How to Stop Your Dog's Excessive Barking in 3 Easy Steps

All dogs bark, it’s their way to communicate a message. Dog barks for various reasons: To acknowledge, to alert, out of boredom, to attract attention or when they are excited.

Although some barking is acceptable, too much barking is certainly frustrating, especially for your neighbors and eventually leading to complaints. The easiest way to halt a problematic barker is to control his barking while you are at home:

1. Set up a condition where your dog will always bark. For instance, you can ask someone to ring your doorbell or knock on your door.

2. After your dog charges to the door and start to bark boisterously, move toward your dog, grab his collar and give the command “quiet” â€" no shouting please, it doesn’t help.

3. If he stops barking, praise and reward. He’s a genius and deserves it.

4. When he continues barking, close his mouth with your hand, wrap your fingers around his muzzle â€" use both hands if needed, and give the command for him to keep quiet. Praise if he stops.

Most dogs would be able to learn the “quiet” command with frequent training like this. Set up similar situations to "lure" your dog to bark and repeat training whenever possible.

If you happen to own a hard-core persistent barker, use this method:

1. Vinegar-Water solution â€" mix a proportion of 7/8 water & 1/8 vinegar together. Pour the mixture into a water pistol or what kids call “super soaker” for longer distance shooting.

2. Aim and direct at his chest whenever he can’t stop barking even on your command. Dogs hate the smell of vinegar and would usually back off and stop barking. He’ll even sneeze a few times. It’s harmless so you need not worry.

3. As always, praise him when he stops barking.

For your information, your dog might still be barking noisily and disrupting your locality when you are not at home. In this case, you’ll need a training equipment known as “bark collars” to help train him.

There are several types of bark collars on the market. Some of these collars send an electric shock to your dog when he barks, some make a high pitch sound or emits a squirt of citronella which is annoying but safe for your dog. Usually, these collars can help you solve a problematic barker.

Nuheart Heartworm Medicine

Preventative heartworm medicine is becoming more commonly used, as the America Heartworm Society and veterinarians now recommend a heartworm preventative for all our dogs. It is great that there is a straightforward way to prevent our dogs becoming infected with the heartworm parasite. The only drawback is that they must be used continually for the lifetime of our pet to guarantee their health remains in tip-top condition. That means years of buying a product and using it every month.

With finances being more closely scrutinised than ever, it pays to save wherever possible. Choosing Nuheart heartworm medicine is a simple way to save money. But, most importantly it will make no difference to your dog's well-being. Vet's often recommend Heartgard for dogs. It is the 'original' brand of ivermectin based heartworm pill. Used for decades it has proven a safe and effective method of ensuring our dog's do not develop heartworm disease.

Now that the makers of Heartgard no longer have a monopoly on producing ivermectin heartworm pills other pet medicines manufacturers are legally entitled to produce exactly the same medicine. This is where Nuheart comes in. This is an Australian brand of generic heartworm medication. They have literally copied the winning forumula of Heartgard and produced their own pill to destroy heartworms.

Because the makers did not need to spend a fortune developing the drug, researching the correct dosage or marketing its use to vets and pet health-care professionals, the price for Nuheart can be significantly lower than that for Heartgard.

Thankfully the FDA regulates generic pet medicines in the same way it does the brands, so we can be assured the medicinal value of any generic product is identical to the brand. In fact the FDA require that generic pet medicines be identical with regards to dosage and quality of active ingredients. They stipulate that the generic product must be interchangeable with the brand.

This means, for the pet owner that it does not matter one iota to the health of the animal, whether a brand or generic is used. So, if you use Heartgard why not consider a switch to Nuheart Heartworm Medicine? The active components are the same, but the tablets are around 40% of the price. Over the lifetime of your pet that saving really adds up.