Can anyone tell me whether the collar you can buy, that is bark activated and sprays a little water actually works.

I have a 5 year old Weim and her son (3 year old).  They are both penned (separately but side by side, and have always been) if I go out.  Don't leave them for too long (4 & half hours max), but the youngster barks his head off as soon as I shut the front door to go.  My neighbours say he calms down after a few minutes, but must be annoying for them.  He does the same on my return.  The 5 yo bitch just sits there quietly (you can tell the different barks).

I really need something that works remotely, as as soon as I get to his pen he stops.

Any ideas ??

You need to identify the cause of the barking and address that, not just treat the symptom :rolleyes:

If your dog is insecure and nervous when you leave him and barks out of fear, he will not be less afraid if he also gets squirted every time he feels afraid.  In fact he will be more afraid.  His fear may then manifest in other ways - drooling excessively, defecating or urinating in his crate, being destructive of his bedding or crate...

Read this:  http://www.clickersolutions.com/articles/2002/sa.htm

I can understand you want to work on this, but to be honest if all the dog does is bark a few minutes annd then stops, I'm not sure I'd be concerned. Dogs are allowed to bark occasionally, although just not all the time, although I understand you won't want to annoy your neighbours.

You have to be so careful with spray collars and the like - for example if the dog sneezes it may set them off, or if the other dog does bark, the dog wearing the collar can be sprayed.

Another thing is that some dogs are actually very scared by the collar - the worst scene is that a dog may bolt. Some dogs however, will learn to ignore the collar and bark through it and so are not bothered by it :) It really does depend on the dog.

The answer I guess is that yes, sometimes they can work   - but another question may be, are they entirely fair on the dog, could it cause other problems,  and is there another way to try first? For example if your male is worried or excited by you leaving, perhaps you could get some advice on working on that part of the problem....:)

Good luck anyway, whatever you decide.

Lindsay
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I also have two Weimaraners who love the sound of their own voices!  Our bitch, Freya, would bark at leaves falling from the trees and the aboistop bark collar works wonders with her.  Casper, our male just barks through the 'squirt', so it has no impact on him at all. Also, as Lindsay said, if the dog sneezes, or another dog barks close by the collar will activate.  It has helped with Freya's barking though, and as Freya has quietened down, Casper no longer barks at all, as it seemed to be Freya setting him off.

Hope you find a solution!

Louise

I assume you have asked your neighbour if the dogs are a problem and this is why you know they stop barking...rather then your neighbours complaining?

If so my advice would be not to draw your neighbours attention to the idea that your dogs could be a problem to them... you can heve the greatest relationship with neighbours and see it all go pearshaped once you invite them to complain and by introducing them to the concept you welcome their feedback. It sounds the wrong advice but you  should never be too submissive to neighbours... even nice neighbours can change overnight and become a big problem.

If your dogs settle down quickly then that sounds okay.  Just spend a little more time training them to be left. When you come home ignore them for a short time. Keep comming and going from the house..leave the house go out of sight then come straight back... go walk round the bloc so they have different lengths of time with you away... when you return ignoring them to show them there is no issue worth fretting about just like when you go and  make a cup of tea .

Thanks everyone, some really good advice here.  Indie (the 3yo boy) is a little nervous, as some Weims are, but as his Mum is always there and he is really only nervous when she isn't there. 

He used to be very destructive of his bed, which I think was boredom.(I ended up using a hessian sack filled with straw, as I have better things to spend money on than endless petbeds - which really worked, didn't like eating straw).  He's calmed down a lot now out of adolescence.  His mum and he have acres of room to play-fight when I'm home, and that's what they do most of the time.  Still don't trust him enough to let him run loose when I'm not there.

One side neighbours are elderly, and quite a bit deaf, so no problem there.  Other side, dog-hater, grumpy old man.  Who had complained, in conversation, to the elderly couple (who told him they hadn't heard anything), who then told us.  To make matters worse my dogs hate him and bark furiously at him if they see him, so try to keep them in if I know he's gardening etc.  If they see him and start barking, I just call them nicely and praise for coming.  But this can't be why Indie's barking in the house.

What I really don't want is it to turn to howling, which the other one would join in too.  Weims just love the sound of their own voice.  I leave the radio on when I'm out to block any little noises that might set him off.

Is there anything else I could use remotely.  Will try recording him to see how long he does actually bark for, and what the trigger is on my return.

Did you read that link I posted?  You should be setting up a desensitisation programme, gradually increasing the amount of time you leave for, as described in that link.

Also, the situation you describe, where one dog is less nervous if his mum is there - is common - this is why people who are adding puppies to households with older dogs should take care to make sure they are doing "real" alone training, where the puppy is being left totally alone, and not always with another dog.  Sometimes you might want to take one dog training or to the vets, and not the other, and both dogs should feel secure being left alone.

Are you sure they are not being wound up, intentionally or not, by the grumpy old man?
This has happened to me in the past, my dogs hated my neighbour and i had no idea why until my student told me that he banged on the fence at them and
yelled at them when I had gone.

It kind of backfired on him later but that's another story :P

Maybe you could set up a video recording to see what happens and exactly what does set them off?
Even if one barks as you leave, it could be for instance anxiety due to the old man ... you never know! A video may help you work out the problem.

Lindsay
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