My problem: Our yappy little dogs

littlebee55 wrote:
I never did like the bark collars. I think too many people abuse them, but since I know we will not, I might get them one as a last resort.(I know. Sadly, that makes me a hypocrite). We might try that silent thing that only they can hear before that. But first, we will try the closing the windows and running the tv.

My husband works nights and told me that when I leave the house, they won't shut up, but noises outside will do it, too.until he brings them to bed. I think a lot of it is separation anxiety. I really, really want this to work. So, thank you for all of your help.

Separation anxiety is a whole different ball game than "just" barking. If you really believe the underlying cause of their barking is SA then IMO you need to be looking at ways to address that. Otherwise it's kind of like having a really bad case of pneumonia and trying to fix it just by taking cough medicine. It's usually going to take a lot more treatment to cure it than just medicating one symptom. (Okay, so maybe that's not a great analogy. But it's the best I can do right now. ;))

Also, keep in mind that the suggestions to make a shake can (or lunchbox or whatever) may work to teach the dogs to not bark when you or your DH are there to shake it. That's not anywhere near the same thing as teaching them not to bark when no one is home to shake it. Some dogs aren't bright enough to realize the noise won't be made when no human is around, but most figure that out very easily.