Jo's Old Site

I’m very pleased with my miniature schnauzer who I named Ilse, as I think she is a wonderful dog. People have also told me that she is quiet for a schnauzer too.

Although Ilse does have moments when she becomes a bit noisy. However my parents and I have always tried to work out what’s the best thing to do when she did barked? And we seem to be getting somewhere, as she is a lot better now. And as it has been a while since I wrote something about training dogs I decided that I should write another post about dogs that bark. As I understand how upsetting problem behaviours in dogs can be. My mother use to tell me that Ilsa’s barking was separation anxiety, and then I would say to mum that Ilse isn’t a neurotic dog. Also recently I told mum that Ilse may have a bit of separation anxiety, but most of her noise making is because she is a demanding dog. And mum agreed with me.

I also like to stress, how important it is when a problem is re occuring that the dog’s owner should talk about it. As this is one of the things that I did with mum and dad. As I made my parents understand that Ilse doesn’t understand what she is doing wrong, as barking and talking is perfectly natural for her.

And the problem barking occurred whenever I had to go out somewhere and when I returned. And we tried filling a squirter bottle and squirting her whenever she became noisy but this my parents and I found only confuse her. And of course we tried telling her be quiet but that didn’t work either. However, we found that throwing water in a jug is very effective, even if she runs from it. And giving Ilse a meaty bone or chicken wing to chew on as I head out is also effective.

Also other things that work are calling Ilse and bringing her inside, and when mum lets her dogs out and Ilse is reacting we then tell her to sit. As I read somewhere that this is another way that dog owners can control barking.

However, I find that getting Ilse to sit when she barks is more effective with her when there are other dogs about. And it is a good idea to have other ways to deal with the problem with barking dogs.

As we need to try different approaches to find solutions to the problem with barkers. As there are different reasons why dogs bark and it isn’t always a good idea to ignore it. Barking is also an ongoing problem and owners of dogs need to accept the responsibility of managing it better and I hope that some of the ideas I wrote in this post has helped.