If your dog barks a lot for no real reason, or your neighbors are annoyed by the endless “twilight barking” every night, you need to do something about your dog’s barking

Your Options

The first step you should take is find out the reason why your dog is so loud. Dogs bark from all kinds of reasons – people walking past your residence, boredom or other dogs. Finding the cause of barking can help you eliminate it and reduce or even neutralize the reaction of your dog.

If your dog barks from anxiety or stress, punishing your dog for barking will only increase the problem. There are more alternatives to stop its barking that you can approach. These include repeated exposure (exposing your dog to the stimulus – like a ringing telephone – while you calm the dog and help it stay quiet), distraction (as the stimulus occurs, offer your dog attention, praise, treats – anything to take the dog’s mind off the stimulus), or reshaping (teach the dog to bark on command by using clicker training, then help the dog to expand the training to include silence, too). If these don’t work, get the help of a professional – a dog trainer or vet can help.

The Bark Collar – An Alternative Method

The dog collar is a great method to prevent the barking. There are many types of collars so you can pick the one that best serves your purposes.

Citrus spray (or “citronella”) can spray from the collar when the dog barks. Other collars precede the spraying with a “hiss”, so that the dog can avoid the substance by not starting to bark at all in the first place.

Sonic or ultrasonic dog Bark collars work by producing a “dog whistle” sound – a sound so low that generally only dogs can hear it – whenever the barking happens. Dogs do not like these sounds and they generally tend to avoid them, so there is a high chance that it will not start barking out of fear of these sounds starting.

There are also electronic barking collars you can use; they give the dog a shock whenever it barks. This collar is painful, but effective in reducing the barking.

There are many methods to deter barking, but a dog bark collar is one of the best. You can safely use any of the three types – the citronella spray collar, the electronic one or the sonic/ultrasonic dog collar. No type of bark collar can hurt your dog, but it can successfully prevent excessive barking.

If you need a solution to prevent your dog from barking excessively, you can either use dog training or Bark collars. The latter comes in three versions, which are all very efficient – collars with citronella spray, electronic collars or sonic/ultrasonic dog collars. Any of these methods will not harm the animal. More information on barking collars is available here.