Barking at squirrels = crazy mom!!

[Tait & Finn]

OMG! Finn barks his brains out all day at the squirrels, birds & bunnies in the front yard. I've lost count how many times just today I've gone out to chase them away ... Only for them to return as soon as I'm back in the house. He's barking as I type this. I can't hold a conversation in person, on the phone or watch tv, he is so loud. Does anyone have any tricks of the trade that will stop him from barking? And I don't want a shock/bark collar. Thanks.

[Nancy, Ned, Clancy, and Charlie]

We got e - bark collars and use them when needed. We found that they really work.  We got them because we needed our dogs NOT to bark when we left them in the RV at a campground. But, we got new neighbors with 3 dogs that bark.  They bark at ours through the fence (wood slats) and have actually pushed some of the slats out and we have had to do emergency repairs as well as put the bark collar on our dogs sometimes.  What we found is that the collars curbed how often the dogs bark as much as stopping it at that moment.  Even without the collar on, they don't continue to bark back.  Kind of self training.  We also whistle them inside when the barkfest begins and now they come in to get petted.

[Lonnie & Libby Lu]

I know this has been talked about before, but are the E-Bark collars the ones that give a little shock?

[Nancy, Ned, Clancy, and Charlie]

Ours are.  Ours gives a mild shock that escalates a bit if they don't stop at one bark.  We resisted doing this for years, but it has come down to either camping without them or curbing the barking when we are not in the RV with them.  They were quite surprised the first time they barked and got a reminder jolt, but it didn't hurt them.  What I hadn't counted on was when they don't bark or only give one bark, they don't get overly excited and don't share that frenzied excitement with each other.

[Deborah Brown]

Stopping the frenzy before it gets started is a big plus.  My dogs exhibit a lot of "pack mentality" which makes everything more difficult.  If one dog barks, they all bark.

[Nancy, Ned, Clancy, and Charlie]

YUP!!!!!

[Gwyndolyn Morasko]

Nancy....I give you kudos for talking about e-collars.  I've seen a lot of negative (almost judgmental) comments about them in places on this forum, and I like to hear the other side about when and where to use them and at what level.  I did buy sport collars for my guys to work on their recall at the bigger beaches (Huntington Beach Dog Beach is HUGE) after I thought we had lost Maggie after the Malibu Doodle Romp when she ran down the beach so fast and so far into the water.  It really scared me and it took lots of people to get her back.  That's when I started doing research on the sport e-collars used by bird hunters.  I still haven't taken the time to try them out and train them for off-leash distance recall, but I still plan to.  I would LOVE to have trustworthy off-leash dogs for open field and beach play.  

And I like that you are giving another use for the e-collars for when you need really well mannered dogs in a camping situation.  

[Nancy, Ned, Clancy, and Charlie]

Gwyn, it took us years to come to grips with using one and now I think I should have done it much sooner!  The ones we chose are only for barking as that was our specific problem, but I think the e-collars where you can use a remote to train the dog or for the dog to 'hear' you when they are out of voice range can be a real positive.  When we went to Santa Barbara, Gordie and Clancy took off down the beach and I was extremely worried about getting them back.  Clancy responds to a whistle from dh, but Gordie lives in his own little world - you have met him, so you know.  An e-collar recall would only be an asset to letting him off leash in those situations.  And using the bark collar on Clancy when he is acting like the Mayor of Doodletown has also worked beautifully in calming down his need to organize the pack at our romps.

[BG and Gavin]

Along with Bonnie's suggestion, can you up his exercise?  A dog that is tired is more settled and less likely to be looking for stimulation out the window.

[Tait & Finn]

Thank you everyone for your comments. I will take them all under consideration.