Barking when we're out - Suggestions on getting him to stop?

[John Wang]

We're concerned that Boomer barks excessively when we're out. While we're at home he's quiet, never barks or whimpers (he's barked before when he gets SUPER excited, but that's maybe once or twice a month, just 1-2 barks)

However, when we leave and crate him (we don't make a big deal out of it, we crate him regularly to keep him used to being crated even if we're at home, and he's crated at night still) and start heading downstairs to go out, he'll whimper, and used to bark (we've stopped him from doing that by going back and rattling the crate and then just leaving again). Currently when we leave he's quiet, but yesterday we went out to the mall that's not dog friendly for about 3.5 hours, and when we returned we heard him barking intermittently. We live in a condo so we have neighbors on both sides of the wall and really don't want to disturb them. Sound travels out the windows easily too, so we easily heard him from the street. After his second bark I immediately ran upstairs and gave his crate a rap, left him for a few seconds and then let him out.

We're trying to figure out some sort of way to keep him from barking. He's fine being crated during the day normally, but it's because he knows my fiance is home (she works from home) somewhere, and is satisfied by that into not barking. Usually he'll be up in the room with her anyways, but if she has a phone conference (usually 3-4 hours long) he goes into the crate to not distract her.

I'm wondering if we should invest in a bark collar for when we're gone. I would prefer something that doesn't shock him, but rather we could place near his crate to play a large tone when he barks to startle him. I read though  that dogs get used to those alarms quickly, and resume barking regardless, so maybe a bark collar would be the way to go??

As a note, we do leave once in a while for 1-1.5 hours at a time for groceries maybe twice a week. We don't hear him barking then, but we're still not sure if he does bark. I will probably set up a camera to record him one of these days.

LAST note, we don't want to play the radio/tv next to him to distract him either, we'd rather him be okay in the case that we have to leave in a hurry and he can't come with us (eg family emergency, etc) and just not bark.

[DonMarie and Picco]

I use a citronella collar on Picco. It works. I've read that they can get use to the scent and ignore it after awhile but Picco doesn't like the spray hitting him so it continues to work. I don't even have to turn it on anymore, just put the collar on and he stays quiet.

[Laurie, Fudge, and Vern]

What kind do you have?

[DonMarie and Picco]

PetSafe, bought it at either PetCo or PetSmart.

[John Wang]

I was looking at that but I saw really shoddy reviews, and people said the citronella refills were expensive. The idea that the collar would keep him quiet is nice, but there's no guarantee that he might chance a bark and see that it isn't working- that might reinforce to him that his barking no longer sets it off (though of course we could just reactivate it then..)

[Pat and Traveler]

Is it possible to let him have the run of the house when you're out?   Don't know if that would help, but it did for Trav.

[John Wang]

Boomer's not fully potty trained. We thought he was doing well but we've discovered two previously undocumented pee stains in our carpets upstairs where he can wander while my fiance works. But we're not sure if he did that or we just weren't thorough when we first went through the house with a UV light.

Additionally, we're worried he'll get destructive. He'd done a fair amount of damage when he was younger, though he's stopped doing it in recent weeks. I'm sure he'd love to have a go though, we catch him sniffing around or licking at furniture we've previously chased him from when he thinks he's alone.

[Nancy, Ned, Clancy, and Charlie]

We have resorted to using a shock collar when we leave the dogs in our RV and  sometimes when we are home now that we have neighbor dogs who insist on barking and trying to get into our yard.  Our dogs are not puppies though.

[Jen W]

I tried a citronella collar but it did not work for me.  It did go off whenever she barked, but it also went off when she scratched or rolled around on the carpet.

[Nancy, Ned, Clancy, and Charlie]

Citronella collars are not reliable.