Dogs Barking

[kchogan]

i got 3 guinea pigs last week, they have 2 cages one inside and one outside and my dog goes nuts over them. whenever we go near them she barks and if she is not barking she is whining (she thinks they are there for her to play with). we have introduced them but that hasn't made a difference. so now when she barks or puts her paw on the cage i put her in her crate for time out. to make it worse if we take them out of the cage for human time she jumps all over you until she can see them.

i was wondering if i am doing this wrong, should i let her near them at all? i just need to stop all this nonsense barking.

please help

[Staranais]

If she's barking from excitement & prey drive when she sees them, I suspect that seeing them is just making herself more interested in them. Frustration builds drive.

[ESCS]

Is it possible to keep the guinea pigs in an area where the dog can't access? We also have guinea pigs and a dog with a high prey drive. Funnily enough, we chose a tibbie as they are suppose to be a breed that gets on well with small animals and not a hunting dog. Our tibbie obviously didn't read the breed manual! While he did settle down and stopped barking at them after a few weeks (we used time out too), he still showed a lot of interest in them so we ended up moving the pigs to the front of the house where our dog can't get to them.

I agree that introducing the guinea pigs to the dog (ie. having them together) is not that effective as it made our dog even more keen to get at them and he became frustrated when he couldn't.

[Kirty]

If you see her barking at them, squirt her with a water pistol or bottle. Hopefully she will lose interest in them eventually!