"Shortwave Sportfishing" wrote in message
...
On Thu, 16 Feb 2006 11:05:13 -0500, "RCE" wrote:

How do you teach a juvenile delinquent dog not to bark at everything he
sees
in the back yard?

The first and best way is to train the dog not to bark. That often
requires your presence with the dog and normal behavior training. The
following is what I tell people to do and it often works.

One is that you personally invest time with the dog - probably for a
couple of weeks using positive reinforcement to train your dog to bark
on command; this will help him learn how to be quieted on command as
well.

The other way is to invest in a citronella no-bark collar, which is
effective and not cruel; if your dog barks, the collar sprays a small
amount of citronella, which dogs dislike. It works well, but doesn't
help you become a command presence for the dog and actually is a
negative type of training. It doesn't allow for command presence. If
your dog needs to bark at something he is afraid of, for instance, the
citronella collar doesn't work as well.

The best way is the first way - on command.

Mrs.E has actually spent a lot of time with him and has done a good job.
He's basically obedient, sits, stays, all that stuff. She also taught him
to "speak" but only softly. If he barks loud - no reward. He's just trying
my patience. He's surprisingly smart ... for a dog.

He was just out there barking again. The door is open, so I hollered at
him. He came trotting in looking for his reward. Not this time.

RCE