Hitting the bottle

Many puppy raisers deal with barking by squirting their pups. But for some reason, Steve and I haven't done that much. I think we've just been obtuse.

Dionne doesn't bark a lot. But she'll start sometimes when she gets excited, as when playing with Tucker or our current visitor, Kenzie. She doesn't growl. She barks, and we think her voice has a volume greater than any other dog we've ever had. Steve today compared it to a cannon.

Mindful that Dionne's predecessor, Darby, was released in part because of her inappropriate barking, and annoyed by having my eardrums shattered, I've squirted Dionne on a couple of recent occasions when she ignored my command to be "Quiet!" Although a mixture of water and vinegar is sometimes recommended, I've been using plain water. To my amazement, it seems to work.

She doesn't slink away, terrified, as Tucker did when we used a squirt bottle to stop him from jumping on visitors. Instead she's been acting as if being squirted was no big deal. But in every case, she also has stopped the barking. Concept!