Couple dog questions

We got a dog a couple months ago. He is a bit over 25lb Corgi mutt. He really only has one bad habit, barking. He doesn't bark in the house (unless someone knocks on the door) or when we are outside but when we take him on walks he barks at some dogs and some runners. What is the best way to go about breaking him from barking? We have been trying the yank down on the lease and say no bark but it has not been effective.

The other thing is when we take him to the dog park he refuses to play with dogs his own size of smaller and he likes to play with big dogs. Like last time we were there his two best play mates were Great Danes which was fine until another Great Dane showed up and Cole really wanted to play with him. That Great Dane didn't want to play so Cole kept barking and started nipping at the dog to try to get him to play and the other dog started reacting aggressively so I pulled him out of there. Any suggestions what to do about this?

You could let a neighbor shoot the two of you

Shock collar. Seems mean, but it works and sometimes it comes to that. I prefer my dog to bark. The neighbors love it because no one berkeleys around when "that guy" has a big shepherd that looks like she wants to make a meal out of you.

Keeping in mind, the neighbors all have dogs ranging in size, all equal in annoyance.

My parents had good luck with a sonic anti-bark device, it's an egg-shaped thing that makes a dog whistle noise whenever it hears barking.

if you have a petsmart, petco or similar store they offer training for owner and dog, for about $100 you can learn alot about your dog and how to control him.

Second on the shock collar.

My brother in law had a beagle that was a complete shiny happy person, but was much nicer to be around once the shock collar was installed. The dog gets one free bark, second bark earns a beep, bark three = ZAP!, er...I mean, mid correction. The system resets itself after a short period of time.

The dog learned quickly.

wrote: if you have a petsmart, petco or similar store they offer training for owner and dog, for about $100 you can learn alot about your dog and how to control him.

Seriously? They charge a hundred bucks to teach you how to hit him harder?

$.47 spray bottle and water works for us.

Woody wrote: Second on the shock collar. My brother in law had a beagle that was a complete shiny happy person, but was much nicer to be around once the shock collar was installed. The dog gets one free bark, second bark earns a beep, bark three = ZAP!, er...I mean, *mid correction*. The system resets itself after a short period of time. The dog learned quickly.

We had a Black Mouth Cur. She barked 24/7. It was really bad. We got one of the collars like you describe and put it on her. At the time, the batteries were ten bucks each (they're cheaper now). Anyway, she learned the program. She would bark twice, wait for the the thing to reset, then bark twice again, constantly. Eventually she would get pissed off and bark straight through, getting zapped: bark bark bark ahhhhh bark bark bark ahhhh bark bark... until she ran the $10 battery down to nothing.

We went from a no dog hoeshold to a 3 dog household within a year. The first one never barks, he is just a good mellow dog, but the other two like to bark at night, which drives me crazy. They lay around and sleep all day, then go crazy at night. I think I'll look into the sonic anti-bark device Gameboy mentioned.

woodhead said: wrote: if you have a petsmart, petco or similar store they offer training for owner and dog, for about $100 you can learn alot about your dog and how to control him. Seriously? They charge a hundred bucks to teach you how to hit him harder?

it's no wonder you are a "megadork".

We used an empty coke can with a few hundred pennies inside it, just tape the top closed. When the dog does something it's not supposed to (in our case, getting in the garbage or chewing on wood trim) we'd throw the can at the dog. Understand I didn't say hit the dog with the can but throw the can so it hits close to the dog. It startles them so they stop the behavior. They quickly link the behavior to that noise they hate soo much. It worked really well. Seems like a week or two and all was well.

The thing about only wanting to play with the big dogs is probably his Corgi hearding instinct coming out. He probably saw the great danes as really big sheep, or small cattle.

Woody wrote:

wrote: if you have a petsmart, petco or similar store they offer training for owner and dog, for about $100 you can learn alot about your dog and how to control him.

Seriously? They charge a hundred bucks to teach you how to hit him harder?

Woody, as a dog owner I find this.....Freakin' hilarious!

HappyAndy wrote: The thing about only wanting to play with the big dogs is probably his Corgi hearding instinct coming out. He probably saw the great danes as really big sheep, or small cattle.

Agreed. The most persistent dog I've ever tried to outrun / lose/ get away from on a road bike was a Corgi mix. He herded us pretty effectively for over a mile and would not take no for an answer.

DrBoost wrote: We used an empty coke can with a few hundred pennies inside it, just tape the top closed. When the dog does something it's not supposed to (in our case, getting in the garbage or chewing on wood trim) we'd throw the can at the dog. Understand I didn't say hit the dog with the can but throw the can so it hits close to the dog. It startles them so they stop the behavior. They quickly link the behavior to that noise they hate soo much. It worked really well. Seems like a week or two and all was well.

This works really well, but you don't need that many pennies. Put 4 or 5 of them in an empty can (rinse the can first so the pennies don't stick together). The noise really scares the crap out of the dog.
We've used this method for our dogs with great success.

A shock collar works, but only if you do the correct training with it. Otherwise they only stay quiet when the shock collar is on.

There is a surgery that severs the vocal folds. They still bark, but its just breathy and quiet.

If you cut their vocal chords (or the nerves going to them), they won't be able to cough anymore either. You know what happens if you can't cough? You die. Earlier than usual, let's just say.

debarking is the most inhumane and barbaric surgery since circumcision

HappyAndy wrote: The thing about only wanting to play with the big dogs is probably his Corgi hearding instinct coming out. He probably saw the great danes as really big sheep, or small cattle.

Off topic, but an ex's Corgi seemed to sense my frustration when she wouldn't be ready on time to go out and would run into her bedroom and nip at her heels to bring her out to me.

Awesome dogs.

How much does the dog respect you? Does he get fed before or after you? Through doors in front of or behind? If you give him a dirty look and stare him down, how does he react?

patgizz wrote: debarking is the most inhumane and barbaric surgery since circumcision

If you'd like me to punch you in the throat, debark your dog. I'll be right over.

Our male Aussie came to us debarked (stray/recycled at the local shelter). That resulted in a $3000 laser surgery bill to fix the botched de-bark that made his trachea the size of a kitten's. The irony is, he still barks...sort of. He 'chuffs' air, which is almost as annoying as barking. And since he barks at air molecules, he fake barks quite a lot. I'd rather he just barked like a normal dog.

Try this: Dog barks at other dogs

curtis73 wrote: There is a surgery that severs the vocal folds. They still bark, but its just breathy and quiet.

I never knew regular people did that. The last time I had heard of it was when crack dealers did it so that no one else in their buildin could hear their guard dogs.

Dr. Hess wrote:

Woody wrote: Second on the shock collar. My brother in law had a beagle that was a complete shiny happy person, but was much nicer to be around once the shock collar was installed. The dog gets one free bark, second bark earns a beep, bark three = ZAP!, er...I mean, *mid correction*. The system resets itself after a short period of time. The dog learned quickly.

We had a Black Mouth Cur. She barked 24/7. It was really bad. We got one of the collars like you describe and put it on her. At the time, the batteries were ten bucks each (they're cheaper now). Anyway, she learned the program. She would bark twice, wait for the the thing to reset, then bark twice again, constantly. Eventually she would get pissed off and bark straight through, getting zapped: bark bark bark ahhhhh bark bark bark ahhhh bark bark... until she ran the $10 battery down to nothing.

i tried a shock collar on my German Shepherd... it didn't take her too long to figure out that if she just barked for 5 seconds steady, the shocking would stop for a few minutes because of the "humane" programming of the collar. batteries lasted a few days- thankfully they were just AA's that were cheap.. but she did bark less even after figuring it out- she saved her barking for when she really wanted to get my attention about something important like the mailman bringing my daily pile of bills and junkmail...

this is also kind of like one guy i knew that got a really expensive invisible fence setup to keep their dog (forget the breed- some kind of expensive hunting dog) in their yard... it worked just fine until it chased a rabbit across the line at full speed- then she figured out that the pain stopped shortly after crossing the line and she could continue on her merry way without getting shocked until it was time to go back home- which she would also do at full speed because it shortened the time she was shocked...

There's also citronella collars - dog barks, collar shoots a spritz of citronella. Any of these things are mixed results at best. Some dogs are bred to be barkers - like beagles. It's how you find them when they're running through the bushes hunting things. Expecting them to be something else is a human training issue.