# Bark Busters - Worth it?



## melluvssnakes (Aug 8, 2011)

Hi Guys,

We have a 12 month old mastiff x bitch who is generally a pretty well behaved little princess. She does have some basic obedience issues (like not always coming when she is called, and occasionally chewing on things she shouldn't) but the BIG issue we have is that she has a tendancy to get over excited and kill small animals. She doesn't have a vicious bone in her body (useless bloody pig dog), but she gets so excited and wants to play. To date, she has 'played' with 5 chickens, a goose and most recently, 4 guinea pigs. 
Now I work at a pet shop, so it's really embarrasing that I can't figure out how to fix my own dog's behavioural problems, but often have to offer advice to other people. We have heaps of brochures for Bark Busters sitting on the counter and after a bit of research on the net, I gave them a call and have booked a session with them. 

I'm just wondering if anyone else has had problems with their dog and have used Bark Busters? Was it worth the money? Was it easy to follow their advice?

Cheers,

Melissa


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## euphorion (Aug 8, 2011)

Personally I have never used them or any services so all the advice i have to offer is word of mouth. At my clinic we do not choose to recommend them because of clients having poor experiences with them. There are however a multitude of other training services available. That is not to say that they won't be able to help you, but i do suggest looking into all of the training services available to you in your area and looking into their practices, if they offer follow up visits and if their training is guaranteed. You also will want to know if you the training session is recorded so you can view it for yourself. I would personally not allow anyone else to train my animal without being able to review the material and ensure no practices i am not comfortable with are used. Having worked for several companion dog service providers from grooming to training and now veterinary care i can say some are excellent, others not bad and others to be avoided at all costs. I have seen trainers literally attack a dog they are training for misbehaving including striking the face (which the dog cowered from so from experience is used to being struck), pulling the animal about by the scruff of the neck, pulling the animal back by its tail when it has tried to remove itself from the situation along with out of control verbal techniques, lemon spray, electronic shock collars for simple barking and throwing check chains at an animals face.


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## sutto75 (Aug 8, 2011)

Hi 
I have not used Bark Busters but i have a dog who was on the bad side of good but not dangerous just silly and would not listen to us at all. After some time looking we use a guy down the gold coast called the dog whisper ( crap name). We took the dog there and left it for a week of training. After the week we went for an hour of training ourselves with the dog and bugger me he was a new dog.
Have not had a problem since best 400 bucks we have spent.
I know your too far away for that but it’s worth the money to get some good help with your little hairy friend.


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## Helikaon (Aug 8, 2011)

you need to go back to the basics, and build back up sit stay recall drop leave getting a trainer is a good start, but you need to do alot of the work and maintain the training

you should probably start with the fact that your dog isnt just over excited it is killing other animals, yes playing with them is better then ripping them apart but it is the same ball park.


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## notechistiger (Aug 8, 2011)

Bark Busters are pretty bad. They throw a chain around and teach you how to say "BAH".


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## melluvssnakes (Aug 9, 2011)

The reason why we chose Bark Busters is that they are one of only two local dog trainers available. The other is the Dog Obedience Club, but we have trouble taking Sasha there because she gets so over excited. She is a big girl and when she decides she wants to go say hello to the rotweiler over there, poor little me gets dragged along behind her. 
Bark Busters offers a lifetime guarantee on the behaviour of the dog. If any problems crop up later on (same old problems or new ones), they will come back and work with you some more. They do not train the dog themselves, they teach you how to handle the dog. 
To start with, they spend 2-4 hours with you and the dog, watching how the dog interacts with you and other people/animals and give you advice and some homework exercises to do. Then they come back in two weeks and see how you're going. They will keep coming back and having as many training sessions with you as necessary until the problems are fixed. That's what I've learnt off the internet and from talking to some local people.


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## euphorion (Aug 9, 2011)

if those are your options then hopefully it will work well for you  and i'm sure there will be some good trainers out there so just keep trying. as said previously, its a good idea to start retraining from scratch after doing some research through your vet or other training groups. otherwise why not go through the obedience club and see if someone there is willing to help give you some advice? 
good luck!


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## RSPcrazy (Aug 9, 2011)

notechistiger said:


> Bark Busters are pretty bad. They throw a chain around and teach you how to say "BAH".


This is true, my fiancé's mother breeds lots of snake food, hmm I mean chiwawa's, but they run the house and bark like crazy!! She called Bark Busters to come fix the problem, they gave her a small bag with a chain in it (which you through against a fence to make a lot of noise to scare the dogs) and told her to yell "BAH" as she throughs it. This shut the dogs up for probably 2 weeks, then they got used to it and I recon there worse now then they were before. Every time someone yells "BAH", the dogs think it's a barking competition and they all go nuts.


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## vampstorso (Aug 9, 2011)

A good training tool I found was the vibrating dog collars...

My Dally was a bit of a horror for awhile, as he'd nip endlessly...despite popular belief dalmatians are known for being biters, 
if you ignored him and just shrugged him off, he'd keep going. scold him, he'd keep going. give him a tap...he'd keep going!

Got a vibrating collar, and give him a tiny buzz when he'd bite...it very soon stopped.


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## Tristan (Aug 9, 2011)

i don't mean to offend any one but i am always amazed people have so much trouble training dogs, they are pack animals be the alpha and make sure they damn well know it.

they step out of line you tell them off. if the dog is not listening to you when you tell them off you simply have not established your Alpha position strongly enough. 

reward positive behavior punish negative.
ONLY punish when caught in the act NOT after or you send mixed messages, and teach nothing.
positive rewards can start out as food treats and with more training lead to simply pats and praises.

i grew up with a Saint Bernard, then a Rottie and a boarder collie, all our dogs came when called, sit when told, heeled when told and stayed until released. 

i used to tell them to sit and stay then walk away come back 5/10 min later and they were still sitting, then you praise them, if they had moved you tell them off (firm NO and repeat the commands Sit Stay) and repeat the exercise i did this 3 time (30-40min training) with the rottie and from then on she never moved.

our Saint Bernard was a champion competition dog.(yes that's me) she was about 50KG

View attachment 213272


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## vampstorso (Aug 9, 2011)

just like in children, punishment is STILL attention, and hence it doesn't lead to behaviour extinction; it still gets them attention after all.
Basic psychology....
also, being human, it's hard for some people not to comfort their pets when they shouldn't be.



Some animals are more head strong than others, 
and sometimes there's one area you can't quite get right; doesn't mean you've failed over all.

e.g. my dog did everything told, and still does, just getting him to initially learn to stop trying his place with a natural behavior was a bit harder. Because like I said, it's a natural behaviour.


so, there's plenty of reason people have trouble.
and if they're intimidated by their own species, why shouldnt they be of an animal with big teeth? people just get flustered.


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## notechistiger (Aug 9, 2011)

melluvsnakes, any business will try to make themselves sound better when advertising their services. They may keep coming back, but odds are their training methods won't work the second or third time they try to employ it if it doesn't even work the first xD Go on any respectable dog forum, the opinion on this service is pretty unanimous.

The dog obediance club would be a much better option for you. You need to teach your dog better obediance (killing animals, dragging when walking, recall, over-excitability). Bark Busters won't teach you how to fix these. If you can't control her when she wants to say hi (and I understand how powerful big, excited dogs can be), then try getting a collar for pulling dogs (martingale, etc) until you can train her to walk without pulling at all.


Edit: and there's plenty of articles to suggest the "alpha-dominant role is needed" is a load of crock. Many animals do just fine without their owner having to dominate themselves over the poor dog.


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## Firedrake (Aug 9, 2011)

There's a difference between dominant and opressive. Being dominant over your dog just means it knows you're the highest rank, therefore you come first no matter what. You don't need to yell or be overly domineering towards a dog for it to realize you are the boss. Simple training from a pup can put that impression on the dog, so that by the time it grows up it already knows how things work. Unfortunately not everyone has the time to practice this.


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## melluvssnakes (Aug 9, 2011)

Hmm I admit I am disappointed by the feed back about bark busters. I thought for the price ($440), they would have a better reputation. Will have to look into some different options. She really isn't that bad of a dog, just a little silly and she doesn't always play well with small animals. By herself, she is fine and she is my girl, love her.


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## Ambush (Aug 9, 2011)

Dog clubs. Sunday morning here for all breeds. costs bugger all and is fun


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## melluvssnakes (Aug 9, 2011)

Yeh but like I said earlier, it's hard to take her to the dog club cause I can't controll her when she gets super excited


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## Helikaon (Aug 9, 2011)

melluvssnakes said:


> Yeh but like I said earlier, it's hard to take her to the dog club cause I can't controll her when she gets super excited



Thats your problem! And if i go buy your picture you are a horse rider, if you can control a horse you can control your dog, you need to remember what your dogs place is. You wouldnt allow your horse to run around stupid when your on him so dont allow your dog to. You need to simply overpower her, thenreward the good behaviour, dominance holds are great for making them remember their manners and doesn hurt them at all.


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## euphorion (Aug 9, 2011)

Totally agree with Helikaon here. Acquire the equipment you need to control your big pooch and get someone to teach you how to use it. Ie, please don't by a check chain, they are useless and cruel as a training tool and should only be used by an animal that doesn't pull and in the hands of someone who knows how to use one. Martingales are a great tool to control the strength of your dog just like a halter helps to redirect the strength of a horse. If anyone tells you to 'dominance down' your dog then they're not yet giving you useful advice. Start from scratch, make sure your dog knows that until she listens to what you want and complies she isn't going to get what she wants either. Ie, if you take her to the dog park don't let her off her leash until she sits and waits politely for you to remove her leash and then release her from the stay. Ect. Sit and wait for food before eating, letting you pass through doorways first if you so choose, removing themselves from your lap/feet/space when you ask them to (respecting your space). where exactly are you in central qld anyway?


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## big_head (Aug 9, 2011)

Haven't read all of the replies. I tried out bark busters on a stubborn collie i had a few years ago. He was 7 or 8 at the time, and we thought what the hell. The lady that came out was nice and all, but really, pretty useless. My dog didn't respond to her throwing her chain around. Basically, it was $500 odd dollars from memory to learn how to say the word 'BAH'. As others have suggested, discipline at home, consistency and they weekend dog schools at various local parks.


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## Scleropages (Aug 9, 2011)

melluvssnakes said:


> she has a tendancy to get over excited and kill small animals. She doesn't have a vicious bone in her body (useless bloody pig dog), but she gets so excited and wants to play. To date, she has 'played' with 5 chickens, a goose and most recently, 4 guinea pigs.
> 
> 
> Melissa



What? so "play" means ripped to shreds? and she doesn't have an aggressive bone in her body?

Sorry but the dog needs serous training if that's the case. I have herd nothing good about bark busters.


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## Deb64 (Aug 9, 2011)

It's not entirely the dogs fault.... They are like small children and NEED to be given boundaries from the day you get them..... It's easy to love and spoil a puppy , but you need to always think forward and prepare your dog behavior wise for when it is an adult..... Dog obedience schools are not just there to train your dog... They are there to train YOU....they will help train you in how to react/ respond to the different things your dog does and will help you understand how your dogs mind is working..... Dogs LOVE TO PLEASE and will respond very quickly once you know the correct handling techniques required to gain positive behaviors ...... Take a stronger adult along with you for the first visit or two until you know you can confidently manage your dog in public by yourself.... You won't look back once you are pointed in the right direction and you and your dog will have a wonderful fun life together.....


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## Ambush (Aug 10, 2011)

melluvssnakes said:


> Yeh but like I said earlier, it's hard to take her to the dog club cause I can't controll her when she gets super excited



The clubs teach you how to fix this.. It can come down to the the check chain being on the wrong way. All kinds of things. Don't give up.Lot easier when they are excited than aggressive. Even your voice could be a problem. No good talking to a dog all sweet when you need to be firm. My dogs know If i flick my fingers its go away and lay down.


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## CHEWY (Aug 10, 2011)

Firstly, your dog is 12 months old. She is only a puppy, so while she has "obedience issues", not returning when called and chewing things are what pups do.
Some people have assumed that your dog has ripped these animals to shreds. Is this the case, or has she accidently killed by a crushing bite (puppies do bite too hard during play) or playing with for to long until stress and exhaustion kills the animal?
By your words, your pup is a "useless bloody pig dog". A dog that has been bred for an extremely high hunt drive. When a small animal runs, it may just be instinct kicking in to chase and retrieve/rip to shreds.
In my line of work using detector dogs, a dog with no hunt drive is failed very quickly. While our dogs are fine around people (and they are never associated with any other animals) to do chase whenever they see wild bunnies. I'm sure they would think the bunny would be a play reward if they ever caught one. 
Are you going to be using this dog for pigging? If so, you wouldn't want your dog around any other animals, if not, I would start training her now while she is young and eager to learn.

You aren't keen to take her to the dog club as she gets excited. This is the behaviour that you want to correct and there are people there to help. (Never dealt with any, and it doesn't sound like Bark Busters have a good rep. "Bah" What's that suppose to do?) You also need the training to be able train you dog. You *will *need the alpha position (you need to be the dominant figure, doesn't mean you need to dominate the dog) I your dog thisks she is alpha, why would she listen to you, the sub dominant animal?

I could go on forever, but there are so many didn'tthings you can do to train your dog. Many won't work, but that doesn't mean nothing will. Try one thing, then another until something shows an improvement. You may need a combination of a few or many things. 
For now, I wouldn't feed her anymore live guinea pigs.


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## melluvssnakes (Aug 10, 2011)

Haha you're right Chewy, she didn't rip them to shreds (except the chickens, which she plucked  ). The guinea pigs had no teeth marks on them at all, she just managed to get into the cage and played with them until they died...
We have done puppy shcool and we went to a basic obedience class for a few weeks. When she is by herself with just my partner and I, she is really good. We take her to a local creek and let her swim and go for a bit of a run and she loves it. By herself, we really can't complain about her behaviour. However, when she is around other dogs, she just turns silly. 
We don't know much about her breeding, it is quite possible that she was originally bred for hunting. It's certainly something that we had thought about, but it won't be happening with her now. She certainly does have a high hunt drive though. That's where the chickens went wrong, they went stupid running and flying around and she wanted to catch one. When she was a pup she was fine with the chickens. We took her down and let her into the coop while we were there cleaning or collecting eggs or whatever. She would have a bit of a sniff around, then go lay down in the corner and go to sleep. She had no interest in them whatsoever. Don't know what really went wrong there..
Shooshoo, I'm in Rockhampton..


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## euphorion (Aug 10, 2011)

Should be some other options in Rocky!  

It's quite common for a pooch to be well behaved at home or under a certain set of circumstances and then go batty elsewhere. This is usually because of the initial training was done one on one or at home, hence she will obey her commands there. You need her to understand that it doesn't matter where she is, she has to listen. This starts by redoing her training at home first to ensure she gets the idea, then starting to move outside of the home (outside the front gate, down the road, at the shops, in the car, in the carpark to the dog park, in the dog park (on the lead) then work up to at the dog park off the lead. It takes a while but it really worth it. My younger pooch is 2 and a half now and i'm constantly reminding her of what i want. I change it around so she doesn't get bored but i never let her just run off without my saying so at the dog park. As soon as you think 'there we are, they're trained, job done' you're going to run into problems. Dog's love to be given challenges of varying nature constantly, so keep her mind active by working on a different command each training session/day and work to perfect each one over time. My girl does her toileting on command now which is super handy as if i know i'm going out for a long day and she will locked up indoors i can go away knowing she has just done to business and there's no risk of her needing to go in half and hour while i'm or something. (Just an example). Doggy dancing it next on the list when i have time, hehe! 

just found this! Training give them a call


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## reptilegirl_jordan (Aug 10, 2011)

I wouldn’t be using bark busters; they have been around for years and still use the good old BAHH BAHH OR 'just throw the chain at the dog and it will stop doing this behavior'
Positive training is what you need; this can be found through puppy schools, Clubs, classes with your local veterinary hospital on weekends or even talking to your veterinary nurses/Vets for more advice.
But never use fear to train a dog.

Good luck.
Jordo


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## melluvssnakes (Aug 10, 2011)

Hey thanks for that Shooshoo. I know of them, but thought they only did grooming and day care. Will definitely give them a call


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## Jay84 (Aug 10, 2011)

notechistiger said:


> Bark Busters are pretty bad. They throw a chain around and teach you how to say "BAH".



Bark Busters are actually very good. They do not teach you to throw a chain around and yell BAH.



melluvssnakes said:


> The reason why we chose Bark Busters is that they are one of only two local dog trainers available. The other is the Dog Obedience Club, but we have trouble taking Sasha there because she gets so over excited. She is a big girl and when she decides she wants to go say hello to the rotweiler over there, poor little me gets dragged along behind her.
> Bark Busters offers a lifetime guarantee on the behaviour of the dog. If any problems crop up later on (same old problems or new ones), they will come back and work with you some more. They do not train the dog themselves, they teach you how to handle the dog.
> To start with, they spend 2-4 hours with you and the dog, watching how the dog interacts with you and other people/animals and give you advice and some homework exercises to do. Then they come back in two weeks and see how you're going. They will keep coming back and having as many training sessions with you as necessary until the problems are fixed. That's what I've learnt off the internet and from talking to some local people.



I have had a few family dogs, but Danté is my partners first dog. He struggled with the training of Danté and also got upset etc with me when i pointed out where he was going wrong and correcting him. So to avoid the conflict between us i called bark busters. My parents have used them before with a couple of previous family dogs and they were amazing! They teach you how to interact with your dog, speak their language so to speak. They do this in your own home where your dog is comfortable with no distractions. The ''BAH'' word is VERY effective! We have not even had to use the chain on Danté as he responds so well to ''BAH''. If we did have to use the chain you DO NOT and are NOT told to throw this at a fence, at the dog or any other stupid comments that others have made.

Bark busters offer the lifetime guarantee with their training and will visit you whenever any issues pop up in the future. Money well sent for that peace of mind.



RSPcrazy said:


> This is true, my fiancé's mother breeds lots of snake food, hmm I mean chiwawa's, but they run the house and bark like crazy!! She called Bark Busters to come fix the problem, they gave her a small bag with a chain in it (which you through against a fence to make a lot of noise to scare the dogs) and told her to yell "BAH" as she throughs it. This shut the dogs up for probably 2 weeks, then they got used to it and I recon there worse now then they were before. Every time someone yells "BAH", the dogs think it's a barking competition and they all go nuts.


 
It sounds like your fiances mother didnt listen very well....... lol



notechistiger said:


> melluvsnakes, any business will try to make themselves sound better when advertising their services. They may keep coming back, but odds are their training methods won't work the second or third time they try to employ it if it doesn't even work the first xD Go on any respectable dog forum, the opinion on this service is pretty unanimous.
> 
> The dog obediance club would be a much better option for you. You need to teach your dog better obediance (killing animals, dragging when walking, recall, over-excitability). Bark Busters won't teach you how to fix these. If you can't control her when she wants to say hi (and I understand how powerful big, excited dogs can be), then try getting a collar for pulling dogs (martingale, etc) until you can train her to walk without pulling at all.
> 
> ...



Why won't bark busters teach you how to fix these? They DO teach how to fix dragging, recall, overexcitability - all of these they did with my dog(s) and was successful! I can't say i have had to train my dog not to rip other animals apart lol.



melluvssnakes said:


> Hmm I admit I am disappointed by the feed back about bark busters. I thought for the price ($440), they would have a better reputation. Will have to look into some different options. She really isn't that bad of a dog, just a little silly and she doesn't always play well with small animals. By herself, she is fine and she is my girl, love her.



You will always hear good and bad about any service. People who do not follow through with what has been told will fail, they will then blame this on the company! People with strong willed and headstrong dogs will give up quickly saying ''it doesn't work''.



reptilegirl_jordan said:


> I wouldn’t be using bark busters; they have been around for years and still use the good old BAHH BAHH OR 'just throw the chain at the dog and it will stop doing this behavior'
> Positive training is what you need; this can be found through puppy schools, Clubs, classes with your local veterinary hospital on weekends or even talking to your veterinary nurses/Vets for more advice.
> But never use fear to train a dog.
> 
> ...



Maybe the ''good old BAHH'' has been around for years as it is an effective training tool?? maybe........


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## notechistiger (Aug 10, 2011)

Jay84, Barkbusters is a franchise and the quality changes from store to store (so to speak), so obviously you found a really good one =) I personally had some poor experiences with them a little while back and I know quite of a few people that agree. I would not ever recommend them to anyone over an obediance club.


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## Jeannine (Aug 11, 2011)

_5 chickens, a goose and most recently, 4 guinea pigs_

*unfortunately your going to have an uphill battle as your dogs now been blooded and one of the first things u need to do is NOT allow her to 'play well' with small animals as its proved she only kills them so keep her away from them, no idea who to use for training because as you have seen bark busters are useless, wish we had a the real dog whisper here in Australia*


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## Jen (Aug 11, 2011)

We used Bark Busters and found the guy to be awesome - the fact that I follow thru with being alpha and my fifo partner treats Nefertari like a little child instead of a dog is a big problem, but the 'bah' (um, and it's said quietly, not yelled) and the chain pocket really work when used correctly.


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## cwebb (Aug 11, 2011)

HAHAHAHAH!! ahhh that was hilarious hahahahah


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## melluvssnakes (Aug 11, 2011)

cwebb, what exactly was so funny? What did I miss?

And I would really like to point out that my dog has not been 'blooded' and is not senselessly ripping small animals apart as some people are interpertating. She simply gets overexcited and wants to play with the animals. Like I previously said with the guinea pigs, there was not a tooth mark in them, she simply stressed them out and they died. The chickens ran away from her and acted stupid like chickens do, so she decided to chase them. It doesn't take a whole lot to stress out a chicken. 

People are talking like she is a senselss killer, but she is not. She just gets overly excited. She is only 12 months old, she is still a puppy. She has got ATLEAST another 12 months of puppy behaviour ahead of her


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## ShepQLD (Aug 11, 2011)

I have to say here, although I have no real issues training dogs (only due to years of studying dog behaviour,) a friend had huge issues with a very over excited Labrador and they have nothing but praise for Bark Busters, they recently had them out again to show them how to teach the dog to use a treadmill and all with great results. There seems to be an awful lot of people who havent actually used them putting them down for saying BAH... Any dog I have ever trained has been taught BAH and thats without knowing bark busters used it... why? because it works. Just like a child about to touch something they shouldnt, a well time BAH tells the dog NO. I also always use the word YES when they do the right behaviour. If you research clicker training its a similiar thing. I believe, the chain would be used as a noise distraction, also a good tool for training. IF they are doing something wrong the best thing to do is distract as quickly as possible. and yes, pack leadership is important, its not all about being overly dominant though, its about the dog feeling secure and not questioning its place. Issues with things like prey drive are very difficult to fix and you shouldnt beat yourself up at all, your doing all the right things getting help, dont be put off by anyone, go with your gut, meet the people, or talk to them first, you will know if they are the right people to help or not because they will either sound like they know what they are talking about or they wont. If I had to pay out money to get someone to help Id rather know it was guaranteed and I could call them back up if I needed to. Dont give up and dont worry about anyone silly things, my ten week old border collie is always nipping my ankles at the moment because he thinks he needs to round me up when im walking. we are working on this at the moment but no doubt there would still be some people who would class him as a potentially aggressive puppy because he "bites" lol its in thier nature to do things we dont like sometimes, its just up to us to show them what is and what isnt ok behaviour. Good luck!


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