Dog barking troubles cause severe commotion for dog owners, and for their neighbors.
A dog that barks nonstop will be an absolute nuisance to anyone living around it.
If you are not careful, as a dog owner you could be subject to noise ordinance violations which cost you money and you might even lose your dog.
The good news is that you can easily eliminate your dog noise problems, and it is not as hard as you might have thought otherwise if you have the right information.
As a dog owner, you know your dog is going to bark, that is just what they do, and it is instinctive to them.
However, some barking is just expected and reasonable.
For example, if someone walks up to your house and knocks on your door, you want your dog to bark.
That is one of the benefits of owning a dog, as it can be an excellent deterrent to would be thieves.
Also, your dog may bark and howl when it hears a siren, and this is just normal.
These types of noise form your dog is flat out defensible, and nobody will fault you for it.
Now, it could be considered unreasonable if your dog barks for ten minutes or longer without stopping.
Let's face, this type of barking is just plain annoying, and can get you in trouble with your neighbors.
If you can't control this barking you may face the wrath of the entire neighborhood, and you may receive a visit from the local authorities.
If you are at home, and present while your dog barks, there are a few things you can do about it.
And as a responsible pet own you should take action.
First off, try to listen and see if Fido is barking for good reason.
If he is, and his barking is defensible with your neighbors and the local municipal laws.
then just relax and try not to get too concerned about it.
If the barking is indeed continuous, and problematic, you can put the dog in the garage, or inside your house.
This usually does the trick and calms your pet down.
You can also introduce your dog to consequence and reward behavior modification.
All you need to do is give the dog some kind of queuing sound, and when he responds and stops barking you can reward him with something like a treat.
If you are away from home there are a few things you will want to try out.
You may want to employ the use of a digital recorder and place it near where the dog may bark, and turn it on when you leave the house for the day.
When you get home you can replay the recording and see if you really have a problem at all.
You may find out that the dog is not nuisance barking at all, and your neighbor is just being overly sensitive to your dog's barking, and trying to cause you problems.
You can save the recordings for later if you should need them as evidence to support your case.
Another thing you can do is make grab the dog's leash and step outside to the front yard and make the do think you have left the house.
What you are going to do is use association training with your dog to train him not to bark.
Every time your dog barks you walk to the back and put the leash, give him a firm jerk, and tell him NO.
You will find that repeating this process will cause the dog to bark less frequently, and the time between barks will be longer and longer until eventually your problem may be eliminated.
If you find that you just can break your dog from nuisance barking you can employ the use of a bark collar.
Not just any collar will do, and certainly I would never consider abusing my dog by using a shock collar.
I just couldn't bear the thought or inhumanely treating my dog in this way.
The safest, most humane, and most effective type of bark collar is a spray collar.
These devices are sound activated to shoot a mist of Citronella spray up at the dog's face every time it barks.
The dog learns by sense association not by smelling the annoying Citronella spray, by feeling an irritating mist up his nostrils, by hearing the a startling hissing sound of the mist being activated, and by seeing the foggy spray up in his eyes.
Academic studies have demonstrated that the use of a spray dog collar is the most effective way to teach your dog to stop barking, and eliminated your problem for good.