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I have 2 dogs. One is a 4 1/2 year old, spayed bully type pit. The other is a 1 1/2 year old pit/possible lab mix. I adopted him from the animal shelter, for my hubby on his birthday.
Here’s a little info... He was about 6 months old when we brought him home. BOTH are outside dogs, because landlord does not allow inside pets. They have a HUGE back yard, that used to be chain link, but we switched to privacy fence to try to avoid the issue; which I will explain in a minute. Husband's dog is VERY smart and has passed all his obedience classes with flying colors! Both dogs get walked twice a day, once in the morning and once in the evening, for about 2 hours each, then they go to the dog park and play freely for an hour around noon about 2-3 days a week. I am a stay at home mom with 3 kids. Extremely active family, constantly doing something with kids and dogs. Dogs have full access to our big back yard together 98% of the day, except at night or when I am out running earns. And feeding time, which I make them stay in their 20'x20' kennel 30 mins after they eat. I do sneak them inside when its REALLY cold, extremely hot and when it storms. They have two inside kennels in our bedroom they stay in, but landlord would flip out if she found out so I keep it to only in emergencies. Kids play with them a lot during the days when its nice and I've set up a dig area that is a 5'x5' sand pit so they leave my garden area alone. I also have them both trained to CRAP in an certain area of the yard so poo is not everywhere haha! Took about 3 weeks for them to get it, but they got it! They also work on their commands and stuff usually when I get back home after their walks in the morning, for about 10-15 minutes.
However... between all I do to keep my dogs active, "the pup" as I call him when I get upset still finds the energy to yap his head off at every little thing. He barks constantly when he plays, he barks at cars (the object & the noise) the neighbors voices, he barks if he hears another dog bark, he barks if a bird enters the yard and so on and so on! Its basically nuisance barking and after dealing with it since the moment we brought him home, putting up a privacy fence, giving him bones, toys and letting him go on car rides all over the place to mix up his routine, its always the same ol thing... bark, bark, bark, bark!!
We finally bought him a Citronella collar. Worked GREAT, for about 2 hours, he hated it! Then I felt bad because if he scratched himself, shook his head, sneezed, or even moved a certain way, the dang thing would spray him in the face! Took it off, because he couldn't do anything hardly without it spraying. Tried the yard type high pitched noise that would go off when he barked, but it annoyed my female pit that didn't even do anything wrong, plus didn’t phase him at all, just her. Barking returned so we decided to buy a Petsafe static correction collar with 6 levels that intensify when he barks. I tried it on my arm to test it, it didn't hurt any worse than when the car door zaps you in the winter time. It worked for a good 3 months, then he started to realize that when the collar is off, he can bark, bark, bark. When it is put on, to be quiet. But you can only leave it on 8 hours a day. Then after that, it stopped phasing him at all, he got used to it. He is clicker trained and he knows the word “quiet“, but only responds to it when he isn't barking. The variety of treats he gets after the clicking noise is just not as interesting as the thing he is barking at, period, don't work!
My friends have suggested a remote actual SHOCK collar, but I think that is cruel! The static correction collar I had, was nothing near to an real shock. I can't hardly bare the thought of it!
I am at lost at what to do. The neighbors are starting to complain and soon, I am sure they will be calling the cops for disturbance of peace.
Here’s a little info... He was about 6 months old when we brought him home. BOTH are outside dogs, because landlord does not allow inside pets. They have a HUGE back yard, that used to be chain link, but we switched to privacy fence to try to avoid the issue; which I will explain in a minute. Husband's dog is VERY smart and has passed all his obedience classes with flying colors! Both dogs get walked twice a day, once in the morning and once in the evening, for about 2 hours each, then they go to the dog park and play freely for an hour around noon about 2-3 days a week. I am a stay at home mom with 3 kids. Extremely active family, constantly doing something with kids and dogs. Dogs have full access to our big back yard together 98% of the day, except at night or when I am out running earns. And feeding time, which I make them stay in their 20'x20' kennel 30 mins after they eat. I do sneak them inside when its REALLY cold, extremely hot and when it storms. They have two inside kennels in our bedroom they stay in, but landlord would flip out if she found out so I keep it to only in emergencies. Kids play with them a lot during the days when its nice and I've set up a dig area that is a 5'x5' sand pit so they leave my garden area alone. I also have them both trained to CRAP in an certain area of the yard so poo is not everywhere haha! Took about 3 weeks for them to get it, but they got it! They also work on their commands and stuff usually when I get back home after their walks in the morning, for about 10-15 minutes.
However... between all I do to keep my dogs active, "the pup" as I call him when I get upset still finds the energy to yap his head off at every little thing. He barks constantly when he plays, he barks at cars (the object & the noise) the neighbors voices, he barks if he hears another dog bark, he barks if a bird enters the yard and so on and so on! Its basically nuisance barking and after dealing with it since the moment we brought him home, putting up a privacy fence, giving him bones, toys and letting him go on car rides all over the place to mix up his routine, its always the same ol thing... bark, bark, bark, bark!!
We finally bought him a Citronella collar. Worked GREAT, for about 2 hours, he hated it! Then I felt bad because if he scratched himself, shook his head, sneezed, or even moved a certain way, the dang thing would spray him in the face! Took it off, because he couldn't do anything hardly without it spraying. Tried the yard type high pitched noise that would go off when he barked, but it annoyed my female pit that didn't even do anything wrong, plus didn’t phase him at all, just her. Barking returned so we decided to buy a Petsafe static correction collar with 6 levels that intensify when he barks. I tried it on my arm to test it, it didn't hurt any worse than when the car door zaps you in the winter time. It worked for a good 3 months, then he started to realize that when the collar is off, he can bark, bark, bark. When it is put on, to be quiet. But you can only leave it on 8 hours a day. Then after that, it stopped phasing him at all, he got used to it. He is clicker trained and he knows the word “quiet“, but only responds to it when he isn't barking. The variety of treats he gets after the clicking noise is just not as interesting as the thing he is barking at, period, don't work!
My friends have suggested a remote actual SHOCK collar, but I think that is cruel! The static correction collar I had, was nothing near to an real shock. I can't hardly bare the thought of it!
I am at lost at what to do. The neighbors are starting to complain and soon, I am sure they will be calling the cops for disturbance of peace.
