How can I get my Cairn Terrier to stop balking at outside noises?

Question

I have a 4 year old cairn terrier that I have had since she was a puppy. And she always barks when she hears noises outside but lately it's gotten worse. Every time a car door closes, people walk by, voices, she starts to bark like crazy. And her bark is more like an howl, and it's gotten to a point that she'll start barking at a noise at like 3'oclock in the morning. How can I get her to stop?? When she starts doing it I say "Stop" or "No" and she looks at me and lets out a couple more barks then stops. How can I get her to not start at all??

Answer 1

At one point, I lived with 4 Cairns in a house. The oldest barked at thunder, knocking, and the door bell. As we added another dog (eventually getting to 4), they would bark when he did. After he passed away the other 3 kept doing it.

I hate to say it, but at 4 it might be too late. They are very vocal dogs. I was grateful that my dogs barked because we had someone try to break into our house once and the dogs barking then us getting up and turning lights on scared them off.

Answer 2

I would opt for a bark collar. We have 5 of them. They send out a tingle to let the dog know not to bark. takes some training to learn it and why it goes off. I would reccomend the petsafe nano tech. colors that are also waterproof. At petsmarts they cost $70 and well worth it. We own one of those and 4 of the large dog units.

Answer 3

hmm the semi crude way is to get a chocker, this devise works by either chocking or giving a quick zap everyttime the pooch trys to bark, and just like pavlovs dogs, eventually doggy will realize the cause and stop barking.