Quote Originally Posted by cyber-sibes
There will probably be people here who will get on me for it, but I DID use a shock collar with my rottie/aussie, Rosie. She barked a lot, especially at night. She was fine as a puppy, but started barking as an adult. We worked really hard at trying to train her out of it, but still found myself getting up at 1 am or 2 am and spending an hour quieting her down. This went on for months. So we did resort to a shock collar. I used it on me first, and it did surprise you with a shock, but it didn't "hurt". You have to train them with the collar. Ours came with a video on how to train. Using it solved the barking problem quickly. The one we used had a progressive shock, so it started out very mild. if the dog kept barking, it got stronger. The most I ever heard her bark in a row was twice. After a while, all I had to do was strap it on her (which I did every night) without turning it on, and she knew to be quiet. She also got to know that "Quiet, no bark" meant no barking. I always rewarded her being quiet with lavish attention & treats.

I would certainly invest in a shock collar (ours was about $75.00) before I'd consider de-barking a dog- that seems "shocking" to me.
This will be tried before we go the de-barking rout by far!!! The debarking was only a last resort idea...

Please don't get me wrong, I want to try to solve this properly first.. But having a plan B & a plan C never hurts incase Plan A doesn't work in time. I don't want to be panicking on what options I have last min, so planning a head is a smart route.