So you got yourself a barker.....

I've been asked several times in the last few weeks to do a thread on my use of bark collars. I figure, it could possibly help someone who may wish to break a constant barker they have and maybe don't know how to curb the behavior, open up discussion on others experience with their collar of choice or other methods and give pointers as to the proper use of them to curb the behavior. I've have a 98% success rate over the last 10 years that I've been using them and I have yet to not break one of the annoying habit. I'm still working on that other 2%. In time, I'm fairly confident that will hit 100% in.

If you have these dogs on chain set ups in a city environment, the more of an annoyance that you or the dogs are to your neighbors is probably one of the fastest ways to end up with some people knocking on your door that you do not want snooping around your animals or property. Being neighborly, whether you like your neighbors or not, can really go along way. Don't leave dog shit around your spots, garbage strewn all around the area, try to set the area up whereas your neighbors don't have to constantly look at your dogs i.e privacy fences etc. A barker will definitely make your neighbors dislike you fast and in most cases call them boyz on you. This should really be in the back of anyone who owns this breed of dogs mind no matter what your purpose is for having them.

Anyways lets get started...

These are the 3 collars I use and each has its pros and cons and I'll try to cover some of each.



I'm going to start with the one in the middle first because it is the one I use the least. It's made by PetSafe and uses a spray of citronella in the dogs face when it barks. I use it the least mostly because I spray my dogs with citronella every few days so the smell don't really bother them since they are used to it and an adult dog that is determined to bark it's face off will cost you a lot of money in refilling the cartridge, and usually just don't work. On pups who start young picking up the barking habit though this collar actually works really well. They don't like it at all. However I myself raise my pups indoors so they don't usually learn the habit until they are about a year old and are out on a chain. Again, works pretty well on pups under 10 months old but kind of worthless for an adult in most cases.

Next up is my #1 Collar and it's broke many of their urge to bark with any regularity. It's on your right in that picture of the collars. It's also made by PetSafe, is automatic, has 5 stages and gauges the correction according to the intensity of the bark. In other words, a light bark will get a moderate vibration a full blown bark will get lit up. This is hands down my favorite collar to use and I have broke every dog that it's been on from barking except one. There is downfall to it, the box has to stay on the front of the neck to be effective and seeing as it's a secondary collar on the dogs neck it does get turned a lot with a active chain running dog. Means you have to go out periodically to check its placement. Again though, I have broke many with this kind of collar. More than any other collar I've ever tried. The best part is, it works whether you're around or not.







Last on my list is one that is not made by Petsafe. I am actually unsure who actually makes this one as I bought it on ebay and the box does not have a company name on it. However, I've only recently had to use it because I acquired a mutt that is probably one of the worst barkers I have ever owned. The other 2 collars did not work on her. She quickly learned how to turn my favorite collar so she can bark free of being shocked and she went through a cartridge of citronella in the other collar in about 20 minutes, and killed the battery. Not very ideal. This collar however, does a few different things. Vibrates, Shocks and emits a high frequency sound and all 3 can be done by remote. This collar is not automatic. You have to do the correction yourself.



This collar made the most aggressive barker here STFU immediately after squealing for about 15 seconds lol after I press the Shock button. I'm conditioning her by first by yelling no and hitting the sound. If she doesn't stop I will hit her with the Vibrate. If she still persists, she gets lit up with the Shock and it's blissful quietness for at least an hour lol. The more I do it the less she barks. in a week or 2 the collar will come off and only return when the barking does. Over a pretty quick period of time they ALL learn that a bark will result in something unpleasant and they stop the unnecessary barking. None of these are 100% effective on every dog but in my experience with them, they work far more often than they don't when used correctly. It takes some dogs longer than others but eventually they will get it.

Keeping your yard clean, quiet and being conscious of your neighbors can save you a lot of headaches with them or even worse, Animal Control or the Police. It is not an easy task to raise this breed in numbers in an urban environment. I would never recommend it to anyone however I know people will always do it, so at least do it right and keep the attention to your yard very minimal. I truly hope this helps someone and that more people give their own ideas of what works for them. Keep em quiet and you'll have them around a lot longer. At the end of the day, we just want to enjoy our dogs, can't do that if you're fighting a case and if you think it can't happen just that fast, just read any one of the news feeds here that catch the many articles of people losing their dogs and the images they use to nail you like shit everywhere, garbage all over the chain spot, no water bucket in sight and constant neighbor complaints. Do it right or don't do it at all folks and keep the attention to yourself and your yard to a minimal.......


AGK

 

Before the invention of the shock collar there was another method used to silence nusiance barkers. Although this method is very similar to the shock collar method it was and probably still is deemed cruel to animals by many even more so then the shock collars....This method is the RedRyder one crank/spring loaded BB Gun.....Shake the gun to rattle the BB's in the chamber making that rattling noise then shoot and repeat until the dog gets it and shuts the fuck up...once the dogs realize this they wont ever need to be shot at again because just the sound of the BB;s rattling will silence the whole yard.

Oh and BTW the shock collars at the higher settings is more painful then the Redryder BB gun. LOL

AGK whats with them scrub gloves?.....Its alright man I buy the surgical gloves in bulk at costco. LOL

 

I live on a mountain with lots of trees and cover and have a 6ft privacy fence. However, have a home owners association and busy body neighbors so any dog that barks is a problem when im not here because who wants people in your business for any reason... My neighbors have horrible mangy pug mutts that bark constantly and roam the streets growling and shitting in other peoples yards but if one of my dogs did the same it would be a big deal.

Anyway, I started by borrowing a friends bark collar that he used with a Walker. I would have to check the manufacturer, don't remember, it worked but it had a dial to adjust it. The dog I had it on would never sit still and somehow she would move the dial to either "off" or some other setting. I wouldn't recommend anything with a dial, particularly for a chain dog that may rub the dial all the time just walking the chain spot. I ended up getting Sportdog brand versions. They have a digital display and you have to hold the button in a particular way to change the mode. They have three modes. The one I use is called user selection or something like that, basically its 0-10 and you set the power that makes your dog stop barking. Like AGK said, I always start them on the collar by saying "No" or giving them a warning, but after they understand, no warning anymore. They have a progressive setting that amps up the power the more they bark but I've never had to use that setting, but maybe I just dont have stubborn barkers. Anyway, they work for me. For my APBT I usually don't turn it on anymore, but she wears it when I go to work, just wearing it is enough. I've 2 of them, I paid about 75 shipped each, they were a good investment. Even if its cool for your dogs to bark (im working on a piece of land out in the county, I dont care how much they bark there) its nice to be able to shut them up if you are cooking out or something for the inlaws...

 

Really good advice agk good write up! I have one that barks his lungs off. I use the automatic bark collar from petsafe as well. It shuts him up when under the neck but he to has learned to move it to continue to bark. You have to be diligent and constantly check and move it back. Don't get lazy and tighten them down so much that they won't move. This will cause the leads on the collar to dig into the neck and rip up the dogs neck so be vigilant and rotate when the dog moves the collar and it will work.

 

The other thing I would suggest is to replace the cheap nylon snap collar that comes with it with a buckled collar. You can buy them on amazon for about 5 or 6 dollars and replace them yourself .

 

Lol I use a product on the dogs called SWAT. It's petroleum based and I have to rub it on the dogs. The problem with doing it bare handed is the dogs are filthy and if I rub one down without the gloves, the dirt mixes with the SWAT then stains my hands for a day or 2. I just don't like trying to scrub the skin off my hands to remove the stain so I just wear exam glove's from work when I have to apply the fly control.

I did used to do the BB gun tactic not all that long ago, maybe 7 or 8 years ago now. It really does work. Problem with it is, if your 15 feet next 2 your neighbors, shooting one of the dogs in the ass will surely bring them boys faster than the barking does. While fairly quite compared to real guns, most people know the tell tale sign of a BB gun being shot. Just don't want that kind of attention anymore. My dog Redrum and Lil Miss Geach both learned to be quite with the shake of a BB gun. I never shot them with it either Simply would either just pump it, shake it so they could hear the bbs and if they still carried on, the metal water dishes got shot. The sound of impact almost always made all of them go inside their dog houses. Crude but very effective it was.

 

This is a very important piece of information. It will cost you plenty if you tighten down the collar too tight. The prongs will embed into the dogs neck and quickly will become infected, later abcessing.

Learned that one the hard way with my dog Pumpkin about a year or 2 ago.





She ended up needing surgery to drain and clean out the abcess the collar created once I took it off and let it heal the first time around. It healed for a week then abscessed again 2 times worse than the first time. Instead of taking her back to the vet to spend another 410 bucks, I called up a good friend for an extra set of hands, he came down, we put her in the breeding stand and muzzled her. Sprayed the area with derma blast which is just a topical numbing spray, hit her with injectable 2% Lidocaine all around the area, took a beaver blade scalpel and opened her cheek up about 3 inches. Only meant to do about an inch and a half but shit, #11 blades are laser sharp and the incision zipped along a little further than needed, they're just that sharp. She didn't even react to it. I left it open to heal on its own and drain so I didn't have to do any stitch work. I just kept it clean and put her on antibiotics for 14 days, predisone for 10 days along with keeping her as immobile as possible while she healed up.

It healed and you would never know it ever even happend to her. Never put one on again that I couldn't get 2 fingers in between the dogs neck and collar. It happens very fast too. Great advise that I failed to mention in my original post.

That is a hazard with ANY collar that has prongs laying on the dogs neck. Do not over tighten the collar. Great save Mistabonz! That was something I should have definitely listed as a con to those collars.

 

Instead of a bb gun...id go with airsoft. Stings as well.... less chance of it going into the dog.

 

At first I though it could be something like that because of the placement or since she is a hardcore bone chewer a shard perhaps split off in her mouth. Then I noticed the collar was diggin in to her skin and it smelled infected. I took off the collar and healed up the 2 prong wounds in her neck. Everything healed nicely after about a week and a half to 2 weeks. Her skin pretty much was fully healed, hair growing back etc. and you couldn't even tell it had happened then out of no where one day she abcessed. You'd never even know it had happened today. She's my favorite dog here next to her mother. My yard is set up that when I look out my windows, she's the first one seen. Up front and center. I'd take a whole yard of her type.