Barking dogs???

[rving2us]

We travel with a Norweigan Elkhound, Magda Louise, she is about 40 pounds of cuddle and along with the cuddle she is the barkiest dog we have ever traveled with. As soon as we get set up I am off to see all of our neighbors and tell them to let me know if my dog becomes a bother and that seems to work pretty well in most cases.

The problem is when we want to do some evening sunset stuff, boat rides and such. I hate to leave our girl alone knowing she can be a noise problem.

We are thinking of trying a shock collar on her has anyone tried this method or does it sound to cruel. Thanks

[Mrs. CountryGuy]

I cannot vote for a shock collar.

My experience has been that if the fur baby can see out the windows the barking is worse. They are by nature, guard animals, and will bark to protect their "HOME".

If, they cannot see out the windows, they are less likely to bark.

Crating prevents some barking. It also protects the RV from a frustrated dog and possible bad behavior.

[Waynem]

We have a collapsible wire cage that Miya enjoys because she gets her King with a cookie inside every time we put her in it to go some where by ourselves. As Carol said, not looking out the window will stop some of it.

I use the command "No speak!" when Miya does bark. I never scold her but soothe her and use the command. I have been doing that since she was a puppy and she behaves fairly well. I realize that the natural instinct is to bark and let others know that she is present and "guarding." She does not bark when in her cage. Pulling the night shades will help.

It is something that you can train your dog for, but you must have patience, especially if she is a little older.

I just recently purchased a shock collar for training as Miya has one bad habit. She gets so excited when she meets someone that she jumps up on them. This is not good for young children or aged adults. I put it on her the first night and when she did something wrong, I increased the setting until I got a result. She whimpered like a little puppy with it's paw caught in a trap. It was not a good sound. I have not had it back on her since. It has 10 power settings and I'll let it go for 2/3 it's original price. Email me if you are interested.

[bigmurf]

I would like to see a shock collar connected to 220 VAC.g In case you can't tell I don't like barking dogs.

[Ozz]

I admire people like Carol who are respectful of their neighbors, The single worst experiences I have had with the RV lifestyle, are barking dogs. (Some) Pet owners who have them, seem to have a deaf ear, my message to them is: WAKE UP and think about the barking, and it's intrusion on others!
Rving2us, you are very nice people to bring up the problem and seek an answer.
Dog trainers are the way to go, without knowing many facts about barking training, the 'Training collars' seem to be the answer, but I would suggest seeking out a professional trainer.
You, the dog, and the neighbors will all benefit.
Good on you, for looking to solve this problem.
Good luck, and pat Magda on the head for the Ozzman.

[Icehouse]

Little Bit would bark at everything nonstop while we were campging. We spoke to our vet who recommended the no bark collar that uses citronella spray. I am opposed to a shock collar. We went to PetSmart and purchased a collar with a very small black box. Place the black box against the throat with the spray holes aiming toward the nose and when the dog barks, it shoots out a spray of citronella. Apparently, dogs HATE the smell of citronella. Trust me it works. Our model took a couple of AAA batteries (I think) and you can buy the refill citronella spray in a can to refill the box. Worked great!

[RC and Samantha]

Watching this thread with great interests since we now have little Kody & are hoping he won't be much of a barker. Already he barks a shrill little bark. My nephews Yorkie Pup barely ever barks. I think they are much like people & all have their own personalities.

We are trying to train him now but only time will tell if he's going to be a yapping little guy or not. We also don't like barking dogs, well at least ones who bark constantly. We do know however these fur guys have to communicate someway.

Patty

[Allen in MT]

There is a difference between shock collars and bark collars and most of them are adjustable in the amount of charge given. I once had a german shepard that got up and chased every car that went by, I borrowed a shock collar and after the second jolt he never chased a car again, you control it with a transmitter.
The bark collar is adjusted in strength and then fitted to the dog and usually comes in size for large dogs and small dogs.
Go to Google and look up bark collar.
hope this helps
Allen

[richfaa]

We do not have a problem with training collars if needed and if used properly. No matter what we think animals do not think and reason on a human level and other means must be applied to train them. Whatever works. In my recent Bird, people interaction class there was a lady there with a big bird that took chunks out of her at every opportunity. The lady would say in a sweet voice.." bad bird, bad bird, don't bite momma. you know that isn't nice , be a good bird".Reach out,,,another chunk..it was painful to watch. The instructor said Richard how would you handle that. My reply was along these lines.. I would take that bird by it's scrawny little neck and squeeze till it's eyes bulged out of it's scrawny little head.. We would repeat till we came to a Bird..People understanding.Well said she that may be a little drastic but the concept is correct.
Our bird and I BTW..now get along just fine. And I do like animals..always had a dog, Helen is a critter peson..I do have a problem with people
who do not bother to learn the proper People / animal relationship. A barking dog is not the dogs fault..it is the owners fault.

[Dave e Victoria]

We had a schipperkee, Dharma, who I dearly loved but, she had an obnoxious bark and did a lot of it. We live on a golf course and she gave a lot of advice to any golfer who came close to our fence. Along the way, I tried a shock collar. Much to my chagrin, the dog license on her regular collar would rattle enough to set off the shock collar. I put it on once and saw her go into a trauma of seizure and shock until I could get the damned thing off of her. I was embarrassed and oh so sorry. Didn't have a lot of luck with citronella either. Now that she is gone, I miss that bark and all the rest of her quirky personality.

[Dustytuu]

We close the night shades and that helps a lot. If they can't see out the windows they don't seem to bark. Also leave the TV on for them. Don't leave them for long periods of time. Sometime we leave cong toys stuffed with peanut butter for them to work on. But don't like doing this because Lucylou is on prescription dog food. So don't do this much.

Do have bark collars but the batteries have been dead for 2 years. We took the batteries out 2 years ago too. Only took one time for them to remember. Ours were very mild collars. Don't want to use them with batteries again. Just wearing them without batteries and dead batteries, they work.

[ALAN]

Our Vet recommended bark collars from Sportdog. They have 6 levels of control. The level increases if the barking continues. We have never seen the level get past 2. Now we can put them on with out removing the shock probe covers and they rarely bark.

[rving2us]

Thanks for all the great input. We use a soft crate for our Maggie and will put her in when we leave the rig. We have never tried this so we are excited to see if this will make a difference for her and make her more comfortable. We also have gone with the 6 level bark correction collar. We have been training her with her new collar and is seems she is responding positively to training. We'll let you know the outcome when we return from our trip to Maine in mid July. Thanks again everyone. Jon

[rving2us]

Hi everyone - Mary, Magda and Jon are back safe and sound from our trip to Maine. The corrective static bark control collar worked like a charm. We were able to leave our "Maggie" for several hours without complaints from our neighbors but she did learn to guard/bark "under the collar" a low, woof that did not require correction. We only used the collar a couple of times because the outcome was so positive. It made her a better camper. Thanks for all the input. jon.

[Ronnelly]

We don't travel with a dog. I do not like to hear barking dogs, especially if owners leave them in their RV's while out having a good time. So am happy to hear that some dog owners are trying to keep their dogs from being a barking nuicense. I also appreciate people picking up after their dogs. A big Thank You to all of the considerate and responsible dog owners.

quote:Originally posted by rving2us

We travel with a Norweigan Elkhound, Magda Louise, she is about 40 pounds of cuddle and along with the cuddle she is the barkiest dog we have ever traveled with. As soon as we get set up I am off to see all of our neighbors and tell them to let me know if my dog becomes a bother and that seems to work pretty well in most cases.

The problem is when we want to do some evening sunset stuff, boat rides and such. I hate to leave our girl alone knowing she can be a noise problem.

We are thinking of trying a shock collar on her has anyone tried this method or does it sound to cruel. Thanks

[PartyCrashers]

Glad to hear everything has worked out with the little barker.

We do not have experience with the bark collars.

But we have used the Kong treat methods in the trailer to keep our two little dogs entertained if we need to be away from the trailer.

This seems to work well for us.

I do agree with the keeping the curtains or blinds closed. This keeps them from seeing what they need to guard from. We also do play the radio on low to help with keeping the outside noises down.

Something I wanted to add about the Kongs....
What ever you use to put inside of the Kongs, rather it be special squirt "Kong" spread or peanut butter, even their own dog food (for the one that is on a special diet)....After you fill the Kongs you can place them in the freezer.....we do this and it makes the Kong treat last longer for our dogs.

From time to time I will purchase and keep in the fridge raw bones, but I usually only like to offer this when I am with them.

I also like the crating idea....although we have not had to do this, but we do have a crate for "just incase".

The shock collar....I'm confused, if you are using this method to change a bad habit.....Do you need to be present(and push a button) for this collar to work?

[rving2us]

Great question, our correction collar works by placing the control box with probes against the throat, vibrations from barking send a signal to the collar to emit a correction charge. The collar we chose will move through a series of six levels of correction, it also allows some forgivence and allows her to bark a couple of times before it begins its corrections. I hope this helps understanding the operation a little.

[Dustytuu]

We use the nylia bones, (hard plastic). I spread a little peanut butter on them. They chew on them and chew and chew. Good for their teeth too.
We do have bark collars. We had to do something or get kicked out of a park.
Tried them once, ours are for small dogs. We then took the batteries out. The collars work great because the dogs don't know there is no battery in them. Now the batteries are dead and that works great too. They don't know. Haven't bought batteries for them for 4 years! LOL
Also we close all the blinds, and leave the TV on. That helps a lot!

[gojodo]

Great thread!
We have an old lab, wonderful pet but as she ages she has begun to bark at other dogs. We will set up camp and she is fine but by the next day she has estabilshed that this is her house and barks at every dog that goes by. She occasionally barks at diesel trucks(go figure our truck is diesel). She does not bark in the rig so that has never been a problem. We attribute her barking to the lack of socialization with other dogs which was recommended by our trainer. However,living in the country did not give us much opportunity to expose her to other dogs. We will go to PetSmart for the collar. This sounds like an option since we have tried all others. Our current solution is if the "no bark"command does not work then she is put back into the rig. We love her but do not want to disturb others. we too hate barking dogs. Yesterday, our neighbor left their 2 dogs out all day in 109 degree heat and they barked all day, checking on them occasionally but did not take them inside with the AC!
Dorothy

[garyka]

We have a bark collar for our dog and wouldn't be without it.If the proper collar is bought for the dog they work great.we also do a few things to discourage the dog from barking when we leave the camper,close all the shades and move cushions and chairs so the dog can't look out the windows,leave the tv on (animal channel when possible),leave the air conditioner or fan on to help drown out outside noise,and last we give our cell # to our neighbors in the event the dog starts barking.As far as bark collars being cruel I think what is cruel is getting to a good campground and listening to a dog barking.If a collar is used properly they are not cruel,the animal catches on quickly barking results to a reaction and in many cases the battery can be taken out after a short time.In closing I love dogs and hate barking.