The not so barky bunch...

With the baby on the way, we have been debating on how to keep our dogs from barking so much. We live on a corner lot in a house with windows everywhere so every time somebody walks by or is on their bike, our dogs feel the need to say hello. Since both Ryan and I work full time, the dogs are in the kennel most days but since I will be home with the baby for 3 months, they will but up and about all day, everyday. If it were only one dog, the noise level would not be that bad, but with 3 dogs it is really difficult to control, especially because dogs have such sensitive hearing, they hear things that humans don't so we can't always anticipate when they will bark.

We have tried shhhushing them, we have tried making a loud noise to distract them from whatever it is they are fixated on, we have tried blocking off areas of the house so that they cannot see out a window, we have tried squirting them with water, and a few other techniques to reduce the barking. All of these methods are recommended but we are at our wits end and I am ashamed to admit, we have resorted to trying to use shock collars. It would be great if at this moment you don't judge us.

We picked up the collars over lunch today. Each collar self adjusts starting on the lowest level and if the dog continues to bark, the shock becomes a little stronger. Each collar is activated by the vibration of the dog's vocal cord so if another dog barks, they will not be shocked. They claim it does no harm to the dog, it just scares them and feels like when you stick your tongue on a 9-volt battery. We are only going to have the collars on the dog for a few hours a day and only when we are home to supervise.

Each dog has one and so far as we can tell, only Guinness and Riley have been shocked one time each. Riley was outside howling and I saw him jump and Ryan said he let out a little cry. Well this was enough for me to want to cry myself. Then we were in the house and Guinness barked and on the third bark yelped! This made me actually cry, I just don't know how much longer I can stand it. I guess I have to keep this in perspective. We are doing this for our sanity and so that the dogs don't startle the baby every 30 minutes.

My hope is it will only take a few hours for a few days to get the pooches to reduce their barking habit and then all I will have to do is hold the collar up to get them to cease their barking.