Cruel to use this anti-bark collar?
 

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Does anyone know if this will hurt a 3 month old yorkie? We're so fed up with her constant barking in the middle of the night. We've tried sleeping near her (not on the same bed), placing our shirt in her sleep area, radio, ignoring her (which only seems to stop the barking/crying if she goes on for at least 1.5 hours), covering her ex pen with a blanket as our puppy trainer suggested) and treating her when she stops barking for the quick second she quiets down like our trainer recommended, shaking the can with pennies at her which lasts all but a few seconds, telling her no/uh oh, 'shhh', be quiet, everything else everyone here suggested that posted about last week, taking a fly swatter and showing it to her and saying 'uh uh', squirting water at her, etc etc.

Please don't misunderstand that I am being mean to our baby girl but she is driving us nuts and we're losing sleep...this is only a last resort

It occurs in the middle of the night, 5am, when we come home from work, and when we do not give her enough attention and it goes on for hours, the girl can bark up a storm. Otherwise, she is a sweet puppy

I think she is too young for something like that. It sounds like you've tried everything. The only thing I can think of that you didn't mention is earplugs for you! I let all of mine sleep with me. I guess this is a personal decision, but I am sure that would probably work.

I agree 3 months is way too young for something like that. I would think something that it would be dangerous for any small dog. I was always under the impression that those collars were made for the big dogs. Shes still a baby, hopefully she'll grow out of it.

I personally would try the squirt gun. I've used it on our friends Min Pin when we have her. She is probably 7 or 8 years old and she just likes to bark constantly while she is outside at people or other animals that she has seen before. It doesn't hurt them it just makes them realize that the behavior is unacceptable. I don't do it all the time just if she keeps it up for longer than 15 minutes.

Good Luck and keep us posted.

i wouldnt do it..NEVER , NEVER , NEVER. she wants to be loved thats all.

I personally think those are cruel on any size dog. Yorkie's bark alot- thats a characteristic of the breed. Sometimes Chloe really goes at it with the barking especially if Penny has somethign she wants. I just try to seperate her from Penny until she calms down or I try to give her somethign to chew on, or I have them play outside until she tires out. You just have to sort of figure out what works. If your dog is 3 months they are still a puppy and it will take a little while to figure something out. I dont think shock collars or anything remotely like that is a very good tool to use. I think we have no way of knowing how the dog really feels when they are wearig them like wether they are hurting them or not so thats why I dont like them.

I hope you find somethign that works :)

Dr Fosters and Smth has those collars and it says for dogs 8lbs or more

it dont say what it does? id say one that just sprays the little one with water would be best.

most yorkies are yappy and some dont grow out of it, brandi barked a lot and it took a couple of months to train her to stop when told to, you dont say how long you have had the pup for.

I don't squirt her in the face the only part that ever gets wet is her back, and she doesn't get very wet at all. I most definitely wouldn't not approve of squirting her in the face. Have you tried putting her somewhere other than your bedroom to see if that helps. Or you may want to just break down and put her in the bed with you.

Neither of my yorkies bark a whole lot so I guess we are very lucky.

It's really just preference.

We've had Zoe for probably 3 weeks now. She's been like this since we took her home and it's been non-stop.

I like the ear plug idea but I still feel as if I'm neglecting her if we ignore her cries.

I'm afraid putting her on our bed will spoil her and she will expect it forever. She actually sleeps in an ex pen downstairs near her brother Chester whom we're seperating when unsupervised due to potty training (Chester is potty trained, Zoe is in the works) We've been sleeping in our sofa sleeper since we've gotten her which is about 5 steps away from her ex pen.

Ok, I will pass on the collar and think of something else less cruel...you've all convinced me! I hope she'll grow out of it. Maybe I'll try the Citronella spray, any opinions on that?

Oh yes, if you let her sleep with you she will expect it forever, but I don't see any harm. You say she is separated from the other one. Why not put them in together. You have to remember that dogs do have natural instincts. In the wild if they were separated from the pack they would be in danger. So she would whine or bark and a member of the pack would come quickly to get her to keep her safe.

About the citronella collars. They actually have better results in field trials than the shocking collars. The only complaint is that they can stain furniture and the microphone has to be set very carefully or it will pick up a bark from another dog and go off. No one seems to mind the smell.

I have used this collar before years ago on a great dane but, I didn't use it very long, I just couldn't so I took it back. I'm not sure how well it works but, I just don't think I would use one, after I thought about it I just didn't like the thoughts of using one. Just my preference.

We're not keeping them together right now for two reasons, she tinkles and poops in the middle of the night in her pads and we don't want to encourage Chester to do the same and thus regress. Secondly, they are still fighting like cats and dogs so all play is supervised. We've had Chester longer and he's very territorial about his space and toys while Zoe plays rough (bites on his tail, legs, face hair, ears and does other things that really annoys him so he'll lunge at her but that's a seperate problem all on it's own :eek: AND they're both alpha's trying to fight over who will be the top dog at the moment (zoe is winning so far even though she is 3lbs and he is 8lbs lol!)

Both of mine sleep with us. They are up and down throughout the night. I'm thinking of buying a bed to put in our room for when they are in the floor. Sorry I don't know much about the citronella spray.

You're not neglecting her if you're ignoring her cries. If you know she's safe and it's bedtime, you need to teach her that it's bedtime. Go ahead and ignore her...try earplugs (like suggested earlier), putting her in another room, etc...she'll get it. But if she barks and whines, and you change what you're doing, your just reinforcing the barking. Get some sleep! That won't make you a bad mommy!

I agree. Just think of this as a human baby eventually they will cry themselves to sleep without having to be comforted(sp) even though it is hard. Just hang in there and definitely try and get some sleep. Have you tried playing with her about an hour before you go to bed and getting her really tired to see it she will sleep better?

I agree...ignore, ignore. It took about a month for us to break Logan. I wore earplugs. He would cry for 2 hours straight before falling asleep & then start back up again in the middle of night. Never remove them from their crate unless they are being quiet, this will reinforce the good behavior of not barking. Logan did much better once we moved him right outside our bedroom, he used to sleep in the back bedroom with the door closed. I think in the new spot he feels like he won't miss anything & that makes him happy.

I hate the collars that shock your dog, you could never ever use them on a small dog. You can however, try the citronella collars, they emit a spray rather than a shock, it is not harmful, you won't even notice a smell, but for your dog it is very unpleasant. It is the most humane way to correct them with a collar. You can even use them on really small dogs. I have to tell you that they work wonders and is so effective and 100 percent safe. You can get them at most petstores. If I were in your situation and wanted the barking corrected right away I would buy one of these collars.:thumbup: :thumbup:

OK, I will try the ignoring again...I thought it wasn't working since she went on for 1-1.5 hours. After that, I just felt bad and went to pick her up to calm her down.

I will tell myself over and over again...ignoring does not = bad mommy and daddy or neglect. Just don't do it right ??

Going to stop by the store to pick up ear plugs tonight!

IGNORE, IGNORE, IGNORE. I can do it!!! if not, the spray will be the next solution, I hate it when she stays wet since she can catch a cold.

We can do it!! thanks everyone!!

tried wearing her out before bed as well! long walks and getting her to play with Chester right before bed...she doesn't cry when we put her to bed, she continues to play in her ex pen but it's at 1am and/or 5am that she starts to cry and when we just come home from work where she hasn't seen us for long hours. She normally doesn't really bark mid day when we're home on weekends.

I KNOW what you're talking about. I couldn't tell by what you wrote if you've tried to kennel train her. With our first, he barked his head off in there and I gave up and brought him into bed with me... I loved it, but later it ended up contributing to TERRIBLE seperation anxiety problems (You DON'T want to end up with THAT!). He never did stop barking. Barked at people, barked when we left him, barked 'til he lost his voice! When we got our second Yorkie we determined to kennel train him at night 'cause of the good we'd heard about it. He, too, barked his head off. We lost tons of sleep and it nearly frustrated us to death, but after a week he stopped. He did relapse again, but got over it faster. Now he loves his kennel and is a SUPER dog! I would highly encourage you to stick it out! Believe me - I sympathize.

As to the collar - I tried it and it didn't work. First off it was too big for a Yorkie's neck (and my guy was 20lbs! LOL!) Ee just learned to hang his head a bit so it wouldn't touch him. Secondly I didn't like how it depressed him. It made him so sad! I hated seeing his happy personality dampered.

Best wishes! Allison

Yes, it took me days to get sheeba(my step dad's puppy) to stop whining and barking. You just have to stick to it and not give in even though you want to so badly. They will stop, it just takes time.:)

Dr Fosters and Smith have the citronella collar too and it also says for dogs 8 lbs or more

Bark collar
 

We used an anti bark collar on our bigger dog, she is a border collie, which matters because thier neck is very thick and full of ruffly thick hair..they are a very hearty breed.We tried it on ourselves first, as we would not use anything on any of our pets we werent willing to try on us, the shock collar we got, had adjustable settings and was triggered by the vibrations caused by a bark, the shock emmited on the highest level is less than that from an electric fence, but slightly more than a 9 volt battery.I put ours on medium as low was so weak our dog didn't even feel it, and we felt high was a bit much.Medium had a good shock that wasnt painful or hurtful in any way, more a surprize factor the dog doesn't like.I know because as I said I tried it on myself, something the box says not to do, but I am not putting something on my dog I can't handle myself. The collar worked quite well within the first hour of having it we saw the change.We only had it on her while we were home, never while she was alone.The main problem I saw with this automatic system collar is that it would give shocks when she barked, but sometimes when she hadn't barked, such as in times of heavy panting ect.Her "husband" our other dog took care of the collar by chewing it off her and making sure it was well and truely destroyed......so we went to the water out an upper story window method, which seems to work.I don't find the medium setting cruel for the larger more hearty breeds.....I personally wouldn't use the collar even on low on a toy breed, as they are more sensative and fragile.

Allison, when you say kennel trained, do you mean crate trained? She is crate trained during the day since we're in the midst of potty training but she's put in an ex pen during the day while we work since we're not home to walk her during the day and we both work way too far to come home. In the middle of the night, we put her in the ex pen as well since I don't want (shame on me) to get up in the middle of the night to take her out. so she goes on her pads until she is old enough to hold it for 8 hours.

When we first brought Bailey home, we tried putting her crate in our room. Two nights with very little sleep told me that wasn't going to work. Moved her crate to another room, but felt compelled to leave the door open so I could hear her if she was really in distress. Got some sleep, but still listened to a lot of crying that night until I decided to treat her like a crying baby. Just went and sat in my chair holding her until she fell asleep again. Wouldn't let her start playing - just held her and talked to her. She soon fell asleep and I went back to bed. Once a night for a couple of nights and now she sleeps through the night.

barking
 

At 3 months you have a chance to nip this in the bud..but it sounds like you have a "natural" barker...if you have a place in the house away from the bedrooms, put her pen there...it is going to be hard to ignore a non-stop barker...and starting so young is even harder..I would talk to a professional trainer asap.

I will tell you an electronic bark collar is not the answer. I bought one about 12 years ago for a terrible barker I had...it was for 5 pounds and up. There degrees were from 1 to 10...it said to start at 3...so I set it on 3, put it up to my neck and made a slight bark..it shocked me so bad I screamed. I always use myself as a guinea pig when it comes to my dogs...honest to goodness I thought my husband was going to have to call the paramedic's...it shocked me so bad..my ears rang..10 would have killed me..LOL

Of course, whenever I get together with a group of breeder friends, they always wanted me to tell the story about the time I tested the NO-Bark collar on myself...

Smiles! Yea, I suppose I mean crate training... We call it a kennel. It's a plastic kennel/crate with a wire door on the front. It's very transportable - we bring it everywhere Pepper goes! Thankfully, he has learned to love it. You might want to try it. It was explained to us that dogs like "caves". The kennel gives them the security of their own little cave home. Perhaps the expen (I'm not very familar with them) is giving her to much of a large lonely expanse. Not sure, but I know the crate has worked wonderfully for us and others. Most dogs learn to love them. My heart is with you. It will get better. Just stick it out. (We were so encourage but yet sick of those same words only a year ago, but we are so glad we did it! :) ) ~Allison