Barking when I'm not home...urgent.

[Pareeeee]

Hi
I say urgent because I have a crazy neighbor that complains about EVERYTHING to the landlord...so I want to fix this before she complains about Fidget...

The last few weeks, we have noticed that when we get home, we can hear her barking constantly inside our apartment unit. We need to stop this ASAP. If someone complains to the landlord, we may have to get rid of her and we don't want to do that!!!!!

We are desparate and considering getting one of those shock collars to stop this. Are those things any good? We are looking at the "Bark Terminator" that gives the dog a warning beep after the first bark and a static shock on the second instead of shocking for every single bark.

I should tell you, she is fine with her crate. She goes in it on her own. She sleeps in it every night. She even runs to it when we get out her Kong.
We give her a stuffed Kong when we leave plus chew toys to play with.
It also doesn't seem to matter how much excercise she gets before going in her crate, she's still barking when we get home.

I have no idea how to modify a behavior that happens when we are not here?!?

 

[Kat09Tails]

I have no idea how to modify a behavior that happens when we are not here?!?

I think a bark collar is a good idea for this situation. I can't speak to many other brands other than tritronics and petsafe. Petsafe ones are garbage, the tritronics bark limiter is a great collar.

Personally I'd want a collar that gives a consistent experience. While an alternating beep to stim might seem great on the human angle it gives the dog an inconsistent experience so it'll take longer to resolve the issue.

 

[SaraB]

Agreed with the above post about the beeping collar. In order for a punishment to be effective it needs to be 100% consistent otherwise the dog will always be testing those boundaries especially with a self rewarding behavior such as barking.. Barking = Shock, you don't want to complicate it and turn it into barking the first time = beep, but barking the second time = shock.

 

[MafiaPrincess]

It's likely not going to be a quick fix, as for a quality bark collar you'll likely have to order one online. Unless petsmart in Canada has changed their stock, it's mainly petsafe collars. I just looked on Renspets, that's all they are stocking too. I've heard mainly good things about tritronics stuff. I wouldn't want a warning beep either.

 

[Pareeeee]

I just ordered a shock collar a few minutes ago. Wish me luck! Hope it works.

 

[UniquityBelgians]

I have a similar problem and asked here and on another forum (as well as some trainers I trust). The Tri-Tronics bark collar came highly recommended by everyone (in fact is the best reviewed collar on the market). I haven't ordered one yet, but I'll let you know my results if you're still having troubles.

A friend of mine has the same issue. She lives in a small house with several large dogs, and some of them bark while she is away. She will actually drive around her block a few times after she leaves, just to make sure she doesn't hear barking. She got one of those ultrasonic devices. I recently found out that those aren't really a good option for multi dog households; I thought (and I think she also thinks) that the noise is just annoying or distracting to the dog. Turns out it's actually painful -- which would give the same effect as a bark collar, but will also punish any non-barking dogs within a certain range (I believe the one I looked into was about 30 ft). I do believe it's an option for single dog households, however.

Good luck!

 

[scrofford]

Be careful with shock collars. My wife had a dog before we were married that she used a shock collar with and the poor thing burnt a hole in his throat. Some of the collars are just not safe for dogs. So I would really do my research first and find one that won't do that.

 

[Kat09Tails]

Be careful with shock collars. My wife had a dog before we were married that she used a shock collar with and the poor thing burnt a hole in his throat. Some of the collars are just not safe for dogs. So I would really do my research first and find one that won't do that.

You have to take the collar off every 8-12 hrs. This is an embedded collar I would bet. Poor dog.