There’s this big dog that found a way around it bark collar. Sandy has this great big dog, a St. Bernard with a haughty name – Magnus – and who routinely and loudly barked at dogs he saw through the front gate. The way he barked he sounded like he owned the streets, and other animals were an eyesore.
So for this problem Sandy purchased a bark collar, to instill some needed big dog discipline. It did work, actually, for an entire week. And then Magnus was back, with a different bark, but loud and relentless like before. What happened, it seemed, was that Magnus had gotten used to the shock. The collar would release a static correction upon a bark, and would continue to do so, one buzz followed by another, when the barking continued.
The big dog found a way, releasing a low whooping kind of bark, and then pausing – because shock collars can continue buzzing until the dog stopped barking. When she thought about it, Sandy realized this was how the big dog worked around the static – the nodes of the collar would momentarily not touch the dog’s throat, meaning a non-activation. After one big whooping bark the dog would pause, and then another of the same bark would follow, like a big creepy mini howl in succession.
The intensity setting on the collar – Sandy adjusted this, higher this time, so the big dog wouldn’t be able to ignore it. The slight slack on the collar she adjusted, tightened it up a bit. That stopped Magnus from barking. He couldn’t shake the collar’s nodes off. This meant a consistency in the static correction activation, since the nodes with constantly touching the dog’s neck’s skin.
Magnus was not happy about this – you can see it on his face. The moment he prepped for a whooping bark, he got this odd look on his face. Startled, he tried again. Another funny look on his face. Silence made its way back into the house, as weeks passed without so much as whoof from the dog. Magnus looked like he didn’t’ mind not being able to bark like before, but with Sandy being happy about it Magnus probably didn’t mind. The barking problem seem to have faded on its own and the big dog was back to simply being a big happy dog.
Dog owner with dogs as big as stubborn as Magnus should want to know what Sandy did to overcome that barking stubbornness. She watched for how her dog reacted to the stimulus when Magnus tried to bark. She the instituted some adjustments which she monitored to see if those affected her dog’s barking.
What did Sandy learn from all this? Here’s a summary. You might need to adjust the intensity settings. Your dog must not be able to slide the collar around his neck. A spray collar is a good alternative to the static collar if you think that the static type is not working out for your dog. Consult your vet about the problem.
