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It depends what's at stake....are there council complaints etc? There are certain types of bark collars that may be more suitable such as JetAir. I can't see why the dog would be sitting barking at nothing unless he is absolutely bored out of his mind. To someone in your friends position I would reccomend, they take the dog for a walk prior to heading out, provide a bone, sand pit, padling pool, kong, scatter kibble in the backyard, leave a radio on, see if they can find someone to visit the dog in the middle of the day and walk the dog. Plenty of options before popping on a bark collar.

This is a great post. My deilma for a puppy coming home soon is that I want to compete in agility....puppy is a Great Dane, we unfortunately don't have the luxury of waiting until later as we need to gain confidence on ground level equipment as by the time puppy is 6 months old he'll be much taller than a tunnel as he'll need to learn how to move through non-jumping obsticles as he grows so he learns how to bring his body through them. Nothing will be pushed on puppy, although I'd love to do well, puppy is a companion first and if we do well in other areas then that's a fantastic bonus. I guess I've been fortunate having foster dogs because I've learned a lot from them in regards to how much can be too much, it's of course individual per dog however it's been a great learning curve in prep. for pup.

And I gave mine too and people have disagreed, I don't hold it personally. When people come on here and are looking for support that is what we should do. Rhi, I see you have only had him for a week, what other things have you tried? (i.e. comfort things?) Thanks Jack for your support, I was feeling a little overwhelmed by so many 'inside creating' suggestions. I've always grown up with an outside dog, I've never considered an inside dog. He is definately part of our pack, he doesn't suffer any seperation anxieties, he is always within ear shot of us. We adopted him and don't know his previous history but he doesn't seem to have the desire to want to come inside he is happy trotting around the backyard. I feel that I have liberated him from the cage at the shelter and my heart sinks to think of putting back in a cage (even if it is only overnight) All that said, thankyou everyone for your suggestions. We have put up a visual barrier and have brought a silent whistle... hopefully these techniques start to help. PS I only read this on my work computer, sorry for the lack of response over the weekend. Thanks again for your help It's really sad that you believe a crate is a bad thing, I really suggest you research the purpose of a crate....a crate is like a den to a dog....a safe place they will go into on their own accord....how is that a bad thing? I'm not sure how a dog can be very much part of your pack if it's outside 24/7? Maybe I'm missing something? If a dog has no issues outside then I don't personaly have an issue with it, but you are having an issue and by bringing the dog inside will fix the issue. All my own opinion, as I have mentioned before, lot's of people have outside dogs with no problems at all.......the only difference is that you have a problem that can be fixed easily.

I haven't had any experience with beagles, however with our foster dogs that range from say 6 month old medium sized dogs through to adult Great Danes we don't give them the attention they are seeking. We turn out back on them, we don't talk to them and we make no eye contact with them....pretending as though the dog does not exists. When the dog is calm the dog gets rewarded whether that be with a verbal praise, a pat or a treat is up to you, just being careful not to over do the praise so the dog starts jumping again. For us giving any form of attention whether it is a verbal NO or a physical push off is a form of attention so we don't give it. When we come home we do a complete ignore for 5 minutes and then call the dog to us where they sit infront of us and recieve praise and attention, this is part of the Jan Fennell method that works well for us....there is more to it but that's a really brief snapshot. Everyone has different methods but I'm sure you'll find one that works best for you :cool:

Didn't see anyone jump on her.....did see people ask why the dog can't be inside though....reasonable question in relation to the topic. Jack....crates are for inside not outside....the problem would not be solved by puting the dog in a crate outside. Jack, also as previously mentioned, dogs are pack animals, if we want to have well balanced dogs in our homes we should treat them as what they are....a pack animal......if there are no behavioural problems and the dog is absolutely happy outside then so be it.....that's my opinion....you don't have to agree with it, it's a public forum....lot's of different opinions....doesn't mean anyone is jumping on anyone :cool: I rent....my dogs are inside....I wouldn't rent a home that wasn't suitable to my dogs, if there were absolutely no rentals that would allow the dogs free run of the house I would neogiate crating at night :D edited for my normal typos

If you like, catch me on msn: [email protected] There are some great methods that work well for dogs with mild-average type aniexties. Steph & Bam a Doler has recently gone through this so you may like to have a chat with them, Steph couldn't leave bam alone for 1 minute to start with, now she can go out without him in tow. Click here for their profile

Whatever you do, you need to confident holding that leash. As soon as you feel nervious the dog is goin to pick up on it.

By you getting up and going out to him to tell him to knock it off, he'll soon associate if he hasn't already that barking means you come out....whether that be a negative or a positive thing it doesn't matter...attention is attention. I personaly don't understand outside dogs, but lot's of people do it....I'd be interested in hearing your rationale though. To me dogs are pack animals and are best suited to being with their pack....more settled.....but that's my theory and what works best for us. If I were your neighbour, 10 barks would piss me off too at night....10 barks doesn't sound like much but understand it from your neighbours point of view they may very well be concerned that the barkin ay get worse, feel thankful they have actually notified you to give you a chance to fix it before going to the council. If all else fails I would pop a JetAir collar on him to prevent the barking, however I'm not a big fan of just chucking a no-bark collar on a dog without first finding out the reason why the dog is barking and then taking steps to rectify this. If your dog is barking when your neighboours put on their light then clearly your dog is not settled sleeping outside. Now, in addition you have taken on an older puppy, when this dog was with its' previous owners were did it sleep? Still not understanding why the dog can't sleep inside, but why not just crate the dog in your living room? Every foster dog we've had hasn't been an inside dog before and have all settled to sleeping inside within 2 days....what's the big deal?

It sounds as if puppy to starting to learn what pushes your button and what works and what doesn't. I would highly reccomend you head out to the book store and purchase a book called Dog Listener by Jan Fennell. IMO you need to nip this in the butt pronto.

Changing to a check chain type collar won't give you more control, what you'll need to do is head to an obedience class and learn how to use your nominated training aid/tool

You can desex your puppy now if you wish. there are plenty of people for and againt early de-sexing, do your research and make up your own mind

I wouldn't take a puppy there....too many people with unsocialised dogs with no control who could seriously scar your puppy emotionaly. There are other ways of socialising

I'd definately be going out to the book store to get a book by Jan Fennell called 'Dog Listener'

You need more paperwork than what you got, perhaps they will be sending it out to you. You should have an adoption form and the copy of the change of ownership form, might pay to give them a buzz just to check Puppies can hurt themselves quite often, one of my 6 month old fosters had to go onto anto inflamatories for 2 weeks as he was limping a little, he was fine after the medication. I'd suggest seeing your vet. I don't think it will be HD....just a puppy being a puppy.....an idiot :D I'd also reccomend not walking him on the gravel road, it's a bit too much impact for a young dog and if he isn't used to it, this could be the problem :p

Perhaps you can tell us exactly what you are currently doing to toilet train your dog. Also let us know how old your puppy is.

I really wouldn't be reccomending a head halter for any dog especially a puppy. If you have a puppy and you're attending obedience then you won't need a head halter. If your dog sees you as a leader it will want to walk with you not ahead of you doing whatever it wishes to do.

Strangely enough I would be more that happy if my dog found no value in other dogs because that means the dog finds all the value in you and you get more out of the dog. As for walking on a leash....stick to your backyard training until you're ready for the world of distractions and keep your expectations realistic

You just need to download the basic version, the premimum version is the one you pay for :D

I have a great amount of respect for Stanley Coran, not only does he have a different way of thinking from some of todays (and very old fashioned) behaviourists but he backs it up with science. Mexican Dog Whisperer is Ceaser Milan, he has some interesting concepts as well....he's more along the lines of exhaust a dog until it can do no wrong

Interesting product. I've seen people just put the prey item in an inside pocket of a vest instead....cheaper LOL

Say wha???

I actully thought it was a Dane to start with before I saw the markings on the face.

All I can say is Holly Shit....and wooohoo to drive training!

They don't know 'wrong' from 'right', or even understand those concepts. Can you back this up a bit? I maybe misreading what you've read and have gotten a bit confused.

I guess the true answer is - we don't know because we're not dogs, we can only assume until proven otherwise...however we can take into consideration some of the findings in the last 50-100 years. The whole 'humanising a dog' thing really annoys me, it's almost like the 'dominance' thing....it gets overused and taken out of context far too often. I certainly do not feel that dogs should be treated as humans because clearly they're not as they have their own langage, they're own social workings and way of life, but there is no way a person can say with scentific evidence that a dog does not have emotions....they very well may not be the same as ours or are experienced to the same that ours are, however scientific clinical trials have shown that dogs are capable of complex thinking....complex thinking can very well include emotion/s. I think 'Guilt' is one the emotions a lot of owners believe their dogs feel, however we can now tell you why your dogs cowers or gives you a look that is percieved as guilt. However, emotions are many, does a dog feel Pain? Grief? Pleasure? Anger? Some would say of-course.....others would say you're humansing......those are the ones that bug me because science already tells us that animals feel pain, they feel anger, they feel pleasure, and in scientific clinical trials into behaviour, scientists were convinced that grief was also felt....the level of such an emotion is however unknown....we can't know...we're a different species. HOWEVER.....how could we possibly admit that a dog is capable of feeling emotions as deep as humans do because then we are faced with so many ethical and moral issues..... We've learned a great deal in the last 100 years, you would be horrified to learn (if you weren't already aware) that some of the most respected behaviourists back in the black and white days believed that dogs felt no pain, they we're simply giving off mechincal type reactions similar to that of a clock, for example if a clock fell from a wall and hit to floor you'd hear the inner workings of the clock clanger about, this is what the behaviourists way back when believed happened to a dog when you kicked etc......so therefore giving a dog a good old kick wasn't an issue because they felt no pain.....was this a way of justifying how poorly some dogs were treated back then?