes and then he goes into an insane barking frenzy that if you noticed it would seem like he had been trapped for days and it is getting obnoxious on multiple levels. When people in a parking lot start making comments about an "abandoned" dog (15 minutes and he turns into a drama queen) I need him to settle down.
thx
Introducing the bark collar is a procedure. I personally wouldn't just slap it on him and put him in a position that normally induces "barking his head off". If you have other dogs, I would separate him from them and have him in the most neutral environment possible and just let him wear it around for a while to get used to it. Ideally, he will bark at something while he's in the controlled environment and will be in an even state of mind when he gets the shock. If he doesn't bark on his own, don't try to get him to bark - this needs to be self-directed learning - but it's worthwhile to spend some time trying to let him bark while he's calm rather than when he's flipping out in the car. Some dogs figure it out immediately, others require some repetition to make the association between barking and the shock. He's more likely to learn immediately if he's calm and less likely to be terrorized.
Expect to spend some $80-$100 on a good collar. This is not something that you want to buy cheap.
Dogtra and TriTronics are two of the best and I wouldn't recommend getting very far out of that price range.
i have good experience with dogtra, and heard good things about tritronics...but id never use them JUST for a barking problem, there are many other ways to train.
and i would NEVER leave a dog in a car even running, its actually illegal in many states now
we had a local police dog die because, while police k9 cars are set up to continue running an ac unit...when the officer isnt in the car, this particular time the system cut out, the officer was gone for about 20 minutes and came back to a car that in the shade in connecticut had cooked into the upper 100's and the dog had gone into heat stroke, vets couldnt save him
my brother got a citronella one for his girlfriends little yorkie dog. it seemed to work very good, so i got one for skye. her main problem is barking at other dogs while i walk her. when i first got it, it spritzed her and she was also like "wth was that??" so it worked a little bit. but after a few times she started just running back and forth when barking to minimize the spray that gets her. i think she also pretty much decided that its worth taking some spray to get the enjoyment at barking at other dogs. so its a fail for me.
id hate to give her a painful collar but id consider it if i thought it would work. we had one of those electric fences for my prior dog and once she took a few shocks, she never crossed the barrier. so a little pain got her a lot more freedom and time outside. if skye wouldnt bark so much at other dogs, it would get her more walking time.
Location: Montreal -> CT -> MA -> Montreal -> Ottawa
17,330 posts, read 33,025,722 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by CaptainNJ
my brother got a citronella one for his girlfriends little yorkie dog. it seemed to work very good, so i got one for skye. her main problem is barking at other dogs while i walk her. when i first got it, it spritzed her and she was also like "wth was that??" so it worked a little bit. but after a few times she started just running back and forth when barking to minimize the spray that gets her. i think she also pretty much decided that its worth taking some spray to get the enjoyment at barking at other dogs. so its a fail for me.
id hate to give her a painful collar but id consider it if i thought it would work. we had one of those electric fences for my prior dog and once she took a few shocks, she never crossed the barrier. so a little pain got her a lot more freedom and time outside. if skye wouldnt bark so much at other dogs, it would get her more walking time.
Note to self: Artie's phone privileges to Skye have been revoked. I can't risk Skye explaining the "running back and forth" trick to avoid the shpritz. The citronella collar has been a godsend to me... as has Artie's, um, dumbness at not figuring out how to avoid it.
I got a Premier Citronella dog collar (thanks to DandJ) and it worked the first time I used it and think it's the greatest thing in the world. The only issue is when the other dog barks it sets off the other dog's collar. But that's minor - no more squirrel patrol in the backyard for hours on end. I love it.
Note: You can get them brand new on ebay way less than in a store.
Wow, in addition to the great advice on bark collars. Thanks for all the concern regarding leaving him in a vehicle. I don't do it when it's over 75 degrees and I live in the Seattle area too, where I am right now, and FYI dogs are allowed to be left in vehicles. I'm not sure what states make that illegal but I wouldn't want to live in one where it was. I really can't bring him into a store when I'm shopping aside from Petsmart.
Got a collar yesterday and tossed the instruction video in the garbage and secure it to the little tyrants' neck before my next stop and it worked great. The Sound of Silence. . . It's working out so well already that I think eventually he will just associate being in the vehicle with not going mental and barking non-stop and I won't have to use it anymore.
And yeah, he has a really rough life, being left in my Jeep when I'm in Target, Safeway or at the mall. It brings me to tears sometimes - the horror of it all. Aside from his travels that now exclude insane barking, he lives a pretty amazing life. He has three tandem skydives under his belt thanks to the custom harness I had made for him, (I'm sure thats cruel and unusual treatment too) he has a huge backyard, goes to the groomer whenever he wants and has no real rules, answers to no one (aside from the collar) and is pretty popular at the off leash dog park.
Can I just ask if the car (and air conditioning) is running while you go into the store? It gets REALLY hot in AZ and dogs should never be left in heat like that.
Onto your question:
My guy, Artie, is a barker out in the yard. Y'know... at the squirrels, at the birds, at the... air.
That's fine -- he doesn't go on for too long -- except if it's before 9am or after 9pm. I don't want him disturbing the neighbors.
We got a citronella collar. I'd read that it's hit or miss, and I guessed that it would be a "miss" for Artie because he's a stubborn fellow. Well, it was a "hit," that's for sure. I put it on him, I let him out in the yard, he barked, it sprayed him, he looked down at it with a "WTF???" look, and that was that. It took a few (3 or 4?) times, but now all I have to do is put the collar on him and he knows: "If I bark, I'm gonna get shpritzed. And I don't like that!" It's interesting, actually, because he doesn't even wander far away from me when the collar is on... I guess he doesn't even want the temptation of barking, should he go farther into the yard and see a squirrel... or a bird... or AIR! Funny monkey.
Anyway, the citronella spray collar is something that you might want to try.
Ha ha ha!!!!! My friend's cairn terrier, Daisy, figured that thing out asap. She got sprayed a few times...now she does that thing...she goes, "Bark, bark," and then IMMEDIATELY turns her head...spray goes past her..."Bark, bark," turn. "Bark, bark," turn.
One major problem with all these anti-bark collars is that the dog soon learns that when the collar is removed he can bark all he wants.
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