Barking solutions

Gillian Ridgeway's article entitled 'Quiet' in the July 2003 Dogs in Canada reminded me of the many times the topic of barking comes up in doggie discussions. People with terriers get used to some barking and tune it out for the most part.

In our house the issue came to a head about a year ago. The two girls had long before decided to leave the barking job up to Toby as he did such a fine job of it, and took his duty very seriously. Now I had trained Toby to be quiet on command , but I was a fizzle at getting through to him that that meant for the whole afternoon, not just for that particular sound. He also let me know however that there were certain barking objects that were non-negotiable. These included all birds (we have bird houses, feeders and bird baths in our yard), the boys playing basketball across the street, and most of all, the silver dragon which roams over our neighbourbood every Wednesday morning picking up trash trolleys and dumping them on its back. This means I was often at him to be quiet, while the girls would sit by looking superior. One day I saw what I thought was clouds of spray drifting into the back yard, so I put the dogs inside and went to investigate. It was only a water pressure paint remover, but the neighbour identified me as the person with the barking dog and was 'not amused'. A solution had to be found, and quickly. I decided to explore my options.

1. More training - not time enough and I doubted the reliability of that with Toby.

2. Re-home the dog - not an option for me, although for some it could be a good solution. Westies have been bred to work in packs and have barking as a communication skill built into their make-up.

3. Take the dog on leash every time it goes out. This is very demanding of the owner's time and can easily result in not enough exercise for the dog, unless the owner gets his exercise by walking.

4. The electric collar - these give electric shocks ranging from mild to strong (depending on how you define 'mild' and 'strong'). The cost ranges from about $55 -$130, and they claim to be effective. The questions are: Do you as a Westie owner want to use electricity to shock your dog? What will it do to the dog's personality? Is this good training, or a form of cruelty? I personally rejected this option.

5. Sound Collar - these use electricity to produce a high-pitched sound (not audible to people) for the 'startle' effect. These are advertised for about $50, but are not as easily available as the electric collars.

7. De-bark the dog - this is done by a vet and barring complications of the surgery, allows the dog to make only a quiet gutteral sound, similar to someone with a very sore throat; and that is for life. I talked to a Sheltie breeder who said she uses this for her show dogs, and is pleased with the results. The questions here are: Do you want to risk possible surgical complications? Do you want that sound from your pet for the rest of its life? Will that sound be loud enough to warn you of a fire in the middle of the night? How will you feel when he 'barks' like that for your friends? What will such an operation cost as you may well be sent to a specialist vet?

As you can see, there are several solutions and some serious thought needs to be put into making the best possible decision.

After talking with my vet, I decided on the Citronella Collar. (I always have liked the smell.) I put it on Toby, popped him outside and watched to see what would happen. It didn't take long. He jumped back, shaking his head and looking for who or what had done that. The second time he barked he knew the bark had caused the 'awful' smell. A year has passed now. Our dogs wear these collars when they're in the yard, and there's no barking. I allow my dogs to bark in the house as it's their job to alert me to people coming or anything unusual. They're quite content now on Wednesday mornings to snooze in the sun and let other dogs in the nieghbourhood drive away the dragon.

Do read Gillian Ridgeway's article on sorting out barking issues, July 2003 Dogs in Canada.

Author: Anne Matheson
Originally published in the Westie News, Fall 2003

Yvonne responds…
When I lived in town, my yard was quite small and there was a dog next door who would bark at my three (at that time) dogs and get them going. I was quite worried about noise and bought an electric collar. I tested it on myself - the zap was quite unpleasant but five zaps in a row didn't even leave a mark on my throat. This collar would allow the dog one bark and make a warning noise. If the dog barked again, it would zap the dog. I had been warned that the collar would respond to a bark made by a dog not wearing the collar. So I used my collar with my three dogs, watching very carefully. I didn't see any evidence that the dog who was wearing the collar was punished for someone else's barking. The effect was very satisfactory…My dogs learned quickly that the warning noise would precede a zap, and I found that once they were given a warning, they would move away from whatever was stimulating them. Two of my three dogs generalized this so that they didn't need to wear the collar to stop barking. The other one was very savvy- she knew she wouldn't be zapped unless she was wearing the collar with the weight. I thought about wiring a rock to a collar to make a dummy, but other than that I was quite please with the effects of the collar.
My opinion of the bark collar changed drastically when I used it one time when I had my dogs in a kennel situation with about twenty other dogs. One of my dogs had been barking, apparently to protest his incarceration. After trying some other solutions, I put the collar on him and was some distance away when the whole kennel started to bark at something. All I could hear, though, was my fella's cries of agony - the collar was obviously zapping him for other dogs' noise. I don't think I've ever run so fast. Since then, the collar has been in a drawer. . I feel awful about having hurt my guy through using it. I sincerely doubt that I'll ever use it again.
Author: Yvonne Lord
Tiarna Kennel

Another solution for barking dogs...
I guess we were lucky with our littleWestie. She was easy to train. Oh yes, she liked to bark! She woofed at squirrels, other cats and dogs passing through "her" yard and would go into a frenzy. Loud barking and attacking the glass door leading to the back yard. We finally couldn't take the noise which if left up to Muffy would go on for hours. Our solution: the back hall. Everytime she would bark, I picked her up and placed her in the back hall-then closed the door. As I was carrying her to "time out", I said (in a firm voice):"No barking." I would leave her there for approximately one minute (which is an eternity to a dog!!) I maybe had to do this for three days. How I know she had learned the no barking rule: Every so often, when an animal/snow plough/ would pass by, our Muffy would let out a tiny bark:"woof" then look at me and run under the end table. Eventually-seeing other animals produced a whimper/whine but the barking ceased. (Occasionally a little bark would get out-then she'd turn and look at us as if to say: I didn't mean to bark....honest!)
Of course there were times when we would let her bark (in the park/at night if she heard a strange noise etc.) because let's face it dogs bark and I wouldn't want to change that. I think dogs are perfect the way they are. Sometimes we just want to correct the nuisance behaviours.
Barbara Routliffe