Beanie
06-20-2006, 06:12 PM
Okay, before I ask this question - yes, I do realize that shelties are barkers! This is kind of a long post but I want to try and explain everything fully, please bear with me. =>
My sister owns two shelties - Happy, who she bought as a puppy (from the newspaper. Weep. Yes, he is a bit... off.) and Kota, who was a rescue. I love Happy & Kota like they were my own... and why shouldn't I? My sister, and the dogs, lived with us for two years.
She moved out last summer, and took the dogs with her. I have never been more heartbroken in my life... so after much, much, MUCH struggling... my dad allowed us to get a dog.
Enter my little Auggie. Auggie is a wonderful little boy; he takes treats gently, he eats s-l-o-w-l-y, and he doesn't bark much.
The issue is that my sister may be moving back in - and Happy & Kota (or "The Boys," as we usually call them) will of course come with her. Happy is not much of a problem, despite his neuroses; Kota is the one we're a little worried about.
Happy had to adjust when Kota entered his life. Kota was abused - he isn't food aggressive in the way most people think, but he DEVOURS his food like he thinks he needs to eat it all in two seconds or you'll take it away. Kota would eat his food, then move on and steal Happy's food. Thus, Happy learned to eat quickly. This also translates to treats - they practically attack your hand because they think the other dog will be getting the treat.
These two issues are easy enough to deal with so that Auggie doesn't "catch" them - no treats around Auggie; The Boys will eat downstairs while Auggie eats upstairs, and they won't cross pathes until Auggie takes his sweet time finishing all his food. (And boy does he take his sweet time.)
The biggest problem, though, is Kota's barking. Happy didn't bark much until Kota arrived... but Kota would bark, and Happy would go, "Oh, are we barking?! We're barking! Barking, barking, wheeeee!" They will let you know if somebody comes home, or if they THINK somebody has come home. And they don't just bark a bit... they bark from the moment they hear the car door shut until you enter the house, put down your stuff, and usually for another minute or so afterwards.
While they were still with us, we tried lots of stuff to get them to stop. We tried ignoring them; we tried having a container with beads in it to drop loudly and "startle" them whenever they barked; we tried telling them "Okay, hi, hush," when we got home to let them know it was okay to stop barking. Nothing worked. (The bead container was okay, except you literally had to pick it up, drop it, pick it up, drop it, repeat... until way beyond when the person had entered the house. We tried that for weeks with no changes in behaviour... or they learned to scamper to the other side of the room to bark.)
This was an annoyance, and one that we simply dealt with. But now that we have Auggie, who doesn't bark very much, and I admit it's quite a nice change to come home and not have your ears attacked by two barking dogs. Not to mention how horrible that is for any guest to enter your house and instantly have the barrage of "BARK BARK BARK BARK BARK!!"
And since Happy "learned" the barking from Kota... we can probably expect Auggie will learn it too, right? dhkjfhdd!!
So THE BIG QUESTION is...
We have about a month before my sister moves in (assuming she even does move in. We're not certain about anything yet - needless to say this is a super stressful time for her.), so what can she do to try and work on the barking? I don't expect them to stop entirely, but lessening the barking would be excellent. And, is there anything that can be done so Auggie doesn't pick up on it?
I'm totally at a loss on this one, so I'm pretty much willing to try anything! ;P As if the stress of bringing two dogs back to what USED to be their house, but is now AUGGIE'S house, wasn't bad enough... argh!!
My sister owns two shelties - Happy, who she bought as a puppy (from the newspaper. Weep. Yes, he is a bit... off.) and Kota, who was a rescue. I love Happy & Kota like they were my own... and why shouldn't I? My sister, and the dogs, lived with us for two years.
She moved out last summer, and took the dogs with her. I have never been more heartbroken in my life... so after much, much, MUCH struggling... my dad allowed us to get a dog.
Enter my little Auggie. Auggie is a wonderful little boy; he takes treats gently, he eats s-l-o-w-l-y, and he doesn't bark much.
The issue is that my sister may be moving back in - and Happy & Kota (or "The Boys," as we usually call them) will of course come with her. Happy is not much of a problem, despite his neuroses; Kota is the one we're a little worried about.
Happy had to adjust when Kota entered his life. Kota was abused - he isn't food aggressive in the way most people think, but he DEVOURS his food like he thinks he needs to eat it all in two seconds or you'll take it away. Kota would eat his food, then move on and steal Happy's food. Thus, Happy learned to eat quickly. This also translates to treats - they practically attack your hand because they think the other dog will be getting the treat.
These two issues are easy enough to deal with so that Auggie doesn't "catch" them - no treats around Auggie; The Boys will eat downstairs while Auggie eats upstairs, and they won't cross pathes until Auggie takes his sweet time finishing all his food. (And boy does he take his sweet time.)
The biggest problem, though, is Kota's barking. Happy didn't bark much until Kota arrived... but Kota would bark, and Happy would go, "Oh, are we barking?! We're barking! Barking, barking, wheeeee!" They will let you know if somebody comes home, or if they THINK somebody has come home. And they don't just bark a bit... they bark from the moment they hear the car door shut until you enter the house, put down your stuff, and usually for another minute or so afterwards.
While they were still with us, we tried lots of stuff to get them to stop. We tried ignoring them; we tried having a container with beads in it to drop loudly and "startle" them whenever they barked; we tried telling them "Okay, hi, hush," when we got home to let them know it was okay to stop barking. Nothing worked. (The bead container was okay, except you literally had to pick it up, drop it, pick it up, drop it, repeat... until way beyond when the person had entered the house. We tried that for weeks with no changes in behaviour... or they learned to scamper to the other side of the room to bark.)
This was an annoyance, and one that we simply dealt with. But now that we have Auggie, who doesn't bark very much, and I admit it's quite a nice change to come home and not have your ears attacked by two barking dogs. Not to mention how horrible that is for any guest to enter your house and instantly have the barrage of "BARK BARK BARK BARK BARK!!"
And since Happy "learned" the barking from Kota... we can probably expect Auggie will learn it too, right? dhkjfhdd!!
So THE BIG QUESTION is...
We have about a month before my sister moves in (assuming she even does move in. We're not certain about anything yet - needless to say this is a super stressful time for her.), so what can she do to try and work on the barking? I don't expect them to stop entirely, but lessening the barking would be excellent. And, is there anything that can be done so Auggie doesn't pick up on it?
I'm totally at a loss on this one, so I'm pretty much willing to try anything! ;P As if the stress of bringing two dogs back to what USED to be their house, but is now AUGGIE'S house, wasn't bad enough... argh!!