What are we in for?

[camperforlife]

We haven't had a dog in years. We are the proud parents of a 17 week old Pembroke Welsh Corgi. We decided on the Corgi because it is a big dog in a small package that is sturdy enough to keep up with our outdoor activities yet small enough to be a travel companion.

She has been easy to house train, easy to teach that the cat is off limits and easy to control barking in the house. Corgis are notorious barkers and usually barks 3-5 minutes when left crated. I don't want to be "That Guy" with the barking dog when we have to leave her crated in the trailer.

I'm looking for advise on keeping the dog quiet when left alone and any items that you have found to be must haves for the traveling dog that you might not need at home.

Here are the partners in crime, still working on getting the Corgi's ears up.

[Pawz4me]

WyoTraveler wrote:
TV works. Our dog watches animal planet. Dog toys work. Our dog doesn't seem to mind being left alone. We never put our dog in jail i.e. crate. Maybe that is the reason your dog barks. Our dog was crate trained when we got him. Breeders big selling point. :h. Once we threw away the crate and made him part of the family training was real easy. JMHO crates are for breeders and dog show people transporting dogs that aren't part of their family. BTW when Jake (our ACD)isn't watching animal planet he lays on the dash board and watches the people walk by.

Every dog needs at a minimum to know how to tolerate being crated. 'Cause life happens and sometimes dogs have to be crated (either at the vet's or at home) due to injury or illness.

I'm helping a lady on another board deal with this. Her Doxie has a serious back problem and needs to be on strict rest for the next six weeks or so in order to have a chance to avoid euthanasia. The dog is six years old and isn't familiar with being crated. It's a bad situation. The owner's failure to crate train the dog may cost him his life.

[brewjaz]

How about something like this collar? It sprays citronella when they bark. Dogs HATE the smell. It's a bit pricey though--$40.00 for collar and $9 for spray refills. I know people that have had success with it. Pups must be 6 mos. or older though.
"If you want to stop your dog's excessive barking effectively without hurting him with a shock collar, try this Petsafe/Premier GentleSpray Citronella Anti-Bark Collar.......The GentleSpray Anti-Bark Collar is a much more humane and effective nuisance barking solution, delivering a harmless burst of citronella to interrupt your dog's barking. Your dog will quickly and painlessly learn that there is a consequence for barking. He should completely assimilate to the collar within a few days. This harmless spray conditions your dog to behave properly by working on four of his five senses: he hears it, feels it, sees it and smells it."

Gentle Spray Anti-Bark collar

[camperforlife]

Alcaracu, we do a lot of hiking as well and we are looking forward to taking the pup with us. We have started walking with her now and she does very well on the leash. Our biggest problem is the snow and bitter cold we have been dealing with making it difficult to get the longer walks in that we would like. Regardless of the weather we have been getting her out a couple time a day just for a good walk.

Most of the time the crate barking is not an issue and quite often if she is very tired she will go to the crate on her own for a nap. The barking usually occurs when we take her out for a bathroom break just before we leave and then have to crate her when the very cold weather has fully revved her up.

As far as not crating or jailing as some would say, if you have nothing to do but watch a pup every waking moment and never leave the home I guess you could get away with that. Quite frankly I would call leaving a pup unattended and running loose in the house very irresponsible. There are way too many hazards that could injure or kill an unattended pup. She is treated very much like a member of the family and the limited amount of time that someone cannot be home to be with her, she will be safely crated.

[Pawz4me]

Ditto those who say to leave on something for white noise. When we leave our dogs in the RV we leave the TV on and set the AC/furnace fan to "on" so that it runs all the time.

We also reserve a special treat for when they're crated in the RV. For our dogs that's a Kong toy that's stuffed with chunks or shreds of cooked chicken and held together with canned cheese and frozen. It takes them a long time to get through that. By the time they do we're long gone and they're ready for a nap.

Also, continue to work on crating at home, and practice in your RV while you're at home. Do everything you can to make the crate a happy place. You can do that by feeding meals in it, giving a treat every time she goes in and things like that. Many people use crates for "time outs" if their puppy misbehaves, but I tend to think that's not a good idea. I want my dogs to only associate good things with their crates.

[alcaracu]

congrats on your new camper buddy. we camp with 2 rescue corgis, divot age 6, and bubba age 11. they love to camp and are quite good about staying in the camper. we do a lot of hiking with them and find if you give them enough exercise they spend most of their down time sleeping.

[WyoTraveler]

TV works. Our dog watches animal planet. Dog toys work. Our dog doesn't seem to mind being left alone. We never put our dog in jail i.e. crate. Maybe that is the reason your dog barks. Our dog was crate trained when we got him. Breeders big selling point. :h. Once we threw away the crate and made him part of the family training was real easy. JMHO crates are for breeders and dog show people transporting dogs that aren't part of their family. BTW when Jake (our ACD)isn't watching animal planet he lays on the dash board and watches the people walk by.

[TucsonJim]

The Corgi pup simply needs correction when she does something she's not supposed to such as barking. There are quite a few tools to help with this. I'd use technology to help in this case. You can set everything up, and then leave the RV while you monitor from some distance to verify success.


Anti-barking devices

[brirene]

I often leave a radio or the tv on, and have done so for at least 3 dogs over the years. Tuned to a talk station, it keeps them company plus masks some of the outside noise which might encourage barking.