Aim, shoot and water spray training
One of the things we used for Bilbo when he was around, was water deterrents. As he was a rescue and bit damage dog, there was a limit on the way you could put in place negative training. Using your voice didn’t really work and he was so strong pulling back on the lead was not always possible to keep in check. One thing that saved the day was water training. We used to take a water pistol out with him and it worked well. Yes, we did get some odd looks but you stop caring after a while if you have a mad dog.
Barley is a barker and big time guard dog (she probably has a badge and patrol area worked out), as a result Dillon is learning the same pattern (copying is something he can do too well). To try and prevent this being ingrained and stop the migraine inducing double dog barking along with restore some sense I run a professional business from my home and not a dog kennel, we’ve been for a while now using a plant sprayer with water. The sound and the water both have a place along with the object itself. Dillon knows now what that object means and often stops when it’s been reached for and not even sprayed. Barley is a little more determined but she’s older and takes more training than Dillon.
It’s best of course to add a word like ‘no’ or ‘quiet’ to the water spray - you never know when you won’t have one around. There are a lot of marketed ‘anti-barking’ sprays and so on. I’d say don’t waste your money and use a water pistol or plant sprayer. Works just the same and doesn’t cost the earth. It’s not going to stop them barking totally - dogs bark to warn it’s inbred (well it’s also learnt and some breeds do more than others for instance ‘guard breeds’). You can control this and make it far more desirable though. There is oddly something very satisfying squirting a dog to act as a ‘bad behavior’ sign.
March 13th, 2007 at 1:17 pm
Do you use this for just barking or for other bad behavior as well? We’re trying it with Aspen when he barks outside and he’s getting to the point where he sees it and runs away from us. I’d like to try it to get him to heel when we walk since nothing from his puppy school training has helped. The stop when he pulls ahead thing just isn’t working since I seem to have to stop every 2 seconds.
And as for squirting a dog as satisfying, try a quick shot from the garden hose. Very satisfying and highly entertaining at the same time, well, at least for us it is.
March 15th, 2007 at 4:27 pm
Water is for barking really but we are lucky that bar DIllon eating walls we don’t have such a great ‘bad behaviour’ count mainly as our older dog could be left in room with china and glass and she’d probably do nothing but sleep.
Sadly one of the best walking to heel is the hard things of walk the other way. They want to go that way so go other way. This both confuses them, sets you as leader as going other way and also makes you look like an idiot walking down the road and any walk take much longer. I never had luck with just stopping, it’s the adding other direction that worked for me.
We made the mistake of not being as hard as we should on Dillon and the result was he was set on the pulling path. I had to use this and few times we didn’t even make it to the meadow, but that was the point. He’s not wonderful now but I don’t get dragged around so much that I wander if putting skates on would just be easier.
July 7th, 2008 at 9:07 am
Thank you for this very informative article. Dog obedience is very important to dog owners and each one should know the proper measures to take to control them. Take a dog that keeps on barking for no apparent reason, this is one of the behavior problems that needs to be addressed. The bottom line is that a well behaved dog creates a happy dog owner.