DLew Family

Time to Put it Back On

For those of you who know... yes... I was going to try and sell Zoey. She was driving me up the wall, and it wasn't fair to her, she's only 1. I just didn't have time, what with everything going on, to try and fix what I didn't like. Like her Barking for one. She is such a good family dog... but when anyone comes over that she doesn't know... the Barking starts, and doesn't stop until she knows that person is miles away from the house. Heaven forbid that person comes in and wants to hold or hug one of the boys. She turns supper protective.
I thought I was either going to have to sell her or just plain give her away. She was "banished" outside where I couldn't hear her... and was only getting visited when I fed her, or D and I needed to do something in the back yard. That's no way to treat a dog. Given that it was only this way after D's second surgery... I knew something needed to change. I battled for a long time with wanting to give her away or not. And I did have a bunch of people interested... I just didn't know. She was my dog. My responsibility.
So yesterday... I decided I needed to change. I took her in to the Dog Groomers in the morning. Got her all nice and cleaned up. I looked on the internet about how to train a Miniature Schnauzer how not to bark. It was down to... Spraying her in the face with water every time she Barked out of line, or, a shock collar. I figured out that I didn't want to have to follow her around with a thing of water... plus I know I'd miss a few times she'd bark and I didn't get her. Her training has to be consistent. So, Bark Collar it was.
Bought fresh new batteries, and when she got home, I put it back on.
She's being pretty stubborn about it. But she's old enough to learn. She'll have to.
Took her to the park last night. Figured that I need the walks and so does she. And she about had it. Came home and she threw a fit by trying multiple times to knock over her food bowl... and she didn't stop growling. lol.
And today I felt bad when my friend came over to drop me of something and she was Barking and Shocking herself... she started crying. I ended up holding her so she'd calm down :( felt so bad. So I decided to look this video up... I'm sure everyone's seen it... now I can kinda guess what she's going threw :( 
But it has really come down to this... she has to be trained not to bark so much... especially when i know there are going to be people over here a ton when I have the baby. 
She is old enough to understand. She's just so freakin stubborn! My mother-in-law's dog had a shock collar on for just a while... and he got it! My mother-in-law is sure that if I keep up with this collar thing, Zoey will get it sooner or later. On her own time I guess. Ugh.