excessive barking

Does ANYONE know any way to train a dog NOT to bark constantly?
We had a severe tornado in the small town 3 miles North of us (July 8th, 1999) and our friends house got hit. They have a 6 yr old Dalmation "Pepper" who came to stay with us until their new house was being built.
Well, she is still with us and will be leaving probably the end of this month. I have been trying to find a humane way to keep her from barking constantly. she has been really terrible the last few weeks and i am so scared of her moving back into town and doing this and all the neighbors complaining. if there is too many complaints, Pepper will either have to be put down or found a new home (which is not going to be easy in this area because there is always ads in the papers around here for "Free Dalmatians". i will not be able to take her back. i have 4 dogs of my own and i hate having an outside dog, especially in the Winter.(I did try her in the house when i first got her, thinking if i could house train her, it would be better but my Alpha dog did NOT like the idea and there have been a couple of fights between them).
We have tried the spray bottle, which seemed to work for awhile. it doens't help to tell her to be quiet, she is hard of hearing.
Does ANYONE know of any solutions that might work for Pepper. she is a nice dog and i wish she could have started out to be a house dog. she is a people dog and loves to be with anyone who will rub her ears.

Try anti-bark collar. They work on the same
order of invisable fencing. You probably
should have let them settle the pecking order on their own, not just give up and make him
an outside dog. Is he and the other dog
neutered. It is not only keep them from being so aggressive, but helps them to live
longer with less medical problems. I am also sure that if worse comes to worse and you have to get rid of him, that there is a Dalmation rescue assn. in the area. Don't just have him put down, or taken to a shelter. We work with a rescue group ourselves and have delt with the same problems with our dogs, and foster dogs we have taken in until an adoptive home can be found. They have always managed to settle the problems on their own.

Might try an animal behaviorist. Poor Baby doesn't understand why things have changed and not top dog any longer.One on One attention might help. Could also be a medical problem.One should NEVER put a dog down because of barking! There is always hope! without hope,what do you have?

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snoop

The owners of "Pepper" (remember, i am just keeping her becasue the place she was at was destroyed in a tornado a year ago) are going to be looking into getting an anti-bark collar and also an electric fence for her new home. I am sure this is going to be a real help.
When i did get Pepper, she was brought into my house so i could try to house train her to maybe make it easier for her owners and i have 4 dogs of my own. I thought if they got along, i would keep her in but since they didn't get along, i just didn't persue it becasue i really didn't know how long i would be keeping her. and also, i didn't know if they would be bringing her into their new house (which i found out later that there was no chance the husband would let her into theri new home!!) it was worth a try.
i foster for shelters in my area also and i bring puppies manily into my home to keep while they find a new home. my dogs seem to handle that real well.
all the dogs are spayed (have all females). she will not be put to sleep. Her owner and i have talked about it and i am willing to help her out in any way to keep Pepper. she is so good with her "kids" and she is a very smart dog. she just needs the training that she should have gotten when she was a puppy!
i will keep you all posted as to what happens. i think she will be leaving to go to her new house at the end of this month. i will miss her.
thanks for the suggestions.

You CAN teach a dog not to bark incessantly!!!
The secret is to turn barking into a "learned behavior" like sitting or heeling. You are unlikely to eliminate barking altogether, but you can minimize it. You kind of walk a fine line between wanting the dog to be protective, just not obnoxious.
It takes a while (weeks? depends on dog) My mom and I have used this technique on several of our dogs. Works well if you are patient and consistent. (Personally, I think no-bark collars are awful!) This may not work for you if you have to place Pepper in a new home, but her new people may be interested.
Step 1 - teach the dog to bark on command - Say"speak" when the dog barks and reward. Repeat until he/she will bark when you say speak.
Step 2 - connect barking at stimulus (doorbell) to the speak trick. When dog barks at doorbell, say "good speak!" and reward dog - sounds counterproductive, but bear with me.
Step 3 - Control the behavior. When the bell rings, dog barks, you say "good speak" and act as if it's a training session and go on to another command, like sit or down. This should distract the dog from barking. (Then answer the door) Eventually the dog "gets" that you are acknowledging the alert bark and will just bark a couple of times then stop.

Another version of this is to train the dog to respond the the stimulus (doorbell) with another behavior. A friend of mine trained her dog to go to his bed and sit down. Door rings, he barks once, runs to bed and waits for her to release him from the "trick."

FYI - If Pepper is hearing impaired, make sure you couple all verbal commands with gesture commands.

Good luck.