First Posted: 3/25/2015
Years ago when I lived in California, a friend and I used to have dinner together once a week at her house. I’d drop off my four dogs on my way to work, and they’d spend the day horsing around with her five. After supper we would gather the dogs in the living room and start them howling, performing their version of the “Howl-eluia Chorus.” That was the signal for her next-door neighbors to join us for brandy manhattans. They knew when they heard the “music,” it was time for a visit. This is the fun part of having loud-mouth dogs. Other times, the barking and howling can become really annoying.
I admit I get pretty tired of my dogs’ hysterics at the front door when Spudman the cat is sitting on the porch or when someone comes up my walk. My friends, the mail lady and delivery guys knock on the door — which gets the dogs barking, of course — and then wait for me to appear in the attached garage. My somewhat less than brilliant dogs haven’t figured out that while they’re carrying on at the front door, I sneak out into the garage and greet the visitor out there.
When you have as many dogs as we do (six, currently) getting them to stop the racket isn’t the easiest thing to do. In my house, distracting them by shaking a “rattle can” is as helpful as anything will be. (The rattle can is an empty pop can with a few small pebbles in it and the top taped shut.) It makes a startling sound when shaken, which distracts them from their noisy attack at the front door.
Some breeds are notorious barkers. If you have one of these, you may be fighting a constant battle. Some of these are Dachshunds, Shetland Sheepdogs, American Eskimo Dogs, Schnauzers, most Terriers, Yorkies and many of the other toy breeds. (My dog, Kiri, is a natural-born noisemaker. She is convinced she can’t play unless she’s barking. If I tell her to stop the noise, she gets a pathetic look on her face because she thinks I want her to stop playing.)
The best bet is to start early in a pup’s life, teaching him to be quiet on command while he is still a puppy. This can be accomplished by distracting him from the object of interest, using a toy or a treat, and praising him for quieting himself. The rattle can mentioned above can also be effective.
When he stops barking to see what made the other sound, he can be praised for being quiet. A quick spritz of plain water from a spray bottle set on stream can also work. The dog will be startled and most likely stop barking. Whatever method you try, praise him for stopping. Use a command such as “Quiet” followed by “Good, quiet” when he stops.
If the barking occurs when you’re not home, limit access to windows looking out on interesting activities and leave a radio or television on to mask outside noise. Provide some interactive dog toys to keep him occupied. A single dog is fairly easy to quiet, but put a bunch of them together and they egg each other on, making the job more difficult.
What about bark collars? They have their uses in extreme cases. Some spray a bit of citronella every time the dog barks. Dogs dislike the smell and learn to associate the scent with barking. Others emit an unpleasant high pitched sound that dogs can hear but we can’t. Traditional electronic bark collars deliver a brief shock when the dog barks. I’ve used the citronella collar with mixed results, and I had to resort to using a traditional bark collar with one of my dogs. These work, but should not be used casually.
I have a personal theory that dogs are born with a certain number of barks inside them. If they can’t bark all of them out by a certain age, they’ll explode. Okay, that’s ridiculous, but dogs do bark and expecting them never to speak is unreasonable. But it’s not unreasonable to ask them to limit the noise to less than an entire concert.
