Barking
 

We have a 3 year old Border Collie, and anyone who ownes a Border Collie will tell you they are a very vocal breed, they don't just bark to hear themselves, but actually bark in differnt manners in a "conversational" way.....I know when Sassy is barking just to let it be known that she is there, or when she is telling me or my husband something, even when its her bark to tell me to do something in a very pushy manner I might add.Teddy my mixed breed, whippet lab...is quiet, he sits back and observes and he says everything with his body language and eyes......if you hear Teddy barking you know there is someone on the property, cat, human or other.Moe on the other hand does a bit of both....he will "tell" the other dogs he is boss and in charge ect, but never barks at me or to me, he will bark for mail delivery or neighbors outback in adjoining yard.....but Moe won't bark for the sake of it.I feel personally just as in the human species.....the canine species has many methods of communication....some like Teddy save the vebal ones for emergency and important reasons only......some like Sassy will be as verbal as they like, as if they understand our language, which Sassy does.....we most certainly must understand what she is saying.....only problem is we don't know thier language...only the tones and influctions in the tones....so I don't know why your dogs barking, there are safe cruelty free methods of breaking them of it, water seems to work for Sassy....but there is also citronella bark collars, not just the electric ones.We actually started out with Sassy using the electric collar, as we moved from the country to in town, and had to change her habbits.We got the one that has adjustable levels of shock..and with her the lowest one, which we tried on ourselves first, was less shock than when you put your tongue on a 9volt battery.It isn't painful , as like I said hubby and I tried it on ourselves first.....its more a sudden shock..as in scarey....and the fright is what stops them.Sassyno longer wears the collar as about 6 weeks after getting it Teddy chewd it off her, he felt it was evil as many other do...so I figured Teddy knows best and didn't replace it....and we went to the water method.....which if your consistent with it will work.

Someone I know ;) has a neighbor who's dog's are normally let out around 8 in the morning and taken in at night. And from 8 am until they go in the one dog lets out a bark about every 4 1/2 seconds...it CAN BE some kind of torture...

However, ALL the dogs in my, er, HER neighborhood bark from time to time, especially Miss Ginger, so "my friend" doesn't feel she should complain...but all day, everyday, can get to be a little ruff. :)

BTW, I thoroughly enjoyed your post, you had me laughing outloud! Sounds to me like your big guy's just being a dog. There's a big difference in my book between occasional barking and nuisance barking! Let us know how it works out.

Oh, I forgot. The other day Gingers "doggie playgroup" was over, and they're a pretty quiet bunch. Until one of the shih-tzu's spied the area rug I had hanging over the fence to air out! She sure wanted to let us know that it was trying to intrude...guess it didn't belong there anymore than the "dead bug" in a previous post! :)

I am so glad someone started this post, I got a nasty phone call from my neighbors about my dogs barking, she called my all kinds of names and said if i didn't shut them up she would phone the police on me, she told me the whole neighbor hood was po-ed at me about the dogs, she would not let me get a word in edge wise, so i took a deep breath and said to hear its funny that you mention this.....has anything ever happened to the Emerald??? she says what do you mean like spraying her with a garden hose, i said yes that would be it and that you ruined her, she hung up on me. Now my furbabies are never allowed outside unless they are supervised, either the kids outside with them, or me or my husband, they kids have numerous times have told us mom mrs. sherman yelled at them or something, she never saw kelsi and kelsi yell hey and mrs. sherman went in the house. I have been in the hospital over the last few month on and off usually for a week at a time, so i could see the kids busy playing, and not the babies to be quiet, so for the last 3 weeks i have made it out of my way to be out there sitting in the middle of the yard watching them instead of just on the deck, now we have another neigbor who have a small dog as well, and she barks all the time but no one says anything to them, so i decided to investigate, i went to all the neighbor hood and asked them if they were upset with my babies ,and you knowwhat??? not one was, most just said we didn't even know you had dogs, and some said they need to talk, some said if they were upset with me they would phone me and tell me to my face. My yard is completely fenced in, no way out my deck is fence off no where to get out, we have coyotes and a owl outside there is no way i would let them out by themselves winter or summer. so i went and had a talk with the mayor and had a talk with him and told him i had spoken to the neighbors who were real angry, with us and showed him the list, he just shook his head and told me he didn't want a world war 3 on his hands and i said well if you mess with my babies you mess with me, and especially when you hurt them, well spraying them with water is not abuse, really??? you try to sprayed with freezing cold water in the buff and tell me what you feel like, these are 5 pound babies with hair, not fur, I also told him i had talked to the by law officer, and she told me that i was not doing anything wrong, and if mrs.sherman ever yells or sprays or anything like that again that is considered, taunting a dog, and that is a criminal act and i can press charges. What is so funny is now when they see me, they put their heads down and will not even look at us, my husband and i think someone said something to them, good! Like my friends who know me the best say, boy they picked the wrong person to mess with, I say MESS WITH MY KIDS FUR OR NOT BE READY FOR A FIGHT! and one more thing, the mayor did not know these were 5 pound babies he was told they were huge!!! i told them well they are they will lick you to death!

Good for you
 

If someone taunts or teases a dog..of course they will bark when they see them.....they are trying to allert the pack that the trouble maker is about. I have a unique situation with my neighbors....Sassy as I have said is a talker....she will bark at a stranger and it's not to warn them away its to tell them..hey come here, come pet me, get to know me. She has a completely different bark for warning people off or sounding the alarm.Well the neighbors on the connected half of our semi detatched house has a little girl, she is the sweetest kindest gal...but we found out when we moved in 2 years ago..this little girl had been mauled ny a german shepherd, which is similar to how Sassy Looks except she is black and white , the shape is very close as is the size.I made a point of telling the girl, Sassy would not hurt her, and was the friendliest puppy in a grown dog body, cause she is.I explained to her Sassy barks to speak and try to get folks attention and pats..and I also promised the little girl I would do my best to keep Sassy's barking down and that I would bring her inside if the girl was playing outside. I respected the feelings the little girl might have about a similar sized dog next door barking at her.The little girl is still afraid of Teddy and Sassy even after 2 years, but the break through is...she has shown great interrest in LiL Moe! Maybe Moe will gain her trust back in the dog world.