Squirt Guns and Canines

I have a dog sharing this humble abode with me. The dog is a Miniature Pinscher, her name is Jasmine, and that's her in the photo on this blog.

Besides being extremely loyal, very playful and extremely funny dogs, min-pins also have one other trait.

They bark.

A lot.

Jasmine is actually my 2nd min-pin. My first one (named Jafar) also barked more often than most people would like to hear, but at complete different times. When I had Jafar he would mostly bark during two occasions; when he wanted to either go outside or come inside, or when he was in his kennel. That was pretty much it. Jasmine actually loves being in her kennel, and when she wants to go outside she'll just come tap me on my leg. She could easily spend the rest of her day barking.

She can see the neighbors INSIDE their own house and bark. She can see a leaf blow across the yard and bark. She can hear me walk into the room she is in and she will bark. And don't even get me started on people walking by on the street. Or heaven forbid she sees the mailman.

The times she sees someone either out on the street or the mailman, or someone pulling into my neighbors driveway to pick up their kids (the neighbors have a daycare) she will bark incessantly until the offending party is out of sight. And for the mailman that could be a long time because he always parks his truck out in front of my house while he walks the street, so the truck is there a long time.

Yelling at her doesn't work (for more than a couple of seconds anyway), calling her name doesn't work, making funny sounds doesn't work. About the only thing that has ever really worked is simply going up to her and standing next to her. She then not only stops barking but usually bows down and submits to me.

But how often do I want to get up and walk over to her? I've heard a few people over the years tell me to get a squirt gun and use that when she barks. I heard it again earlier this week and so on my next trip to the store I went and picked up a new squirt gun.



I used the squirt gun for the first time on Thursday when two people were walking down the street. She started barking, I squirted her and that immediately caused her to stop barking and look over at me with a "what the hell was that" look on her face. She then came over and had to inspect the squirt gun and after doing so she decided to curl up in my lap.

A few hours later the mailman showed up and she went into her normal over-the-top barking and racing all over the couch routine. I squirted once, she looked over at me once again with that "what the hell was that" look, and then came over and wanted to lay in my lap.

A short time later she again wanted to bark at some people out on the street, and this time she actually heard me pull the trigger on the squirt gun, turned and saw the water approaching and ran out of the way. She is a quick little dog, but despite not hitting my target it still worked. She again came over and laid down in my lap. But that showed me just how quickly she learned.

Today there was only one time that she started barking. I hit her with the first squirt of the gun and she again came over and laid down in my lap.

I am completely amazed at how well this worked. And I'm amazed at how fast Jasmine picked up on it. Now, min-pins are smarter than normal dogs (a tool they quite often use in spite), but they are notoriously difficult to train. And here I am, I've used the squirt gun just four times and she's already learned that she'll get squirted when she barks, AND she's totally submitted to me each time I have squirted her. I've never had to say a word, and after pulling the trigger three times on the first use, I've only had to pull it once on the subsequent times.

I have to say, if you have a dog that has habits you want to correct, go get yourself a squirt gun. Trust me, the longer you wait, the more you'll end up kicking yourself for not getting one sooner.