Barking Dog

[night bite]

I live in town and have a black lab that is the watch dog. When ever someone walks by our garage he will start barking. Last night my neighbor called the cops. Just wondering if any one has any suggestions on trying to cure this problem. I like to leave the dog in the garage and dont want to bring him in the house any help would be great. Thanks

[Harmonica Bear]

Bark collar, they work great. I think places like fleet farm sell them pretty cheap. But.... why wouldn't you want a watch dog to bark?

[night bite]

The funny thing is that in the last week there has been an Arson fire and 3 cars vandalized in our block. The neighbor dosent care he is one of those people.

[tealitup]

What did the police say? I would talk to them, and if they write you a ticket then look into a bark collar. I have never liked the bark collars; some dogs bark when they are scared or to alert you to danger.

My pup sometimes will bark and growl at 3am (she sleeps in my bedroom); everytime it has been someone outside.

[Hammer Handle]

I have a dog that doesn't bark (or very little) due to use of a shock collar when he was young. He still barks, but only if someone "invades" the yard.

A barking dog can be annoying. We had a neighbor that was hundreds of yards away and he dog barked everytime we were outside. My wife and I couldn't do anything outside without "bark bark bark bark". We finally said something to the neighbor. Shortly after that, someone called the cops. It wasn't us...be we were glad someone did for they finally started working with their dogs.

[LABS4ME]

Higher end bark collars have a 'watch dog' setting. Meaning the collar can be programed to allow the dog to bark for 3 seconds before he is corrected... and after 10-30 seconds it resets itself. So in effect the dog can give out a warning bark or two without correction and do so again after 10-30 seconds if needed.

Most intruders only need hear 1-2 barks and they are not going to mess with that property, but it ends the 'annoyance' barking.

That is about the best I can recommend and still cover both bases....

Good Luck!

Ken

[Eric Wettschreck]

I've used the higher end bark collars that labs is referring to. I had a GSP mix that was a real barker. As mentioned, barking dogs can be rather annoying and I didn't want to be "That guy."

The collar worked wonderfully. However, my dog was fairly young and we all know it's easier to train a young dog than an older one who is set in it's ways. I don't know the age of your lab so I can't say if a collar will be as effective for you as it was for me.

My dog will still give out a couple of barks when someone drives up, or if he has a squirell up a tree, or if he's startled. That's fine with me. He's not constantly barking, however.

[French Spaniel]

We live in the country but have six dogs and one dog can set the others off. I used the bark collars until I found the Gun Dog doors we use in our kennel caused the bark collar to go off everytime the doors closed. These doors are great doors but they slam and seal shut. The slamming of the doors caused the bark collars to shock the dogs I was using it on.

They may make them different now so that outside noises don't cause them to go off. I was using a high end Tri-tronics brand. The doors I was talking about are on this site. (no unauthorizes links please) They are great doors if you don't have the bark collars.