# Non-stop barking at critters!



## 2Vizslas (Sep 22, 2017)

We have 2 V's (one 5 y/o female, one 4 y/o male). Our female has a ridiculously strong prey drive and is definitely the alpha of the 2 and is incredibly high strung. So, every morning at 7:30 when the dew is fresh and the critters are out in force, the barking begins. Our female (Evie) starts and then Cooper joins in, but he barks at her barking instead of at the critters. She barks at every car that passes, every person that walks by, every critter she sees. We live in a neighborhood and I am constantly having to go outside and intervene. Our neighbors hate her. We have tried EVERYTHING - including (as a last ditch effort) a $200 sportdog bark collar. It doesn't affect her one bit.

Case-in-point... at this very moment, she has cornered a chipmunk under a set of shelving in our garage. She has been out there for 4 hours whining and barking and trying to claw under shelving to get at it. when I bring her in the house she stands at the back door and cries incessantly. I can't see the chipmunk, nor can I move the furniture to drive it out - so I'm just listening to her cry, while hopefully giving it time to escape.

I know someone on this forum has a vocal (barking) Vizsla. What are some things you do to get the barking under control. She loves being outside, but we can't let her go outside much (only for short periods to let her get some energy out) because as soon as she stops sprinting, she starts barking.... so we deal with listening to it in the house. We seemed to have solved her aggression issues by having her spayed, but we still have the barking issue. Our male's personality is the polar opposite of hers (completely laid back and quiet) and he stays outside almost all day, every day.


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## gunnr (Aug 14, 2009)

Which SportDog collar do you have? and do you know it is actually working?
Put the collar back on her, turn it up, and either wet her neck in the collar area, or put some conductive jelly on her fur in the area for better conduction. Make sure the collar is fitted properly. It's going to seem tight.
I use the SportDog brand, Contain and Train system for Finn, and so far have found it to be a quality product. It should be working for you. If not contact SportDog. Finn's collar is set to the lower range of medium intensity, and if he gets wet, I have to remember to dial it down even further, or he'll be significantly "over corrected". There is still one more higher range of intensity to his collar. You could probably flip a dog over with a wet neck, on the higher range. You absolutely do not want to do this! Apply only the stimulation required for the correct response.
If you're still not achieving the result your looking for, consider using a standard ECollar, and "manually" correcting her.
If she is not used for hunting, you may want to get a remote collar and begin to "avoidance train" her. It will give the chipmunks a break.


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## 2Vizslas (Sep 22, 2017)

gunnr said:


> Which SportDog collar do you have? and do you know it is actually working?
> Put the collar back on her, turn it up, and either wet her neck in the collar area, or put some conductive jelly on her fur in the area for better conduction. Make sure the collar is fitted properly. It's going to seem tight.
> I use the SportDog brand, Contain and Train system for Finn, and so far have found it to be a quality product. It should be working for you. If not contact SportDog. Finn's collar is set to the lower range of medium intensity, and if he gets wet, I have to remember to dial it down even further, or he'll be significantly "over corrected". There is still one more higher range of intensity to his collar. You could probably flip a dog over with a wet neck, on the higher range. You absolutely do not want to do this! Apply only the stimulation required for the correct response.
> If you're still not achieving the result your looking for, consider using a standard ECollar, and "manually" correcting her.
> If she is not used for hunting, you may want to get a remote collar and begin to "avoidance train" her. It will give the chipmunks a break.


The Sportdog collar definitely works. We have it on the progressive shock setting where it starts at level 1 and continues to escalate until the barking stops. It pretty much stays on levels 8-10 all the time. She barks, it zaps, her bark goes about 3 octaves higher and she continues barking right through it. She's definitely feeling it, but would prefer to keep barking rather than stopped getting zapped. We may have to switch to an eCollar.


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## 1stVizsla (Jun 22, 2016)

If they were my dogs I’d give them A LOT more Exercise. A tired V is a Happy V! Just took mine on 1 hr hike in woods/ fields, chasing deer & turkey. She barked for a few minutes at a rabbit in the yard at dusk but mostly just to let us know it was there. I think that if your V’s know they will get their scheduled walk upcoming later that day they will be MUCH more willing to listen when you tell them to simply “quiet” down. It works.


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