A Girl and Her Dogs

It’s a constant thing around here - as sure as the sun will rise, dogs will bark! Especially when there’s 23 of them!!!!!

AAAAARRRRRGGGGGGGHHHHH!!!!!!

Being upstairs it’s not so bad, but it’s really bad when I’m in the kitchen or when we’re trying to watch tv. We’ve tried a dog ‘Barker Breaker’ and it helped a little, but not as much as we’d have hoped. We even use an airhorn - and that works, as long as you don’t mind running downstairs every time they bark and then bursting your own eardrums in the process!

Any suggestions?!?

We don’t like spanking our dogs (unless the situation calls for it - we do use the Monks of New Skete method sometimes - more on that later)…so what do we do when we want our (many) dogs to listen?

We use a little thing called a WATER BOTTLE!

We picked up several small plastic water sprayer bottles from the travel cosmetics section of Wal-Mart, and filled them with cold water and we placed them strategically all over the house (so we’d have access to them when we need them).

It works so well - especially when we have to walk through all of them to go outside, or when we have company, or we need to give them some or all of them medicine, or even when they are whining, barking or fussing at/with each other. Simply squirt them a few good times - right on the muzzle or square between the eyes (even on the paws or the ears) -and they usually stop and settle down!

If you find your dogs aren’t phased by it - try added a splash of lemon juice to the water - just be careful not to get it in their eyes! And never use a spray bottle that has had something else in it - always use a clean, brand new one. Preferably one with the option to ’stream’ and not just ‘mist’!