[SnowWa]

I can tell already that my little dog is going to be more of a barker than I am used to. I certainly can't complain yet - he has had only two barking spells so far - and I have had him about six weeks. But, I can tell he has it in him to become a good little barker.

When one of my other dogs was young --- whenever she started barking, I would put her on my lap, and everytime she barked, I'd hold her face, look her in the eyes, and say, "No." If she barked again, I'd hold her face and look in in the eyes and say "No" again. We often sounded like - "bark - no - bark -no - bark - no" for quit a while. She really didn't enjoy this and would quit barking. Then I would try and get her interested in something else - and away from whatever caused her to bark in the first place.

Later, when she was a little older, if she wanted to bark at something, she'd look around to see if I was coming for her. If she saw me, she'd usually decide to postpone her barking until later -- hopefully when I wasn't around.

This helped me curb the barking with my other dogs. Of course, they still barked occasionally, but not often.

What do you guys do to keep your dogs from barking a lot? I'm ready for all the advise I can get.

Thanks --- Carol Jean