[Nancy1999]

Many professionals recommend using the least aversive technique that gets the dogs attention, this is why penny's in a can is so popular; it gets their attention, but is not painful. In order to be effective, punishment has to closely follow the behavior you wish to reduce. The longer period of time between he barking and the punishment, the more the punishment is ineffective. Seconds matter. You want to link the punishment with the behavior and not yourself. In other words, if you have to grab a spray bottle and run to the dog, the punishment becomes associated with you and not the barking. If pennies in a can is not an effective enough noise, than you find a slightly louder noise, until you find a level that gets their attention and interrupts the barking. This is all you are trying to do at first, interrupt their barking. At first, you keep the noisemaker close to you so that the sound can be made every time they bark. They will bark after they hear the noise, it doesn't stop it immediately, but they are not as rewarded for the barking. Make sure you are calm when you use the noisemaker, being agitated increases barking, they will bark if they feel threatened. You have to be consistent and calm, and use the noisemaker every time and one more time than they bark.

Bitter apple is a taste deterrent for spraying on items not to be chewed, it is not to be sprayed on them, and the bottle does say avoid spraying in eyes, it contains alcohol, and this could cause injury, in the heat of the moment you might end up spraying some in their eyes. Furthermore, they will associate this with you, and not the barking, even if it stopped the barking, when you weren't around, they would be more likely to bark. With a noise deterrent, even though you are making the noise they don't associate this with you. I've found that most people say that this doesn't work because they give up, and aren't consistent, it doesn't work overnight. We kept three cans of pennies in different rooms, so one was always handy. I also think there are different types of barking and dogs have been bred to bark and warn us of danger, the dogs are doing their job, but they need to learn to stop, when you tell them that ever thing is ok. Some experts recommend you thank them, say everything's ok, and then when they continue to bark, use the aversive technique. You will never totally eliminate barking, you are trying to get them to obey you when you tell them to stop. After we used the pennies in the can, we were eventually able to just say "shhh" and sometimes I can just put my finger to my lips and he stops. Every now and then I have to reintroduce the can, but just seeing it is enough for him. You say you don't want to use noise because she's afraid of noise, but that's why the noise would be effective, if noise didn't bother her at all it wouldn't be effective.