Dog Health Questions: Dogs: squirt bottle for training?

I am reading a dog training book and it says to use a squirt bottle to discourage barking... when my dog barks, I'm supposed to squirt her mouth and say NO (or "quiet).
I tried it a couple of times and she was so surprised she kind of got jumpy and wanted to escape.

Is this a good idea or not?

The book is Leader of the Pack
http://www.amazon.com/Leader-Pack-Nancy-…

All About The American School Of Dog Training

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Holy cow. Well I don't use negative methods to train my puppies. I want to train them, not terrorize them. When my puppy starts barking, I say "no barking" until she stops barking, then I say "good girl". I address this again when she barks again, and say "no barking" until she stops barking, then I say "good girl" She learns barking makes me unhappy, and being quiet gets her praises. I do this until I win the battle. The time you spend in training will pay off when your dog gets older, the more you put into your dog the more you get out of them. I vote that the method in your book is a very bad method, for the reason you yourself mentioned. This negative method did not stop your dog from barking, it just made her frightened of you. Dogs want to please you, so you have to teach them what behaviors make you happy, and which ones don't and remember to praise the behaviors you want from them.

Top Dog Training Tips

• It's a good idea if you don't do a lot of grooming. I wouldn't want my dogs to associate a spray bottle with a correction. . . they might develop an issue.


• It works for some dogs, not others. Some dogs love being squirted with water, so it's obviously not going to work. Dogs who hate it will learn to stop barking. Your other alternatives are to say "no bark", or you put either gravel or coins in the bottom of a plastic bottle and throw that in her direction. The idea is you throw it close to her to startle her and she's not to see that it's you throwing it - she just thinks it happens when she barks. If you do it right, you should only have to do it a couple of times. Or you could get a shock collar.


• it worked on my german shepard


• I don't agree with that method.
  
  Check out these websites from Cesar Millan (The Dog Whisperer).


• Wouldn't work with my guys, they'd be getting attention, they don't really care what kind of attention it is, its still attention.
  
  Ignoring them when they bark and giving loads of attention when they're quiet has done wonders.


• It works for my parrots but I wouldn't use it on the dogs. I find that props are not that good with training, you don't always have it handy when you need it and that just confuses the dog. Voice commands are better.


• It doesn't actually fix the problem it only temporarily fixes the issue and the dog will go back to barking when the threat of punishment [the squirt bottle] has been removed.
  
  If you insist on using the squirt bottle then you should use it in conjunction with positive reinforcement training for example if you squirt and say "quiet" when she is quiet you reward with a treat and say "good quiet" personally I'd just practice using quiet when she barks, when she does you can say loudly quiet, when she stops immediately reward. Over time she won't stop barking at things but she will shut up quicker. Reinforce the behavior you want [quiet] and ignore the behavior you don't want [the barking] or redirect her to a behavior you can reinforce [the quiet].
  
  I've used the word before my dogs get "out of control" at something I know is going to set them off. My weim will just grumble but she won't actually bark and if she looks at me when I say quiet I instantly praise. This takes time but will help.
  
  However, if you own a yappy dog like a Pomeranian then I'm afraid barking comes with the territory. I suggest reading "The complete Idiots guide to Positive Training" it'll tell you that punishment methods such as squirt bottles actually don't work unless you always have the bottle with you.
  
  Personally I found the squirt bottle didn't work, they just ran out of squirting range, but quiet works much better.


• It depends on why the dog is barking. For example, this method works great to stop my schnauzer from continuing to bark when I have guests. In my opinion, the dog can bark at first, then needs to stop when the guest is let in.
  
  Why is your dog barking?


• I tried this for my dog, but it had the opposite affect. She LIKED the water and thought it was a game and would bark more in hopes of being squirted.


• I have used a method like this where I squirt water in the dogs face when they bark and tell them quiet. You are leaving out an important part of the process though. You should always praise the lack of barking the dog gives you after the squirt. I wouldn't try to squirt the dog in the mouth because to do that you would have to put your hands on the dogs face to get the squirt into the mouth. That would take to much time from the time the dog barks to the correction of squirting it in the mouth and can also make your dog shy away from you hands. There is nothing more frustrating than trying to groom or put a leash on a dog that is afraid of your hands. So if you are going to continue to use the squirt bottle aim for the face and tell the dog quiet and praise the dog as soon as it stops barking.