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rubysmom


rubysmom

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I hope people are still active on this forum! I was beginning to think i was crazy until I found you all! I have a 6month old purebred Cairn. She’s beautiful, smart, and full of character.  She’s super fun and loves to play (she will fetch a ball for as long as your arm will hold up), walk, swim, and explore.  We keep her busy with puzzle toys and new stuff to keep things fresh. She’s wicked smart!
 

The only thing we can’t solve: the barking. At everything.  At nothing. At dogs. At people.  At the wind. We don’t want to use any collar that would ‘shock’ her but I fear it might be the next step unless you have suggestions.  I have been reading a lot here so, just any help will be appreciated.
 

Also, she isn’t around other dogs a lot and I would love her to be able to play with other puppies.  Any others have experience socializing? She sounds like she thinks she’s a giant Mastiff so I’m not sure what she would do with new dogs. 

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Welcome to the forum and welcome to the crazy :)

At six months your girl is still very much a puppy. For me the main thing with barking is not so much to appeal to their sense of "stop it" as it is to interrupt it and (whether by startle or by giving an actionable command) then substitute a behavior that is incompatible with barking. There doesn't seem to any approach that works for all dogs, but some things that have worked for various Cairns through the years:

  • toss a hat (like a ball cap) in their general direction
  • squirt bottle
  • rattle-can (we put a few pennies in an empty altoid tin and tape it shut; an empty soft drink can would probably work) — tossed in their general direction it startles them, whereupon you can tell them to stop barking and then immediately thank them for having done so
  • obedience training — serious obedience training gives you and your dog a repertoire of cues and behaviors that you can use for all sorts of beneficial reasons.  With barking for instance you can approach them and give a stern SIT! Most dogs won't (or can't) bark while sitting at attention. Our old boy Haggis eventually learned to multitask (sigh) but we found that if we put him in a DOWN! instead, he could no longer bark.

Just some ideas to get you thinking. It's early days, the journey is long, a lot of fun, and over too soon. Keep your sense of humor, be more stubborn than your terrier, and enjoy the ride.

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CRCTC: Columbia River Cairn Terrier Club 

 

 

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Thank you for responding!  Some good tips for sure.  We will give those a try.  We have had a trainer in to work with her also and tried some different distraction ideas too.  When she is focused in bark-mode - there’s almost no getting her attention for anything. I am not even sure she knows we exist anymore.  On a walk when she barks at other dogs it was recommended to try and move her away from them as quickly as possible until we reached her threshold.  She is very persistent so we have to move - far.  
 

So.... we will work on the cap and altoid tin idea and give that a try... and work on our stubbornness as well.  Thank you!  

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Step by step :) When our new guy is running the fence with neighbor dogs we let him until he barks. Once he barks if he doesn't stop immediately we immediately (and silently) just go pick him up and bring him inside. Game over. No yelling (him or us :P )

CAIRNTALK: Questions? Need help? → Support Forum Please do not use PMs for tech support
CRCTC: Columbia River Cairn Terrier Club 

 

 

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We learned about the can of compressed air, called a "Pet Corrector," from Diane, Katie's mom in Carmel.  It issues a short blast of air, which is apparently a very unpleasant noise to our dogs.  If they start barking (and being cairns bark they do!), we would command "No Bark" and give a short blast into the air with the can.  They hate this sound, and it would startle them into stopping.  Now if they start to bark, I just raise the can, say "no bark" -- and don't even have to give a blast of air.  The cans are relatively cheap, and I suggest you give one a try.  You have to carry one around with you for a while, or get several so one is close.  Now we just have one in our kitchen and one in the TV room.  This has really helped (the barking increased substantially when we got our second dog -- they seem to egg each other on...).

Good luck!

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Okay so the Pet Protector is a can of MAGIC!  It has pretty much eliminated the running back and forth outside barking at every noise. She just is so calm now. We are working on the inside barking - especially at the door now but seriously it’s so much less stressful now with the outside quieter!  Thank you! You’re all geniuses 🙌🏼🙌🏼🙌🏼
We will work on the other stuff... and I will try to think of other stuff to ask all of you smarties!!

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That's great!

You'll know when you are truly successful when all you have to do is just show her the Pet Corrector can!

So smart, these terriers!

Katie is not a barker. We used it to have stay off the living room coffee table. One "toot" and she never jumped on it again.

The other time was at our SPCA small dog Sunday social play group: there was a French Bull Dog that wanted to maul Katie...one toot and that was enough to have him cease. Glad to say he didn't return. 

Cheers!

264282452_petcorrector.jpg.dc1263214ddc64b46fc5088ae1f4a5c0.jpg

 

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