If finances permit, I would consult with a reputable trainer for personalized R+ recommendations. I'd also expect to do a few follow-ups with them to ensure that you're progressing and to tweak the program if necessary.

Failing that, it seems you may be limited in your choices. As a last resort, consider surgical de-barking ? .. re-homing ?

As far as vibration collars 'working', I honestly don't know. Not my cup of tea, but I tend to think not. I've also never heard of whistle training to mitigate excessive barking, but again, I tend to doubt that as well.

 

you have naturally high alert barky breeds in your mix. and your dealing with a young still maturing pup who you have had for a very short time. Things to check into are... Do you have a local training center , do you have a Border Collie rescue in your area. have you looked for Border Collie FB groups, Dog Forums... All good places that know this breed well in different life styles and environments to draw from their experiences.

large part of it is catching up on building a training foundation that your pup may not have received before you getting her. Building a strong working relationship between the two of you , and that your pup is still a puppy learning about who they are naturally and when and when it is not necessary.

unfortunately it takes time.. one of my barky breed pups only alerted and engaged on real things.... the other pup well it was the printer, the rice cooker , chasing and barking at air planes and thunder storms... the sound of the wind, on and on and on... I'm in a position I could let her bark it out... but it was part of her maturing process to figure things out on her own. That pup is almost 2 now and has figured things out to not bark at the silly normal stuff any more.

You can try calling Lola to you give her a chewy to lay on her dog bed next to you instead of jumping around barking when you are trying to work on her to redirect from barking to other activities.. to chew instead of bark. It does take time since it is so instinctive to them. Training collars of any kind need solid training behind them for a good length of time, for the dogs to understand and learn from the experience... any thing out of that scope just makes them nervous wrecks and crazy

 

I have a similar problem with a dog that has a bark that is a 5.6 on the Richter scale. I adopted him a month ago and he hadn't been socialized, so he's timid around strangers, inside the house and out. I'm slowly socializing him with as many situations and people as I can. So, I take him for walks and to PetsMart, Home Depot, Lowe's etc. and he barks much less at people. I figure in another month or two he won't bark at people outside.

Inside, he barks at the doorbell or people walking by the house. My neighborhood is quiet with lots of dog owners. So, with permission, when people walk by, I let my dog out to go bark at them, and that's slowly working.

My next plan is to socialize with lots of kids that have large dogs at home, and to have a bunch of people ring the door bell and come in and out of the house ... I'm hoping this will help him stop alarm barking by the end of the year...

 

Standard on the "accident " table at the training center is a couple Real Lemon squeeze bottles. Dog barks....he get a shot of Real Lemon in the back of his mouth....no more barking is the command. My Aussie is very vocal both barking and whining. If she starts barking I only have to show the Real Lemon. I call it the " bomb". I warn her once, " got the bomb" and " no barking". That's about all it takes now.

At home she likes to bark at dogs from the Windows. I've barricaded them with over turned chairs but she sometimes sneaks through. Leaving one out of place gives me a chance to sneak up on her and blast her. That stops it for a month or so. It gets longer each time.

I allow barking at the door. We have had intruders a couple times recently at our apartment. One break in. It gives me a chance to take sterner precautions. I will stand near the door and listen. If all seem ok then I very softly tell her " it's ok". If she backs off and doesn't persist we go sit down. If she still alerts I dial 911 and hold my finger on the call button. If there is unusual noise, I push the button. Better safe than sorry.

 

Standard on the "accident " table at the training center is a couple Real Lemon squeeze bottles. Dog barks....he get a shot of Real Lemon in the back of his mouth....no more barking is the command. My Aussie is very vocal both barking and whining. If she starts barking I only have to show the Real Lemon. I call it the " bomb". I warn her once, " got the bomb" and " no barking". That's about all it takes now.

Squirting a dog with lemon juice is borderline abusive. Not something you should be doing or recommending to people.

why force a dog to injest citrus into a dogs system when they don't digest citrus well? why choose to do something harmful, hurtful, painful to them?

Because some people don't mind harming dogs as long as it gets the results they want.

 

why force a dog to injest citrus into a dogs system when they don't digest citrus well? why choose to do something harmful, hurtful, painful to them?

 

Thanks for the replies, everyone!

I may try to bribe my friend to take me to a trainer and I'll work on socializing her more as well as look into more breed specific forums. I'm also going to ask to be on the wait list for a "pet friendly" apartment they offer.

 

Time helped Ginger's barking a great deal, she simply got used to normal sounds and stopped alerting to them.

Does your dog bark when you aren't home? If not then you have it good. She's simply telling you about the noise so you can take care of it. Acknowledge her alert at the first bark, praise and go to her to see what's going on. You know nothing special is happening but she doesn't yet. Put on a bit of an act, relaxing when you tell her that's Ms. Smith sweeping her floor again or Bill dropped his mail in the hall and so on.

A more formal approach would be to use a training program that introduces your dog to sudden sounds and trains dog to ignore them. I put Bucky through Karen Overall's Relaxation Protocol and not only does it teach a great stay with distractions, he's calmer and adores going to his bed. He still goes nuts when the door bell actually rings but is able to stay quietly on his mat when I ring it when training which is pretty great considering where we started out.

 

I crate her when I'm not home and she does bark a little (she seems to have separation anxiety), but when I return there's no barking. She's typically alerted when she hears people coming into the apartment complex or walking upstairs, but like I said she doesn't bark when I'm coming back to take her out. So, really, she only barks when I'm around or right after I leave her. I assumed that after people start moving in again she'd just get used to them, but the apartment managers are making me nervous about that with what they told me.

I'll look into Karen Overall's Relaxation Protocol. Thanks for the suggestions!