Has anyone had success in teaching a dog not to bark? With all of the neighborhood kids around this summer, my little dog is going crazy -- which is making me crazy. When I am working out in the yard, he'll start running along the fence and barking like crazy every time one of the kids goes by on their bikes. He will not stop barking and come to me. He ignores me which is irritating, of course! He doesn't like to be sent inside. Is there a good technique for training a dog to calm down!? A way to use treats to train him or???

Background... we adopted him in February from the shelter. He is three years old and loves ME primarily but also is very attached to the rest of our family. He's smart and trainable... just gets really neurotic sometimes.

Thanks.

I had to teach mine by holding down his tounge everytime he barked with my thumb and tell himno bark.. it took him forever but it did work. I was told to do this at his obedience classes.. good luck!

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Too many people spend money they haven't earned to buy things they don't want, to impress people they don't like. - Will Rogers

Put coins in an empty soda can. Tape the top shut. Everytime he barks shake the can and said No Bark. My vet had said to throw the can near the dog but I was afraid I might hit our dog. I trained our pug with the can. After a while all I had to do is say do you want the can she would stop. Didn't have to shake it or have it in sight. Cheap and easy way to train them. Good luck.

I had been trying this but maybe I haven't given it enough time. Hadn't thought of throwing it. I'll have to try that too...

If I can catch him, I'll do the tongue trick but that will be one more reason for him to not come to me.

Egads.

Thanks for the tips!

There is a show called "It's Me or the Dog"
It's Me or the Dog

I love this show. She teaches people with dog problems how to work with thier dogs. Kind of like Super Nanny for the dog. I put the website above. Maybe there is some info that can help you on there.

That would seem to me as a dog bite just waiting to happen.

Glad it worked for you, no way in hell would I attempt it with our big behemoth of a monster dog. (although she's never bit before, I certainly don't want to give her a legitimate excuse to start! )

Occasionally.
Why does it bother you that I stated my opinion? I did it very nonconfrontational, I didn't say that I thought the OP was an idiot or stupid or anything derogatory. I simply stated what I thought.

And it DOES seem like a bite waiting to happen, sorry, but it does. There's a post on here where the family dog bit a child because the playing was too rough. Doesn't make the dog "bad" or "vicious" just means that the dog had had enough.

I like the can w/ rocks or pebbles in it. And would think that would work very well.

Is it possible that because I am not part of the "happy, happy, joy, joy" clique on this board that everything I post is going to be subject to ridicule and smart ass posts? Hmmmmm....I do believe so. It's obvious that there is a clique on here and that's fine. But, just because someone disagrees with you or your friend or a member of the clique, that does not make them wrong!

actually I have a 200 lb black lab. hold the tounge down to the bottom jaw.. they can't bite down since you have the bottom jaw and are holding it down.. did that make sense?

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Too many people spend money they haven't earned to buy things they don't want, to impress people they don't like. - Will Rogers

just added to say my dog used to play with cans so I don't know that it would work with my dog in particular..lol my uncle is a vet. i'll ask him for ya. he'll be back on vacation next week!

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Too many people spend money they haven't earned to buy things they don't want, to impress people they don't like. - Will Rogers

Yes, that's makes more sense. All I could picture from the initial post was a person sticking their thumb onto a dog's tongue.

It might take some effort but most dogs don't like being sprayed with a water gun. Keep the dog on a long lead when you are both outside and when he barks he won't be able to get too far away and then give him a good squirt in the face and say no bark.

Years ago, ours was an outside dog and she was a night barker. Not a peep during the day. She would bark just to hear herself bark I think. We had a two story house and regardless of the hour, if I heard her barking I would fill a glass with water and chase her until I could toss it in her face. After a couple of weeks of this, she would do a little test bark and and all I had to do was turn on the tap in the bathroom and she would not make another sound all night. A week or so of that and she never barked at night any more. But she was a smart dog and not all dogs will respond to the same tactics.

Another dog I had we kept old rolled up socks handy and whenever the barking started, throw it at him and again say no bark. That was not as successful as the water, but it did help some. The problem was, we could not seem to keep the socks where we needed them to be, when we needed them to be there.

If you dont mind answering this question. Why do you call your self nonbeliever. But in your last post yoy said I do believe so. not trying to start anything but have been curious as to your user name.

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When you don`t know what to do-Walk fast and look worried.

I keep a couple of water guns in the house (hidden from the kiddos of course ) just for this purpose....My dog hates to be sprayed, and the good thing about the water guns is I can be at a distance and still hit her.....She doesn't bark without purpose anymore, and doesn't jump as much either......Still working on the jumping, but gotten much much better....She's an English Bulldog.

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"You can never really pay back. You can only pay forward."

Wayne Woodrow “Woody” Hayes

O-H-I-O

My best friend in our neighborhood has an English Setter (these dog, generally, are very high energy till the day they die)
This dog , though very beloved by the fam, has been a major pita for her for the past 5 years because of his barking.
She recently bought one of those *no bark collars* that gives the dog a warning buzz and then a slight electric shock . I have always been pretty averse to negative aversion therapies for dogs, but this has been the only thing that has work for Harley, and it has worked beautifully. It's like he's a whole new dog.
I have had very energetic and difficult dogs in the past, have always tried the methods described by the Monks of New Skete for 20+ years. The Monks have rarely let me down w/their firm yet positive re-inforcement methods.
But some of our dogs just would *not* respond.
I wish I had one of those electric collars for a few of em. Especially my late and beloved Springer who would even breach an invisible fence!
MZ

Seeing that you are a "new" member, I will let you know the answer to that is yes.

And, thanks for giving me a reason to figure out the whole silly rep point thingie

To save you time, this is what I put under the reputation thingie "First post and you attack a long time member .... you are a troll or someone too childish to post under your true name. Are you going to post this, too?"

Now that I am involved in this post . My son got a 6 month old puppy in January. It came with a number of poor manners. Namely, barking and jumping up on the kitchen table. We used a coke can with about 15 pennies taped inside. We threw it at the dog every time we caught it doing these things. Fixed a number of bad behaviors quickly.

I was watching the show with the dog lady on earlier and when your dog jumps on you, you turn your back to it and ignore until it is calm and sitting. Then turn back around and say good dog and pet. As soon as it jumps again, turn your back and repeat until it realizes it only gets attention when it is behaving. Worth a try.

That's the same image I had when I read the original post. That or someone pulling the dogs tongue out and down. It's hard to describe things like that clearly sometimes. And then I started thinking about those dogs that win the ugliest dog contests every year that have their tongues hanging out of the side of their mouths constantly. Poor things. But funny.

Thanks for the help.

The 300 meter super soaker (!) works great in our big fenced front yard... 1/3 acre!... and I am using the can with pennies for inside the house (that thing is noisy and the neighbors would probably call the cops!!!).

Maybe his former owner used the command 'No Bark'... who knows?! It is hard not knowing the past of adopted pets.

He's gotten better over the weekend but haven't had the neighbor boy by in a few days either. That will be the true test!!! Maybe tomorrow.

I still haven't had to test the tongue pressing trick but that is mainly because he's done better because of the other things I have tried!

Thanks again.