I debated and debated and tried every positive technique that I knew but Wednesday I ordered citronella bark collars for both dogs. I knew that my neighbors were tired of listening to Tor's demands and I had gotten in a bit of trouble at work for having my barking dogs in my car, even if I was parking off campus. Nuisance barking was getting me lots of unwanted attention and I wasn't even sure that it was really happening or which dog was primarily responsible. Gata has always been as quiet as a church mouse in the car but is a little guardy and doesn't really like skateboards. There is a skateboard park very near where I have been parking at work.
So I ordered a couple of citronella bark collars and left the dogs at a friend's place during the day. She had a couple of open runs in her garage that they could stay in. The first day she told me that it was Tor raising a fuss. Nothing major, just boredom. Along the lines of "Hello". "Anyone out there?" "It's me, Tor." "I'm stuck in here" "Maybe you could break me out and we could go play?" "I'm really friendly." "I'm sure my mom wouldn't mind." "Hello." "Anyone?" "Hello" ... You get the idea.
Anyway, so I put the collars on and it has been blissfully peaceful ever since. I even worked Gata in front of the car a little bit and Mr. Jealous Demand Barker was not in attendance. The funniest moment came the evening after they arrived. I was getting ready to go to bed and had taken Gata's off, Tor still had his on. Tor was snooping around in the kitchen. He's not allowed in the kitchen and it is one of those rules that Gata has taken upon herself to enforce. She gave a single loud enforcer bark, which triggered his collar to spray. It effectively corrected Tor for being in the kitchen and Gata for barking at the same time :-) I couldn't have done it better myself.
The dogs went to my friend's place again yesterday. She doesn't work on Fridays so she could give me some more feedback. I decided to put the collar on Tor only. That would help me figure out how much Gata was contributing to the problem. She has a plywood panel between the 2 runs since one of her dogs is dog aggressive. So, I didn't think that Tor would get sprayed if Gata barked. Anyway, Candy said she heard one teeny, tiny bark out of Tor as I drove away and that was it.
I thought it might cause problems with their bark and hold, something that Tor is just learning. But no problems were apparent last night at club. Tor actually did his first barking on the helper.
I am combining the collars with lots of positive reinforcement for silence at things that would normally provoke barking. So, hopefully, there won't be much fall out. At this point, though, my principle thought is ... why did I wait so long?!
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