How can I stop my dogs from barking ?

[Jack]

We have 2 bichons, ages 3 and 5--one spayed, one neutered.

They bark at people walking by, the mailman, the water delivery guy, people who park across the street, and people walking their dogs. One couple walks their new puppy by our house to train the puppy to ignore barking dogs (that would be our dogs)!

Would it help if we put up a privacy fence (the current one is chainlink), so our dogs cannot see what's passing by in front of our house? What about if they *hear* the clinking of a leash and dog tags of a dog being walked, and still bark like crazy?

If we're not home, how can we train our dogs to NOT bark?

What else can we do before we consider an anti-bark collar (which may or may not work, and I'm personally not thrilled with the idea but will use it if it's recommended by you kind folks who have experience witht his stuff) , or surgical options? (we cannot move the existing fence)

Thank you.
Jack

[CrystalsMom]

It took a while to train our Doberman not to bark at every little thing, but persistence does pay off.
I want the dog to do her job and warn me if she sees something...I just don't want her to bark incessantly.
The way I've handled it is I let her bark once or twice and go see what she's barking at and acknowledge in a sing song voice "okay, I see". If she continues to bark after I've acknowledged it, I will say "enough". If she continues to bark after I give her the "enough" warning, then I spritz her with a plant mister (of clean water) while she is barking. It's very important to spritz while they are in the process of barking and not after.
This isn't easy...you need to be on top of them and be prepared when you expect them to bark. You more or less have to drop what you're doing and be right next to them.
When they are finally trained, my dog will alert me once or twice to let me know something is going on. I acknowlege her and then she will stop and just look at me with that look that says "if you're okay with this, then I'm okay with it". During training, all I had to do is pick up the plant mister and she'll stop barking because she knows what's coming.
This has worked with all 3 of my dogs over the years. Maybe someone else has some better tips for you but the plant mister has always worked well and it gets the message across. Yelling at them will never work, it just excites them even more.

[davet]

i adon'thave a good answer but i would not use one of those barking collar.. A fellow vet reccomended one for a dog and the dog died after the first jolt..may or maynot have been the collar but we both took no chances after that

[Ash]

I would opt for a professional trainer who works with your dogs and you together on this.

[k9Karen]

I'm afraid my post will be a bit disheartening. I think there are some dogs that are 'hard-wired' to bark, and when they start barking, there is no way to stop them. I've had a total of 5 dogs, and 3 of them would stop barking on command. Two of them (Mickey and Allie) would/will not. Allie has a bit of an excuse, she is deaf and can not hear me tell her to stop. She knows I will give her the 'bad dog' hand signal, so she makes sure she isn't facing me when she's barking (most of the time. Sometimes, she stares right at me and almost dares me to make her stop). Mickey just could not stop. He knew it was wrong, he looked guilty when it was over, but he just couldn't stop. It was as though his brain lost it's control whenever he started barking. I tried various things to get him to stop, but I finally gave up trying to give him any kind of command and just went over and put my hand around his muzzle. Have you have heard a dog bark while someone is holding his mouth shut? - Comical!

That said, don't give up - keep trying, just don't be completely surprised if it doesn't work the way you'd like. Two dogs make it worse - they feed off each other, and that won't help.

I have Shelties, you have Bichons - both breeds are known as barkers. Shelties are good sheep herders, they must notice anything different anywhere in their surroundings and alert the shepherd (me). It is their job and they do it well. Some just do it very noisily.

[TheSkeptic]

I agrre with K9Karen. I too had shelites, but they were very discriminant in thier barks. I could tell if someone coming to the door was someone we knew or a stranger by the way they barked. Tippy would sometimes bark at "Cobblies." Cobblies are something she percieved, but we didn't/couldn't. (I borrowed the term Cobbly from Clifford Simak's book "City." This Sci-Fi book is a good read for any dog lover.) We trained them to cut down on their barking, but didn't stop it.

Currently we have two Beagle mixes that are incessant barkers when anything strange or new comes by. They bark to go out. They bark at the other dogs for moving on the sofa when they are in another room. They bark at ny new noise coming from outside. My neighbor loves it when they are outside, because he says "Bad guys don't go near homes with barking dogs."

Old Irish Belief. "When a dog is barking at nothing, he is really chasing away the Grim Reaper who is coming for you. So never stop a dog for barking at nothing, If you know what is good for you."

Good luck.

[Ash]

Here in India, the street dogs sometimes sit for hours in the night and bark and bark and bark. Drives many Westerners crazy. If it's not right outside my window I don't mind it. They seem to be talking to each other ...

To answer one of Jack's questions, I think it would rather make them bark more if you put up a fence they can't see through. Then they won't know when the reason for barking has left and might just continue for the heck of it.

[k9Karen]

Tippy would sometimes bark at "Cobblies." Cobblies are something she percieved, but we didn't/couldn't. (I borrowed the term Cobbly from Clifford Simak's book "City." This Sci-Fi book is a good read for any dog lover.) We trained them to cut down on their barking, but didn't stop it.

Old Irish Belief. "When a dog is barking at nothing, he is really chasing away the Grim Reaper who is coming for you. So never stop a dog for barking at nothing, If you know what is good for you."

I've always said Allie was barking at ghosts. I guess the Grim Reaper fits that category (more or less, anyway). She definitely barks at things only she can see. She stares straight ahead and barks furiously. Not sure what it is, but, if she's keeping away the Grim Reaper, all I gotta say is "You go girl! Keep up the good work!!