I suppose this is a question looking for mostly anecdotal answers, but I am unsure where else to put it.
I have two dogs, a 1 year old male Boxer, Riley, and a 4 year old Beagle/Collie mix named Macy.
Riley is fine. A great dog, energetic and loyal.
Macy is also a good dog…when she’s inside. When she’s outside, she barks and bays when the wind blows the leaves on the trees, when grassblades move…in short, she barks a LOT. So much so that our neighbors actually called our local deputies to complain about it.
We bought her a muzzle to put on her when she’s outside, but that doesn’t do much as she can still bark and whine.
I live in a neighborhood where there’s quite a bit of animal activity…lots of deer, wild turkeys, etc, some level of barking is understandable. My neighbors have dogs that bark too. Just not as much as mine. I try to only let her stay outside long enough to go potty but i wish she could stay outside longer to exercise if she would quit baying all the time.
We also installed an invisible fence around our half-acre yard so the dogs can run and play and they obey that boundary just fine.
Do anti-barking collars, which I assume are electric, really work? Is it cruel to use them? Are there alternatives?
My neighbour used one on his dog. Apparently they work. In fact after a while he said all he had to do was pretend to put the collar on and the dog wouldn’t bark. They send a shock to the dog, I believe with increased intensity after each subsequent bark. Cruel? Maybe. But they do work.
I used to have a friend with two cocker spaniels that barked, seemingly, because they startled themselves when they did it so it caused another bark and then more surprise, another bark, etc. These were not the smartest dogs on the planet (one of them jumped out of the window of a moving car once). The neighbors also quickly tired of the startled barking machines and called the cops. Cops said if they don’t stop there could be fines and they could even eventually take the dogs away.
My friend loved his dogs, so he tried everything he could think of including the shock collars. One of the dogs apparently had the surprise shocked right out of him the first day. The other one got shocked and then started howling, causing more shocks, causing more howling, etc. It was both funny and sad to have to chase down a dog that’s howling and writhing with electrical shocks uncontrollably. He ended up having to have the voice boxes broken on the second dog, who ever after would just wheeze bark away all day long at a much better volume.
As an aside, later that night after finally getting the collar off of the dog and after several beers we decided to see what those collars felt like. I do not blame that dog, those things fricking hurt.
Thanks. I’m afraid that one of these collars might elicit a similar response from Macy, but OTOH I have to do something. The Boxer will bark too, but generally only when there’s actually something worthy of barking at!
There are also spray collars that send out a plume of citronella spray when the dog barks. I haven’t tried one myself (our nearest neighbor is 1/4 mile away), but they do seem kinder than the shock collars.
The one I linked to seems to be a particularly expensive brand, but Fosters & Smith does have some that are cheaper.
My dog’s trainer had some Samoyeds with “broken voice boxes” (she did not have this done herself). Please don’t do this, it’s just sad! (Doesn’t seem like you will)
I guess Samoyeds are barkers because on some of her new litters she did use those citronella collars Purgatory Creek linked to. I’d be inclined to recommend those over the electric collars - they are just so much more humane.
You might also want to work with the dogs to train them to be better about barking. Have you taught them to “speak” on command? Do you try to correct them when you think their barking is out of control?
One thing I do with my dog is when we’re out in the yard and she’s barking at something (granted, she doesn’t bark too gratuitously) I say “good girl! ok! I know!” and then have her come to me and I pet her. Seems like she’s cool with that, like she alerted me and I’m happy with her and we’re all done barking now, let’s do something else.
I love that TV program with that dog trainer guy, Cesar Millan and if there is one thing I’ve learnt is that you need to understand what’s going on and how to deal with it. Ususally it is much simpler than you might think at first. I suggest consulting an expert or buying a book. Every case you see in TV the problem is not the dog but the owner. Check out http://www.cesarmillaninc.com/
Zipper, the only commands my dogs know are “sit”, “lie down”, “stay” and “shake”. They also understand “no” and “bad dog”.
I haven’t tried to work with her on this. When I’m outside with the dogs they actually bark less because I suppose they realize that I am around. If Macy starts barking too much, I usually stick my head out a window and tell her “Macy, NO!” and she’ll stop and look at me, and then resume barking the moment I close the window.
Frankly, I don’t really care to spend a lot of extra time with the dogs. I love them, but having them was my wife’s decision and I have already assumed way more responsibility for their care than I initially said I would when I objected to them in the first place. We had bought a new house and I just didn’t want any pets, period.
Now of course we have two dogs, a cat, a hamster and a snake…:rolleyes:
Guess who does the majority of the feeding, cleaning, etc?
I bought two of the spray collars for our Bichon and our Lab. The Bichon essentially ignores the collar. The Lab has quieted down quite a bit after using the collar.
The bark collars work quite well unless the dog is borderline retarded. I tried a shock collar on myself once and it’s startling and unpleasant, but not so cruel as surgery or taking the dog to the pound. If a dog is absolutely compelled to bark using a variable collar will let the dog “bark”, but much more quietly.
I have two dogs, and tried to fix my barking problems with two collars.
I saw the things go off when my dog ran down the stairs, from the shock.
Bad.
I saw them go off from regular collars and tags rattling.
Bad, but you can change collars.
What really made me retire the collars was when one dog barked, and BOTH damned collars triggerred.
I don’t mind making my dogs uncomfortable when there’s good cause, but that was danged cruel, so the collars came off that day for good.
Now I just let them in when they go into bark mode.
Hmm. It seems the general consensus is that both kinds of collars work to a degree but not without their own issues and side effects.
I wouldn’t have a problem with “both collars going off” because only one dog would be wearing it.
The spray collar sounds kind of hit or miss, but more humane.
I actually had a friend suggest I buy a pellet gun and pop her in the arse with a pellet every time her barking got out of hand!
Needless to say he’s one of my fringe “gun-nut, leader of his pack of dogs” friend.
I do need to do something, because she annoys the hell out of me, so I can only imagine what my neighbors think when we let them out at 7:00am.
As an aside, I’ve noticed an unintended reaction to our invisible fence: I cannot walk my dogs, because they get terrified and pee themselves if they are brought too close to the border that they are aware is there. I actually really wanted to walk the Boxer (he needs lots of exercise) so I tried to pick his 80lb mass up after taking his fence collar off and carrry him over it, but he peed all over me and struggled so mightily that he flung himself out of my grasp and landed on his side, gasping, on the driveway.
I’m not a dog owner, but some friends are, and they have an invisible fence. Their dogs are completely used to the idea of “Alone - don’t cross the fence; with humans - no problem!”
I don’t know how they got the dogs trained this way, but whatever they did seems to have worked well. Perhaps the invisible fence makers have suggestions, as I doubt their product would be popular if it was widely perecived as incompatible with dog-walking.
We have a shock collar and it has been amazing. Basset hounds can be quite barky and she has separation issues, so it’s really helped us keep our sanity. I don’t like that it puts her in pain but really we were at our wits end. She still occasionally barks if the collar is not on but in general it’s improved behavior overall. With the collar on, she always seems to be on her best behavior, even for non-bark-related stuff. Frankly, I think she’s too stupid to figure out why she’s getting shocked except that it’s for doing stuff she’s not supposed to, like jumping up on the screen door or getting on the couch.
This is the one we bought:
I think it’s humane. It’s surely a lot less frustrating than repeatedly telling her no, and having her not understand, and getting mad at her. It’s also a hell of a lot better than getting woken up at 5am because someone walks to the bathroom and she starts woofing. Further, it’s good for her - instead of woofing at the door if we put her outside, I see her trotting around sniffing things, lounging in the sun, or playing with her toys (which she normally only does if we’re not around). She is also a lot calmer if she is in her crate when company is over, rather than just freaking out.
My biggest beef is no on/off switch - you have to remove the battery. Other than that, it’s been very good. It waits to re-shock to make sure they’re not getting shocked for being startled. I honestly think my dog is too dumb to figure out citronella, so YMMV.
Edited to add: My collar only goes off if she really BARKS. Whining or whimpering does not set it off. Basset grumbling, snorting, and loud sighing does not set it off, nor do low-volume barks. It’s never been set off by any other ambient noise, or by her loudly scratching around it, or by people yelling. We don’t have other dogs so I don’t know about other dogs barking, but I doubt it. Clapping or other loud noises do not set off the collar.
I have 2 beagles and they bark. They do not live in your world. They smell things you have no idea of. They are always aware of whats going on in the neighborhood. They know when the neighbors cat is in the garage. They know when coyotes are in the park. They know when a person is around the house. There have been a few shaky people hanging around the neighborhood. My neighbor told me he was going to complain about them until they woke him up one night and he saw a guy looking through his window.
Thanks for that. I think we are going to try this collar, based on the reviews and the cheap price. Shit, she’s outside barking like mad RIGHT NOW!
:smack:
