[Maggie Sues Dad]

My 10 month old Bassett girl has a bad habit of excessive barking when
she is excited to see people etc. Have any of you tryed the anti-barking devices that are on the market with any success? I see there is one that uses ulta-sonic pitches to discourage the barking. Has anyone tryed
this with their Bassett? I would appreciate any input.

 

[Annie714]

That tiny little cute little sweet little basset face in your avatar barks? No way....

Is it a big girl bark? No way....

Annie barks a very large bark when she gets excited also, but I haven't tried any sort of device to stop her. I just shush and then the people tell me that she is cute and she comes and says hi...and it's over. I'm sure someone else will have better advice lol...I am owned by my basset. But if you try the ultra-sonic anti bark thingy let us know how it works.

 

[Mikey T]

I yave not used an ultra sonic anti-bark collar but I have never seen or had any ultrasonic device that actually worked. If you want the devive to work and only be temporary it needs to be acompanyied by training a more appropriate behavior.

You say the problem is greetings humans does this include you and immeadiate family? actual you are fortunate oit it does because it gives you more training opurtunities. Secondly is barking the only over the top part of the greating or is he running around possibly jumping as most overly excited dogs are? the reason I ask is because if the barking is a pattern with other overly excited behaviors you can use training exercises that focus on self control and remaining calm If she remains calm the barking likely will not happen as well see [/url=http://www.sdhumane.org/site/DocServer/Any_Dog_Can_Live_Calmly_in_a_House.pdf?docID=362]Any dog can learn to live calmly[/url]

lowering arousal

Rewarding Non-Behavior

these are sort of the back door way of getting the behavior you do want.



If barking is the only excited behavior she exhibts while greating then going after just the barking is probably the better idea. You have two choice on is to punish the barking. But give that barking is a natural behavior in dogs it is almost impossible to extinguish. So what happes is you can use an anti bark devise that punishes like a shock collar for a month and she stops barking Remove the colar and withing three mont the behavior is the same as it every was. Or you can use a anti bark device that purpose is to distracted the dog giving you the opurtunity to rain a more appropriate behavior like sitting quitely. It has been shown in multiple studies while slower to stop the barking at first it is a much more effective long term solution see Citronell Collars

Now, having said that, the majority of behaviorists and veterinarians consider a citronella collar not a punisher, nor an aversive, but rather a "disruptive stimulus." In my use of it, I have found that in about 75% to 80% of the dogs I have used a citronella collar on, it is indeed a disruptive stimulus in that they don't find it aversive, but rather they get the spray and immediately forget what they were barking about and start to investigate the intricacies of the spray. The other 20% to 25% of dogs I have used it on have indeed found it to be an aversive, as evidenced by their behavior and attitudes after the spray.

...
[FONT=Comic Sans MS, Arial, sans-serif][...]The concept of "disruptive stimulus" results from behavioral patterns. It can be defined as a jarring stimulus that interrupts the course of the sequence, which produces an expectation stage enabling enticement of the pet to another (desired) activity. The present study starts from this definition to show the usefulness of a citronella spray (device called ABOISTOP?, by DYNAVET, France) as such a stimulus in dogs showing territorial barking. 52 dogs spending at least 4 hours a day in a garden adjacent to a busy street were included. The trial compares the effects of a punitive stimulus consisting of a garden-hose spraying water, to the ABOISTOP? collar. Treatment was allocated at random. Once a week, each owner noted the frequency of barking towards 10 pedestrians. A first control was done on day 0 (which provides the reference figure), then every seventh day till day 35 when therapy was stopped. Relapses were to be assessed on day 90. It should be noted that every bark interruption by the device was immediately followed by a play session initiated by the owner (redirection of behavior). [emphasis inserted by Doug] In the "punishment group" we could note a sudden cessation of barking, as early as on day 7, which was subsequently steady until day 28. In the "disruptive group" the decrease of barking was more gradual (48.6% barking on day 7 - 16.9% on day 14) and a total disappearance could be heard by day 21. In addition, the relapse rate on day 90 was 86% in the "punishment group" versus 3.8% in the "disruptive group".

there are no easy fixes the easy fixes simply don't last and are not a permanent solution
[/FONT]

 

[CatherineM]

I've never tried one because pain doesn't really seem to affect bassets when they want to do something.

 

[Mikey T]

the other thing that does not work is trying to train the dog when she is barking franticly. All that will end up happeniong is she simply ignores you. Not because she is pig head but she does not hear, comprehend anything you are trying to do. In an excited state the cognitive part of the brian is overridden by the limbic system{emotional side) In order to be able to train you need to be able to shut of the dogs limbic system response and that is where a disruptive stimulus comes in. It need not be a citronella collar, tho it is easy and the timing always impecable. It could be a loud noise, shouting no. anything that will temporarily distract the dog.

see The OVerstimulated Hyper Dog

The brain operates from two sides
- the limbic side and the cognitive side.
​

The limbic side is your emotional self.
The cognitive side is your thinking self.
Emotional reactions originate in the limbic part of the brain, which allows for fast-acting response to events based on quick impressions. Survival depends on quickness of response — allowing you to notice and duck when you catch a glimpse of a fast-moving object about to fall on your head.
Limbic over-rides cognitive. When an animal is in a state of adrenalin arousal from fear, defense, excitement or just plain sensory overload, he not only doesn't listen, he can't hear you. It does no good to repeat "sit sit sit" to a dog who is on emotional overload. He isn't thinking, he is simply reacting to the stimuli around him. He must tune-in and re-connect with you before he will be able to hear what you have to say. You must be able to get his attention first, before you tell him what you would like him to do.

 

[Soundtrack]

I briefly tried a citronella collar on Rainbow to try to curb the noise she would make while I was walking a course or working another dog in agility class. Because of her thick skin, fur and dewlaps on her neck I was unable to make the collar tight enough to actually register the vibration, so it never went off (the collar functioned correctly on "normal" dogs).
As for the sonic collar, while the sound of it would send my friend's Jack Russell cowering in the corner, the Bassets appeared not to notice it.

 

[Mikey T]

Because of her thick skin, fur and dewlaps on her neck I was unable to make the collar tight enough to actually register the vibration, so it never went off (the collar functioned correctly on "normal" dogs).

there are collars that work on a number of different principals. some work purely on sound. The problem is another dog barking can set of the collar on a dog that did not bark. Other work on vibration and or vibration and sound.

The bottom line is however to be effective either the collar must be worn all the time or training must occur. THis training need not use the collar to be effective.

 

[ChucksMom]

No experience with this on bassets but thought I'd share my previous experience...I had a bark collar for a springer many, many years ago (15+). It gave a warning bell noise for him to stop barking and if he didn't it gave a little zap. It seemed to work very well on him aside from the fact that every time the phone rang he'd FREAK OUT!

 

[Maggie Sues Dad]

Thanks for the input, and yes she has a BIG girl bark. We will be working on the barking. She is a special girl to have around! Thanks again everybody.