The barking...make it stop.

[karen gallant]

Hi, our pup, Finn, is 16 weeks old. We also have a 2 year old sheepdog, Charlie. Finn has started barking at Charlie, nonstop, when he wants his attention. What can I do to stop this. It's driving me crazy. Thanks.

[Trevor]

Sepp used to get very excited and bark at other dogs to get them to play with him. Every time that this happened, we gave him a 'time-out'. We either removed him from the other dogs by leading him away by his collar and having him sit for 10/20 seconds, or picked him up and turned around so that he could not even see the other dogs for a while. Then, we let him approach them again. If he barked again, time-out again. Then let him play again. After a while, he learned that barking did not get him what he wanted (play with the dogs), but removed him further from his goal. It took some time until he learned it because his excitement level was pretty high in these situations, but we did it every single time he started barking. Now, he has great play skills and never barks anymore during play. It may take some time, but it works.

[Jane, Guinness and Murphy]

This is what I would suggest as well.  You need to be consistent with it, but I thinking it does teach the dog that that excited barking is not going to get them what they want.

[Sari Brafman]

We had a problem with Zoe barking at us while we were eating dinner every night. We tried the can with pennies in it, a squirt bottle, and anything else we could think of...nothing worked. We finally bought a citronella spray collar. She wore it for 2 days and our problem was solved! She's never had any issues again. 

[Bill Ransom]

where do I get a citronella spray collar?

[Sari Brafman]

We bought ours through amazon. I put the link below to the one we used for Zoe. 

http://www.amazon.com/PetSafe-Gentle-Spray-Anti-Bark-Collar/dp/B000...

[karen gallant]

Thanks for the ideas. I'll try the time out approach first. If that doesn't work, I'll look into the citronella collar. Fortunately, Finn only does it when he wants to play.

[Christina]

We are dealing with the same issue of attention getting barking. Oakley is 4 months and when he wants to play he just looks at us and barks his head off to say... HEY.... REMEMBER ME! we have since tried a time out to calm him down. When he starts barking at us we pick him up and put him in the laundry room for a few mins and then go get him. So far it seems to be helping. Time will tell.