Autotrainer (for barking) at 8 months

[Nancy & Echo]

Echo, my mini ALD, is having a barking problem.  When I work the graveyard shift, I have to leave her alone at home.  She has food, water, her crate and toys, and I have a doggy door to my fenced backyard.  I try to leave some soothing noises on when I leave to help comfort her.

A neighbor told me Echo is having barking problems.  I purchased an Autotrainer several weeks ago https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oXpCSc6cqRI  to see if that would help.  Although it gives some false positives (records a bark when Echo doesn't bark) and false negatives (doesn't record a bark when Echo barks), they probably even out (in other words, it probably records about as many false negatives as false positives.)   Anyway, I have no other way of recording her barks other than with the Autotrainer.

The Autotrainer instructions seem simple, but really they are very poorly organized/written. So it takes several weeks to figure out what different Autotrainer situations mean.  For example, the instructions don't explicitly say what a blank screen means, or when the  lights blink. 

Over the last several weeks, when I've been away, the Autotrainer has recorded a minimum of 10 barks and a maximum of 542 (!) barks/24 hour period.  The latter was when I blocked off her access to the doggy door and left her a pee pad, so her barks would be inside the house, and hopefully more muffled. So I stopped blocking her access to the backyard. It records the number of barks/hr, and probably 95% of her barks are within 1 hour, usually around midnight.

So, at minimum, the Autotrainer keeps some sort of record of her barks.  Last night, I saw some sort of animal (?a rat?) in the backyard at night.  It may be living underneath my patio because Echo keeps on sniffing at the patio planks, which were built on top of a cement patio underneath.  She also barks when a neighbor's dog is near the fence.

Maybe Echo is in her 'Fear Period' and is being especially protective?  (She did catch and kill a live rat in my backyard while I was gone at ~ age 4 months.  This earned her a middle name of Diana, for the huntress.)  I've also been trying Doggy Dan's Thank you, investigate the bark, then trying to isolate (which is sometimes impossible because Echo doesn't want to come back inside when she's upset at something outside.)

Other comments/suggestions?

[Diane, Hurley and Sidney]

You have quite the huntress. My son's rescue doodle is a barker and a huntress. He uses a bark collar. Nit so much to record the barks but to manage the barking.

Just a thought but is your huntress barking because of smelling a rat and to let your know there is one that needs to be caught?

My ALD has a mean bark and can bark to long. So I taught him the command 'enough' and send him to his doggie bed with the command PLACE when he over barks. This is only if he continues to bark after 3-4 barks as I do want him to know he is to 'guard' his home.

Garmin has come out with an interesting device called Delta Smart Dog Training System. I am an avid Garmin user because I cycle and run so I trust their devices and am considering the Delta Smart.

Anyway. Just my thoughts. Keep us up on how your huntress is doing.

[Nancy, Ned, Clancy, and Charlie]

We have used an electronic bark collar to control barking when we aren't home.  It has worked well for Ned and Clancy.  We have tried it on Charlie once or twice and it isn't seeming to do the job. I don't know if he doesn't respond to the little shock in his bark frenzy or if his coat is so thick that the collar can't 'feel' the vibration of the bark.  Doggy Dan has a technique for controlling barking that many people swear by.

[Nancy & Echo]

I think I might have a racoon who visits.  The scat looks appropriate, and was found on the cement patio (which Echo never has done in the past.)  The racoon is probably attracted to my cherry tomatoes which I'm trying to clean up, as they're pretty much done for the season.  There were fruit branches on the ground, and bites taken out of the fruit, much deeper than Echo could make.  (I just saw Echo eating a cherry tomato: she wasn't quite able to bite it, so she was trying to guide it to the back of her mouth and eat it whole!)  Her average is probably something like 30 per 12 hour period.

The Barks have ranged from 0 per 12 hour period, to a high of 542, which was when I blocked off her access to the doggy door.  I've been using a combo of the Autotrainer, and Doggy Dan tactics.  I've been trying to keep her indoors when she can't control her barking, but its hard to convince her to come inside.  If she knows she will be punished, she (understandably) doesn't want to come inside.

[Nancy & Echo]

Well, I managed to break my Autotrainer.  The discs that drag the food up to the dispenser holds on to a spindle which spins.  I couldn't get the disc off, so I forced it off, stripping the 'threads'.  So while the spindle spins, it doesn't engage the disc.  When the food doesn't get up to the dispenser, the machine eventually goes into alarm mode, which is a high pitched sound.

Since I'm using it when I'm gone, this is not good.

It was my fault.  I called the company to ask if they had replacement parts.  It has a one year warranty.  They can't give me a spindle part, but they are replacing the entire machine!!

Echo's barking has improved, but I'd like to keep the machine to monitor the number of barks she makes.

How's that for customer service!   Website: http://www.expertise.com/

[Doodle & Hound]

So sorry to hear about the barking issue. My GD has found his voice and is very proud to use it. He is 4 months old. I block access to outdoors at night because we live near a river and have all kinds of creatures around at night. Raccoons are very fierce, yet the skunks have their problems too. I can't leave my Basset (9 years) on our patio -with access to inside- at night as she could start a neighborhood choir. Now with the puppy, I have to crate him if we leave. He cries most of the time. I have a camera to watch him if I have to be gone, but I've gotten too obsessed with checking. I feel so good though when he's quiet. Keep in touch and I'm here if you need support.