Barking
Hemi has put his Puppy Mill days behind him, has mastered all the basic house rules, and, Lord Help me, has discovered he can bark. And boy! can he bark! I know dogs hear very well, but Hemi must have super powers. He hears EVERYTHING. His ears are atuned to anything that sounds like a doorbell. A “ping”, whether it be from the computer, or the sound a spoon makes against a bowl will trigger his barking. He can be curled up in a small ball, snoring away but then wake up just to bark at something he heard.
There has to be a better word than “bark” to describe what Hemi does. It is more like a deep vocal blast that can be heard and felt by the whole neighbourhood.
Everest, on the other hand, will bark for a second or two, then figures his message has passed. We certainly don`t mind the discreet alert that Ivan (our cat) is outside waiting to come in from the cold, or that someone is walking up our driveway. Hemi, however, WHOOFS! along with Everest, and doesn’t know when to stop (we`re teaching him).
I don`t want to stop the barking altogether. I like having dogs that guard the house and alert me to anything suspicious. It is certainly a more effective deterent than our alarm system. The Hemi Whoofs! followed by leaping at the door have GOT to stop. I must say that our hard work is paying off. Now, when I come home, he catches himself and will sit nicely until I`m inside. Every day I am seeing a more polite and calmer Hemi. Recently I was able to get him to sit and stay while the Fed Ex man delivered a package. YES!
Great Danes are not the “surgeons of the dog world” (read that somewhere), and at 2-ish, his brain is still developing. Despite all of this, he learns fast and so desperately wants to please. When we tell him “No Bark”, he now understands and will stop barking. He will, however, start up again with the slightest “Ping” drop.
