Barking

[NSLady]

I have two Shelties (13 months and 11 months). They are wonderful dogs, but my goodness, they are barky!

We have a fenced in backyard, and, although my neighbours are incredibly good about it, I can tell that their patience is wearing thin when our shelties bark at everyone or everything that walks or drives by my house. When the children next door our in their yard playing, my two dogs constantly bark at them. When my neighbour on the other side walks to his car, they bark at him too.

We do not leave our dogs outside unattended, so we do bring them back inside pretty quickly when the barking starts, but it would be nice not to have to constantly be on guard whenever our dogs are outside. Does anyone have any suggestions or training methods to teach my dogs when it is appropriate to bark and when to be quiet?

I would sincerely appreciate any suggestion or advice you may have.

Thank you!

[mellie]

Well, yes they do bark don't they ??!! We distract Sally with with fetch and tug and reward silence Lots of treats when quiet-practice it inside where distractions are few and when they are barking get their attention and give them a treat when they are quiet...a certain amount of barking is to be expected because they are shelties