Question about training dog not to bark.

Question
Hi!
My dog, Gracie, is 10 years old, I have had her for 8 of those years. She is a mixed breed, probably shepard and rottweiler, but smaller than both, about 50 lbs. She is an inside dog and always has been. She has eaten Purina dog chow for the last few years.

I love her with all of my heart, we both have attachment issues. She is a total "momma's girl." She doesn't listen very well to other people. I live alone though, so that is not often an issue.

She never used to bark excessively. Until, about 9 months ago, I rescued a pitbull puppy. It took a few months to find him a home so in that time, he lived with us. The two dogs would get each other all wound up whenever there was someone in the hallway of our apartment buiding. They barked all the time. After I placed the puppy in a home Gracie continued with the overzealous "protector" role.

We have had many many other temporary pets in our home but this has never happened. It could also be due to the fact that Gracie is kinda an old lady now. One other thing that may make a difference is that Gracie is a 3-legged dog, who now suffers from pretty severe arthritus in her remaining front leg. I can tell she is in a lot of pain sometimes, and it makes her grumpy. She IS on medications, and they have made a world of difference, but she's still hurting sometimes.

Oh my, I don't get to the point very well. The point is we recently moved to Colorado, into another apartment buiding, but in a bustling college neighborhood now. My neighbors are much more raucous, which doesn't bother me but it is really ticking Gracie off! She is hypersensitive about her barking now. Her bark is very loud and booming, even though her personality isn't.

Is there anything I can do to train her that it's ok to bark when someone knocks(it  always has been) but not to park at the poor kids in the courtyard?

Also, she sometimes gets mad when I leave and barks loudly for several minutes. This has been going on for awhile.

I really appreciate your help with any ideas you might have. Thanks in advance!
*maree

Answer
It's very difficult without seeing the behavior in person to be able to give accurate advice, but I'll try, Maree. It *could* be that your dog is losing her eyesight or something, and is becoming more aware of noises as a result. Have you had her thoroughly checked out by a vet to see if there is anything like that going on? If not, it's something to think about.

Before you leave, try telling her, just as if you were talking to an adult, "I have to go to work (the store, wherever) now. You're in charge. I'll be back soon." It may sound silly, but it sometimes works!

You might also try leaving a TV or radio on to help drown out outside noises.

If she can look out and see the people in the courtyard that she's barking at, try blocking her view with a curtain, blinds, or something. If she can't see them, she may not be as likely to bark at them.

A last resort would be some kind of bark control device. You can buy things that plug into the wall that detect barking and emit a high pitched sound (I don't know how loud your neighbors are, but I'd test this out before I left Gracie alone with it, just to be sure that the outside noises don't set it off). You can also buy bark collars that emit a static correction, a beeping sound, or a spray of citronella when the dog barks. I have experience with the beeping ones and the static ones, but not the citronella ones. The beeping ones are crap. They are set off by everything; if the dog plops its head down too hard, it goes off; if a door slams shut, it goes off; if a noise on TV is too loud, it goes off. I've used several different brands of static correction bark collars as well. The one I've been most pleased with is the one made by Dogtra (see http://dogtra.com/s_product/s_view.php?category=Nobark&title=No-Bark%20Collar - copy and paste the address into your browser's address bar and click "GO" if you cannot click this link). The Petsafe brand again, goes off at every noise. The Innotek I liked, because it started out at the lowest level and gradually increased the level of correction until the dog could feel it and stopped barking. The only thing I didn't like so much was that it seemed like it had several low levels, several high levels, but no middle-of-the-road levels. I put it on my hand to feel the way it corrected, and it went from me just barely being able to feel a tingle, straight to a much stronger sensation. The Dogtra cannot be bought from the local pet store (http://www.altmoor.com has the cheapest prices that I've been able to find on the better electronic collars, but they do not sell the Dogtra bark collar), so you'll either have to find a local dealer from their website, or do a search to find the cheapest online retailer.

Good luck, and please let me know if there's anything else I can help you with!

Kristen