Curb Irritating Dog Barking Behavior

Barking is as normal to dogs as talking is to humans. Trying to eliminate dog barking altogether would be like trying to stop someone to talk forever! It’s impossible and it’s not exactly a nice thing to do. The thing is, excessive barking (just like excessive talking) is totally irritating—not just to you but to your family, your hot neighbor, the children at play, the mailman, and every one else who can hear it.

Even if barking is not to be stopped—after all, it is very useful when your dog uses it for the right reasons like warning you, warding off trespassers, or telling you something of importance—it must be controlled. If you want to maintain peace in the neighborhood and between your neighbors, controlling your dog’s barking habits is important.

A lot of people—even dog owners—aren’t too aware that there are many ways to try and stop your dog from barking at whim.

These days, busy dog owners tend to run to these things called anti-barking collars. Why? They’re very convenient and they don’t require much time from the owner. What a lot of people find great about dog collars is that it seems to promise minimal supervision and maintenance. Today, there are generally three different kinds of anti-barking collars available in the market.

One is the sonar collar. Sonar collars are discreet things. Whenever the dog barks, it releases a sound with a certain frequency inaudible to humans but irritable to dogs. The idea is that they will associate the irritable sound as punishment to their incessant barking.

The second one is called the citronella collar. Citronella collars spray a pungent scent. Whenever they bark, the collar would spray this scent so that, like the sonar collar, the dog would find the scent as a punishment for their incessant barking. Though this seems pretty useful, a lot of people say that their dogs have already found a way to get around this anti-barking device.

One anecdotal report states that their dog would just keep on barking until the collar runs out of citronella. Then he’ll just go on barking for the rest of the day. Other dogs would bark and then sort of hold their breaths to avoid the smell and then bark again.

The last one is the shock collar. This collar gets a lot of people iffy. Whenever the dog barks, it shocks the dog with electricity. The strength level of the shock can be changed from 1 to 6, 6 usually being the highest.

People contast that shock collars are inhuman. Come to think of it no decent person would want to do that to their own child (or anyone they want to discipline for that matter) so doing it to their own pet sounds insane, illogical and altogether cruel as well. As much as possible, this kind of collar is avoided—and for good reason.

Although they may all seem very practical, easy, and promising, collars are at most, simply a supplementary solution to incessant dog barking.

The best thing is still training—find out first why your dog barks the way it does. Take your dog to a veterinarian behaviorist. Their role is to generally observe a dog’s environment and circumstances to figure out what exactly triggers their socially unacceptable behavior. Then they find solutions to eliminate the behavior with proper training methods based on their findings.

Some reasons as to why a dog would bark are things like the lack of things to do (meaning they have so much energy with nothing to use it with) or frustration (perhaps they’re being bullied by another dog in the family or by the people around them) to name two.

You can always call a vet behaviorist to help you find out your dog’s behavior problems. He or she can also give you a solution. They might suggest an anti-barking collar but only side-by-side with proper training.

Barking dogs are just sometimes extremely bored with so much energy to waste. Provide them with physical activities like walks, catch, and play time with other dogs. If you don’t have time, then hire a dog walker or take it to a doggie day care. Especially when you’re alone in the house, when you’re out, like humans, your dog feels lonely and bored and he will do anything to use all his energy.

You can also use other tricks like the “QUIET” command, which you will have to implement whenever he barks senselessly. If your dog sees you as the alpha of the pack, then you wouldn’t have much trouble teaching the “QUIET” command. If your dog’s barking is already killing your chances with your hot neighbor, though then you might want to get a collar but ONLY as a temporary thing or as a training supplement.

It is highly suggested that you stick to the sonar collar as it is perhaps the most humane choice of the three and also the most fool-proof one as much as anti-bark collars can get. Always follw-up anti-barking collars with proper obedience training. Training your dog to respond to obedience signals is still the best and lasting way to eliminate dog barking behavior but still maintain his freedom to do what he naturally does.

Tags: barking dogs, dog barking, dog barking problems, dog barking solutions, dog problems, dog trainings, Dogs, Pets