Unbearable

On of the things Shelby reacts to is reflections. So things like loading the dishwasher gets very loud. When I know something will cause her to react I put her in a down stay. She must stay there quietly until I release her. If she stays quietly she gets a treat. Seems to work well.

The other thing I taught her is if she feels the need to be reactive she must put a toy in her mouth so she stays quiet if I don't do a down stay. Then I tell her to drop it and then I thow it. We make a game out of it. She does this when I vacuum. Our friends think it is funny that I taught her to put something in her mouth so she doesn't bark.
 
It's actually VERY funny that she does this! Friend of mine gave me a bark collar to borrow just to see. Max stopped barking instantly. I kept it on him few hours. Quiet as a mouse. I felt bad though, he wasn't himself. So I took it off. He immediately went back to barking. I picked it up and he STOPPED. They are definitely very smart dogs! :biggrin2:
 
SueSheltie: Interesting your pup's reaction to the no-bark collar. I got one for Blithe because I could not face more of his incessant barking and also could not face the bark-softening surgery.

Fortunately, I can isolate the times he barks (only at me!) to two specific times, so I used the collar only for those times for one day. The reaction was as predicted and I can't tell if his quietness and apparent uneasiness for the remainder of the evening was due to the memory of the shock or to the fact that he had the collar on his neck. Since I don't usually have any collar on him he will noticeably be a bit calmer at times when he wears his chain collar

So the next day I didn't put the no-bark collar on him at all, but did carry it with me at the ready for when the stress time would come up. Although he was not perfectly quiet, his few barks were very tolerable, so I never put it on him. Today is the third day, but we haven't yet reached the barking time, except for when he wakes me (too early) in the morning. Wish I could find a remedy for that.

Just as with my previous dog, after one episode of correction with the spray water bottle, all I needed was to show him the bottle and I got results that lasted his lifetime. This dog was not a Sheltie, by the way.

So Sue, I know our pups are pretty smart, and I'm hoping that just the visual of the collar in my hand will work as well as the real thing.
 
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