BARK BARK BARK! How to stop that when I'm not around?
I don't want to get kicked off my landlady's property. I feel like my dogs are going to make that happen with the mount of racket they are capable of generating.
They hardly bark while I'm here. If I ask them to stop, they do.
They bark when I am not here. I know 'cause I can hear them. I work on the next property over. It's not a whole lot during the day, but sometimes they go on and on for a while. They bark at my landlady and her friend when they go outside, and I know they don't like that. They bark at their Lab as well.
They make THE WORST noises when I am milking the cows at night or are over at my boss' place for dinner. If nothing sets them off, they are generally quiet, but if something tickles them the right way... THEY WON'T STOP BARKING AND HOWLING!
I can't leave them inside since there is no "inside" to put them all in, and I won't leave a dog inside for more than a couple hours anyways. I can't completely block their view of things, I live on a slope, and that's never worked in the past. I can't move right now since I can't afford it.
I have no idea how to stop this. I don't know how to work with them since I am not here when they do it. I am seriously considering getting no-bark collars for the lot of them.
They hardly bark while I'm here. If I ask them to stop, they do.
They bark when I am not here. I know 'cause I can hear them. I work on the next property over. It's not a whole lot during the day, but sometimes they go on and on for a while. They bark at my landlady and her friend when they go outside, and I know they don't like that. They bark at their Lab as well.
They make THE WORST noises when I am milking the cows at night or are over at my boss' place for dinner. If nothing sets them off, they are generally quiet, but if something tickles them the right way... THEY WON'T STOP BARKING AND HOWLING!
I can't leave them inside since there is no "inside" to put them all in, and I won't leave a dog inside for more than a couple hours anyways. I can't completely block their view of things, I live on a slope, and that's never worked in the past. I can't move right now since I can't afford it.
I have no idea how to stop this. I don't know how to work with them since I am not here when they do it. I am seriously considering getting no-bark collars for the lot of them.
Comments
Could you get the barky ones more familiar with the landlady, maybe let them spend more time with her? Could you teach her the verbal stop-it command so she could have more control when you are away?
They bark at my neighbor's ram, sheep and bull, when they move around. Of course they don't when I'm here, but when I'm not, BARK! BARK! The ram is on the move! BARK!
I've tried blocking their view, it doesn't work, and like I said, I'm on a slope so they can move back and still see. They can still hear things and that sets them off as well. I don't like (and can't even afford) kennels, so that is out for now at least.
I'll try teaching them a stop command, and telling the landlady to use it, but it probably won't work. We tried that with the mail lady after Juneau broke through a window at her, but it didn't work either. (Juneau met the mail lady many times and loved her, she just BARKS! When people are walking around.)
Hmm, I could do the walky talkie thing... If I can get one that's got more than a 1/4mile range that doesn't need line-of-sight for a decent price.
Look for adaptors used to turn christmas lights on/off from a distance. I got mine from amazon for less than $10. Not sure how far they transmit though.
If there's a noise that will shut them all up and can be turned on electronically that'd be good. Alternatively you could pair your shut up verbal cue with some other cue that you can control from a distance, maybe.
And, Both Juneau and Sasha will bark even more in a crate, nonstop. I don't have AC in the trailer, which is why the dogs are outside. It's hot, and keeping them in there (which is hotter than outside) would result in baked dogs at the end of the day.
I'll keep thinking and see if anything else comes to me as a possible way to try to address it...
So what is their set up? Are they outside in a yard? (I think I remember you building a pen for them?) Could you do something like Trzcina suggests, separating some of them if they are egging one another on?
Also, if the barking is anxiety based, you could try an adaptil collar. One of my friends has had success with that, but her dog was for sure barking because of anxiety. It's the same thing as in the DAP diffuser, but in a collar. If they're just bored, though, which it may be, that probably won't help much.
I'd think that when it cools down, some need to be in the trailer and some out, as a way of stopping them from egging one another on.
I did have a couple other pens but that didn't work, they threw big fits and destroyed the fencing when I separated them. (I'd rather they not get tangled/strangled in destroyed fencing.) The Girls are especially bad about being separated and will bark, whine, howl, dig, and destroy, even if they are right next to one another.
As long as they can hear one another barking, even if out of sight, they'll bark. It's not an anxiety thing, it's a "I see something!" thing, and everybody likes to have a say, even if they can't see what caused the disturbance.
When I am here they get one or two barks in, then I tell them to be quiet. If I ignored them then they would keep barking for a good while. I tested it one time when my landlady was not home and they barked for an hour and a half at my neighbors bull! All the bull was doing was walking around eating grass and mooing at the other cow.
Juneau and Sasha grew up outside cause they were horribly destructive inside as pups. They were downright apocalyptic. Juneau still is apocalyptic. They are totally fine with being outside, and most of the time don't want to come in when I am in the trailer. (I'll ask them several times "You wanna come in?" and they turn and walk off.) Conker was raised in a mill/shelter cage, then in an apartment for a few months, then in a house where he had a dog door. He chose to spend most of his time outside, and sometimes chooses to sleep outside. He has learned that if he barks I bring him in so he is quiet at night. But if he wants to, and he's very adamant about it, he sleeps inside.
Katana is almost never in the trailer because he will eat everything, and will scream bloody murder when in a crate.
I prefer to let my dogs choose where they want to be, and 85% of the time it's outside, not in the tiny little hot trailer. If they want to be in there when it's cooler, that's fine, but I won't confine them in there for 8 1/2 hours while I'm at work. Juneau and Sasha are housetrained, but not for really long periods of time. I'd say 5 hours max, and do not know how to tell people they need to go out since they've always had free access to the yard once they were granted house privileges. Also, Sasha is incontinent. I don't want her accidentally leaking in my RV since I can't let her out every couple hours.
I am trying to figure out how to put a dogdoor on the dang thing without having to rip the door off, and how to bypass the screen door as well. I'm probably going to have to take the screen door off entirely and build a new one that will accommodate a dogdoor section, or get one of those magnetic screen door things you see ads for on TV.
I do run them (fetch) in the morning, but it's hard to do that 'cause I get up at 5:30 and don't want to make a huge racket. So, they aren't totally exhausted, but they aren't full of energy either.