Really glad you've found a technique that seems to be working for you, and for Bonnie -- the noisy mare!

When dogs bark they are after all doing what they are supposed to do, alerting us to strangers and I would not want a dog who was 'scared' into never barking, I prefer a dog who will bark a couple of times then stop when asked to do so .


don't we all

she is a real pain and to honest its upsets the whole balance ......going out for walks the other 3 without her will sit and wait for me to lead up and open the door when she is their they all bark like crazy ......then they all bark hence less walking cos i am by now wound up

lots of theory's mentioned here are great if you only have 1 dog to train as Bonnie is very good alone BUT as a pack its not the same

Glad it's working Inca, it must be nice to be able to get a word in.

Yeah, I have to be honest, I have absolutely no experience of dealing with multiple dogs at the same time. However, I can imagine that it can be quite the challenge!

Glad it is working for you Inca, every dog is different and only you can decide what is best for you and your dogs

thanks GSD ...i even considerd never having 4 again LOL

I know i have to be firmer with them even this breed with those melting eyes have to be kept under control

For anyone interested, there's a good book(let?) and dvd out by Patricia McConnell, called "Feeling outnumbered?" and it's about training multiple dogs for obedience in the home. I've got it out of interest and have only had time to flick through it but so far it looks good with some useful tips for multi dog households

I managed my 2 dog household with just doing everything in order, not pack order but just literally putting the first dog i had in the car first, etc. I would say "Tasha sit, Freebie sit" and then "Tash hup!" and then "Freebie hup!"

It did requore some input into individual training, the results were very good though.

I think the comments re Dog Borstal are not so much that anyone doubts Inca loves her dogs, and knows them, but more that many people read these forums, and some will not be as good at Inca at reading their dogs. One weim owner rang Brierley on here to say she had tried the bottle technique and her dog for the first time ever had bitten her. Other owners have tried it and found their dogs got veryu worried by any strange noise and actually started to have noise phobia problems. It's all very "individual", that's the problem it's not a prescription for a cure all /Equally I expect some dogs and owners do have success with it, these are probably very confident dogs who aren't worried by noise at all.

I agree we need to give our dogs boundaries just as with children, my pet hate is badly behaved children (not young kids who arent' old enough to contorl themselves, I mean really badly behaved ones who run riot)!!

Anyway good luck Inca,

x

Spot on Minihaha. I have five and one is the `ears` for my 3 deaf dogs. If she barks an alert to something, they join in, [ they go by a mixture of the visual of her barking and the postures / movements that go with it, and indoors they can get some vibration as she has a very piercing bark - I can feel it and their reactions show that they certainly can ].

[ To all ]
So, with my crew, its Gremlin I worked with for a cue to let her know I was aware that there was something to `check out` so when she stops, the others stop, and if they dont straight away they do have a back-up `hush` signal. My other hearing dog, when he arrived he slotted in perfectly and took her lead on it, as he did many things while he was finding his feet so to speak.
Gremlin is an excellent guard dog so I dont want her to not bark, and having all of them do it if someone is about, well, not a bad thing if its at someone who should not be there.

Also, many a time they have let me know someone was at the door when I had`nt heard the bell or a knock myself and would have missed whoever it was altogether

In my previous post, I wasnt trying to bash the whole method, just trying to explain how it was intended to be used and how it is so often misused, and that other sounds can work just as well.

The important thing is that the dogs should not be caused concern by the usage [ in whatever form ], because it has negative ramifications and can back-fire. Iirc one behaviourist who posts here had a Weimi owner call the day after the program aired because of trying it as shown [ which was completely innapropriate usage ], and did get bitten ]. I heard of several other cases, and the Staffie was living proof of poor methodology.
The idea of distraction to stop a habit is to give the dog something more interesting to do instead so that the `bad` habit melts away.
Anyone here bite their nails ? smoke ? have other habits ? Anyone have a dog throw at rattle bottle at them to make them stop ?
Anyone have another human do something annoying to make them stop ?
Anyone who does, how much notice do you take ?

What should be remembered with all programs like that is editing can make it look like miracles have happened when they certainly have not, and some of the `followups` show dogs no better than they were at the start even with the best editing efforts in the world.

Another thing they have done on that `show` is have underage Large dogs doing full height agility which is a major no no and is potentially harmful healthwise to the dogs concerned.

So I guess what I`m saying, to anyone wanting to use their techniques in the way they show them, is please think very carefully about whether or not the `trainers` actually know what they are doing, and how they may be misunderstanding things they themselves are teaching [ definately the case with the thrown bottles, multiple shaking of them, and letting the dog see the noise source ]. They are fixated on there with dogs being `dominant` and `taking the p**s`, when most of the dogs on there have simply had no real guidence and, to put it frankly, have numpties as owners.

Copying anything from such a show is definately at ones own risk, and should be thought through and / or talked through with others first, but as we all know I`m sure, there are people out there who take things off the telly as gospel and just go ahead without questioning it in their own mind, [ and usually getting it wrong anyway ], and end up in a right mess.
By that I mean the sort who no one would think should have a dog, who go filling bottles, getting airhorns, chokers [ if they watch that wally Cesar Milan ], we all know the sort
Anyone experienced knows their own dog/s, knows their likely reactions to things, and know not to do something again if it causes distress / anxiety etc.

As an aside, where I used to live, all the neighbours knew eachother to some degree [ a small close in a military estate ], and Grem got used to which cars were regular there and which were not, especially any we had been in when sharing lifts from time to time. One night, she woke me up, barking a couple of times at the window. I looked out and it was just someone starting a car opposite. It was too dark to see the driver but being military and comings and going being common at night I thought nothing of it.
The next day, the owner of the car was most dischuffed to find his car had been stolen.
He had always stopped his Alsatian barking at people / noises outside, so when the car was started and driving off, his dog gave no noise alert but was at the bottom of the stairs sat at the door, when the bloke got up which suprised him as the dog usually never left their bedroom at night....

confused ????????????????????????????????

can you shorten that if pos