dansaber said:
Well what i recommend is good ol' fashion training not much though, what i recomend is if theres somthing the dogs barking at or when it shouldnt bark, just get up sit the dog down and hold its mouth closed for a good min, everytime it barks when it shouldnt do it, my dog still barks but she knows when she shouldnt.
Well, I don't wanna hi-jack your thread (of a very cool mod) with conversation that belongs in a dog training forum...
But, FWIW, I am a certified dog trainer, and I would recommend that only if it's a last resort for the following reasons:
1. The dog learns to associate you coming toward them with the punishment (holding their mouth closed),
2. Allot of dogs NEED to breath through their mouth, so you could be hurting the dog more then you think you are,
3. To do this kind of training REQUIRES consistency. If cos's son is allowing (or worse, encouraging) the barking behavior, the dog will really only associate the punishment with cos, not with the barking. And if someone isn't right there to punish the dog, say cos is in another room, and the dog is only punished every other or every third time it has a barking fit, the dog has no idea why it's being punished sometimes and not others....
So, professional training will help, good trainers will train YOU to properly train your dog (using positive, not negative, reinforcement). Again there, consistency is key, so only being around the dog during the day will have some serious drawbacks to training...
I recommend these products because they work (for a majority of dogs) and they do not require YOU to be standing over the dog, or be consistent yourself, the dog learns very quickly with these products that the action (barking) has consequences (loud, irritating, but not harmful, ultrasonic beep, or a spray of 'nasty' citrus smell) every time...
If holding the dogs mouth closed worked for you, that's great, I can't say I would NEVER recommend it, but all dogs are different, like all people are different, I don't know cos, or cos' son's dog, so I'm just giving general training advise here...
-=Bob=-
