On Mon, 15 Sep 2003 0:03:37 -0400, John wrote
(in message ):

The last thing I
want to be dealing with is just having gotten my baby boy to sleep is
to have the dog go off like this and wake him up.

I'm not sure how to deal with the barking but I can tell you that babies do
learn to sleep through stuff. My kids used to sleep through my vaccuming and
slaming drawers in their rooms while they were sleeping. I started doing
that from the beginning and they got used to sleeping through noise.

Nessa
--
I don't have issues
I have subscriptions
www.nessa.info

On Mon, 15 Sep 2003 0:03:37 -0400, John wrote
(in message ):

The last thing I
want to be dealing with is just having gotten my baby boy to sleep is
to have the dog go off like this and wake him up.

I'm not sure how to deal with the barking but I can tell you that babies do
learn to sleep through stuff. My kids used to sleep through my vaccuming and
slaming drawers in their rooms while they were sleeping. I started doing
that from the beginning and they got used to sleeping through noise.

Nessa
--
I don't have issues
I have subscriptions
www.nessa.info

John wrote:
as I can't stand
the loudmouth little rat, my wife aptly calls it a "love/hate"
relationship because she knows I just adore the cute little thing and
could never hurt it, no matter what sick fantasies I dream of when
she's barking.

I had an eskie, so I know exactly what you mean. :} I adored him, but that
BARKING!!!

Yep, it's a barky breed. I could manage his to some degree. First, I kept all
the windows closed and the blinds drawn. It cut down on a lot of his triggers.
Also leaving the TV or radio on would disguise some of the noises.

I discovered that if I got on the floor with him, petted him and whispered
"shhh, shhh" into his fur, he'd bark more quietly and calm down more quickly.
My current dogs - all 3 put together not as barky as my eskie - respond to just
coming over to the window and cheerfully acknowledging whatever they're barking
at. "I see it, yup, thanks girls!" Then I distract them to focus on something
else. But my eskie couldn't be distracted.

I employed time-outs. If he just wouldn't stop, I would take him into the
bathroom and shut the door. This would defuse him enough so that when I let
him out, he'd be quiet. Time-outs are tricky, though. You have to be able to
scoop her up and isolate her *immediately.* If you have to run up the stairs
and down the hall with her to isolate her, you lost the lesson on the way.
And only 10-30 seconds of isolation, but you can't let her out if she's
vocalizing. Tricky.

Last resort, the citronella collar has a pretty good success rate. It's
expensive, but IMHO the best choice for bark collars. A lot of dogs don't
respond to the sonic collars (though some do), and I would only use a shock
collar with the help of an expert in their usage.

PetsMart has an hour-long workshop on Minimizing Barking. There's a reason why
it isn't called Stopping Barking. :} Dogs bark. It's what they do. And barky
breeds, like eskies, bark more frequently and for more reasons.

But if you have a PetsMart near you, I highly recommend a different workshop.
It's called Kids & Dogs, and the curriculum includes preparing the dog for the
new baby. One hour, $15. Very important stuff, especially since it sounds
like the dog has not been well-socialized.

For future reference - next dog must be exposed to as many strangers - babies,
children, people with hats, people in wheelchairs, people with beards, etc. -
as possible between the age of 10 weeks to 5 months. That's your window of
opportunity for socialization.

I've seen well-socialized eskies (mine wasn't), and they behave completely
differently. Much less barky.

PetsMart Pet Trainer
My Kids, My Students, My Life:
http://hometown.aol.com/dfrntdrums/m...age/index.html
Last updated June 27 at 10:00 a.m.

John wrote:
as I can't stand
the loudmouth little rat, my wife aptly calls it a "love/hate"
relationship because she knows I just adore the cute little thing and
could never hurt it, no matter what sick fantasies I dream of when
she's barking.

I had an eskie, so I know exactly what you mean. :} I adored him, but that
BARKING!!!

Yep, it's a barky breed. I could manage his to some degree. First, I kept all
the windows closed and the blinds drawn. It cut down on a lot of his triggers.
Also leaving the TV or radio on would disguise some of the noises.

I discovered that if I got on the floor with him, petted him and whispered
"shhh, shhh" into his fur, he'd bark more quietly and calm down more quickly.
My current dogs - all 3 put together not as barky as my eskie - respond to just
coming over to the window and cheerfully acknowledging whatever they're barking
at. "I see it, yup, thanks girls!" Then I distract them to focus on something
else. But my eskie couldn't be distracted.

I employed time-outs. If he just wouldn't stop, I would take him into the
bathroom and shut the door. This would defuse him enough so that when I let
him out, he'd be quiet. Time-outs are tricky, though. You have to be able to
scoop her up and isolate her *immediately.* If you have to run up the stairs
and down the hall with her to isolate her, you lost the lesson on the way.
And only 10-30 seconds of isolation, but you can't let her out if she's
vocalizing. Tricky.

Last resort, the citronella collar has a pretty good success rate. It's
expensive, but IMHO the best choice for bark collars. A lot of dogs don't
respond to the sonic collars (though some do), and I would only use a shock
collar with the help of an expert in their usage.

PetsMart has an hour-long workshop on Minimizing Barking. There's a reason why
it isn't called Stopping Barking. :} Dogs bark. It's what they do. And barky
breeds, like eskies, bark more frequently and for more reasons.

But if you have a PetsMart near you, I highly recommend a different workshop.
It's called Kids & Dogs, and the curriculum includes preparing the dog for the
new baby. One hour, $15. Very important stuff, especially since it sounds
like the dog has not been well-socialized.

For future reference - next dog must be exposed to as many strangers - babies,
children, people with hats, people in wheelchairs, people with beards, etc. -
as possible between the age of 10 weeks to 5 months. That's your window of
opportunity for socialization.

I've seen well-socialized eskies (mine wasn't), and they behave completely
differently. Much less barky.

PetsMart Pet Trainer
My Kids, My Students, My Life:
http://hometown.aol.com/dfrntdrums/m...age/index.html
Last updated June 27 at 10:00 a.m.

Sounds like I've already done a great deal that you suggest. Seemed
like common sense to me. At least I now know it's common for the
breed - as i said, the only one I ever had growing up was deaf, so she
wasn't triggered much.

And this brain dead thing I have - good thing she's cute. As much as
it just irritates me, it also makes me laugh sometimes how she'll bark
at something, then stop, look right at me as if waiting for a reply,
then do a little quieter "woof", then start off again.

As far as putting in the bathroom, I do that already. She even knows
it. I just say "Get in the bathroom!" and she trots right over, turns
around to face the door, sits on the rug in there, and waits for me to
close the door.

And I agree on dogs being introduced to everything you can manage in
the environment. All of my dogs, as soon as I got them, would get
outside and I would let them see / smell / pee on anything they could
see. Satisfy as much of their curiosity as I could. Especially other
dogs. I wanted them to always be comfortable and familiar with the
fact that they're not the only dog on the face of the planet. But, as
I said, this was my wife's first dog, so she didn't know any of these
things to help the dog later in life.

I'll look into the petsmart option for both the barking minimizing (I
agree- barking never stops totally - dog has it's instincts and that's
their way of communicating to you) and for the Kids and Dogs workshop.
Sounds like a great thing!

Thanks for the info!

John



Sep 2003 14:23:11 GMT, URK-OFF (Leah) wrote:

John wrote:
as I can't stand
the loudmouth little rat, my wife aptly calls it a "love/hate"
relationship because she knows I just adore the cute little thing and
could never hurt it, no matter what sick fantasies I dream of when
she's barking.

I had an eskie, so I know exactly what you mean. :} I adored him, but that
BARKING!!!

Yep, it's a barky breed. I could manage his to some degree. First, I kept all
the windows closed and the blinds drawn. It cut down on a lot of his triggers.
Also leaving the TV or radio on would disguise some of the noises.

I discovered that if I got on the floor with him, petted him and whispered
"shhh, shhh" into his fur, he'd bark more quietly and calm down more quickly.
My current dogs - all 3 put together not as barky as my eskie - respond to just
coming over to the window and cheerfully acknowledging whatever they're barking
at. "I see it, yup, thanks girls!" Then I distract them to focus on something
else. But my eskie couldn't be distracted.

I employed time-outs. If he just wouldn't stop, I would take him into the
bathroom and shut the door. This would defuse him enough so that when I let
him out, he'd be quiet. Time-outs are tricky, though. You have to be able to
scoop her up and isolate her *immediately.* If you have to run up the stairs
and down the hall with her to isolate her, you lost the lesson on the way.
And only 10-30 seconds of isolation, but you can't let her out if she's
vocalizing. Tricky.

Last resort, the citronella collar has a pretty good success rate. It's
expensive, but IMHO the best choice for bark collars. A lot of dogs don't
respond to the sonic collars (though some do), and I would only use a shock
collar with the help of an expert in their usage.

PetsMart has an hour-long workshop on Minimizing Barking. There's a reason why
it isn't called Stopping Barking. :} Dogs bark. It's what they do. And barky
breeds, like eskies, bark more frequently and for more reasons.

But if you have a PetsMart near you, I highly recommend a different workshop.
It's called Kids & Dogs, and the curriculum includes preparing the dog for the
new baby. One hour, $15. Very important stuff, especially since it sounds
like the dog has not been well-socialized.

For future reference - next dog must be exposed to as many strangers - babies,
children, people with hats, people in wheelchairs, people with beards, etc. -
as possible between the age of 10 weeks to 5 months. That's your window of
opportunity for socialization.

I've seen well-socialized eskies (mine wasn't), and they behave completely
differently. Much less barky.

PetsMart Pet Trainer
My Kids, My Students, My Life:
http://hometown.aol.com/dfrntdrums/m...age/index.html
Last updated June 27 at 10:00 a.m.

Sounds like I've already done a great deal that you suggest. Seemed
like common sense to me. At least I now know it's common for the
breed - as i said, the only one I ever had growing up was deaf, so she
wasn't triggered much.

And this brain dead thing I have - good thing she's cute. As much as
it just irritates me, it also makes me laugh sometimes how she'll bark
at something, then stop, look right at me as if waiting for a reply,
then do a little quieter "woof", then start off again.

As far as putting in the bathroom, I do that already. She even knows
it. I just say "Get in the bathroom!" and she trots right over, turns
around to face the door, sits on the rug in there, and waits for me to
close the door.

And I agree on dogs being introduced to everything you can manage in
the environment. All of my dogs, as soon as I got them, would get
outside and I would let them see / smell / pee on anything they could
see. Satisfy as much of their curiosity as I could. Especially other
dogs. I wanted them to always be comfortable and familiar with the
fact that they're not the only dog on the face of the planet. But, as
I said, this was my wife's first dog, so she didn't know any of these
things to help the dog later in life.

I'll look into the petsmart option for both the barking minimizing (I
agree- barking never stops totally - dog has it's instincts and that's
their way of communicating to you) and for the Kids and Dogs workshop.
Sounds like a great thing!

Thanks for the info!

John



Sep 2003 14:23:11 GMT, URK-OFF (Leah) wrote:

John wrote:
as I can't stand
the loudmouth little rat, my wife aptly calls it a "love/hate"
relationship because she knows I just adore the cute little thing and
could never hurt it, no matter what sick fantasies I dream of when
she's barking.

I had an eskie, so I know exactly what you mean. :} I adored him, but that
BARKING!!!

Yep, it's a barky breed. I could manage his to some degree. First, I kept all
the windows closed and the blinds drawn. It cut down on a lot of his triggers.
Also leaving the TV or radio on would disguise some of the noises.

I discovered that if I got on the floor with him, petted him and whispered
"shhh, shhh" into his fur, he'd bark more quietly and calm down more quickly.
My current dogs - all 3 put together not as barky as my eskie - respond to just
coming over to the window and cheerfully acknowledging whatever they're barking
at. "I see it, yup, thanks girls!" Then I distract them to focus on something
else. But my eskie couldn't be distracted.

I employed time-outs. If he just wouldn't stop, I would take him into the
bathroom and shut the door. This would defuse him enough so that when I let
him out, he'd be quiet. Time-outs are tricky, though. You have to be able to
scoop her up and isolate her *immediately.* If you have to run up the stairs
and down the hall with her to isolate her, you lost the lesson on the way.
And only 10-30 seconds of isolation, but you can't let her out if she's
vocalizing. Tricky.

Last resort, the citronella collar has a pretty good success rate. It's
expensive, but IMHO the best choice for bark collars. A lot of dogs don't
respond to the sonic collars (though some do), and I would only use a shock
collar with the help of an expert in their usage.

PetsMart has an hour-long workshop on Minimizing Barking. There's a reason why
it isn't called Stopping Barking. :} Dogs bark. It's what they do. And barky
breeds, like eskies, bark more frequently and for more reasons.

But if you have a PetsMart near you, I highly recommend a different workshop.
It's called Kids & Dogs, and the curriculum includes preparing the dog for the
new baby. One hour, $15. Very important stuff, especially since it sounds
like the dog has not been well-socialized.

For future reference - next dog must be exposed to as many strangers - babies,
children, people with hats, people in wheelchairs, people with beards, etc. -
as possible between the age of 10 weeks to 5 months. That's your window of
opportunity for socialization.

I've seen well-socialized eskies (mine wasn't), and they behave completely
differently. Much less barky.

PetsMart Pet Trainer
My Kids, My Students, My Life:
http://hometown.aol.com/dfrntdrums/m...age/index.html
Last updated June 27 at 10:00 a.m.