Barking

Barking, Barking and more Barking. Our dogs have a tendency to bark too much. Tyson and Fenton are not fans of the Chihuahuas behind our house and they are not too friendly with Lyndsay's newest dog(s). They make it known that they are the masters of their yard (and Fall Creek in general) via their vicious barks. I am not home during the days, so I don't notice it as much, but they bark enough to wake the kid during nap times and probably annoy the neighbors.

Don't get em wrong, we have great dogs. They play nice with the boy, they are potty trained, don't destroy things and in all regards are great dogs. Their only vice is barking. So we decided it was time to try to stop them from barking. Short of removing their voice (or bark?) boxes, we tried some commercially available remedies.

Last year we borrowed a neighbor's shock bark collar and put it on Fenton. After fiddling with it to finally get it to work, Fenton barked, freaked out, peed all over the place and started wimpering. The wimpering triggered another shock and the cycle continued. We quickly got the collar off of him and gave that idea up.

Recently we got spray bark collars. These collars spray citronella in the dogs face when they bark. These things really work. Tyson doesn't bark at all with the collar and Fenton only occasionally barks with it.

The new collars are not perfect fixes. For one, the dogs know when they have them on and when they are turned on. So unlike other fixes, this isn't something that can be phased out over time, and we need to replace the citronella and batteries periodically. It is a small price to pay to limit the dogs barking. Luckily unlike the shock collar, the citronella is more annoying to them than painful, so if they really need to bark they can (like at an intruder).

The other problem is that sometimes they miss fire from load noises other than barking. I have come up to Tyson to give him some love and it goes off, or the kid can set it off while playing with them. Luckily it is just citronella and not a shock.

The other day, Lisa and I were taking a nap with the boys in the bed. A little background, Lisa is about 8 months pregnant now and has a tendency to snore. As Tyson snuggled up to her for the nap, her snoring/labored breathing set off the spray collar spraying Tyson and her in the face. It was hilarious. Needless to say, the collars now come off before they get in bed.