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"Yap! Yip yip! Yip yip yip!" Pull the pillow around your ears and try to think of something else. “Yip Yip Yip Yip!” Anything, think of anything but the little, wing-eared, fringe-haired Papillon who lives upstairs.
A rescued animal, he hates to be left
alone. And when he is left alone, he barks,
high in register as befits one
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with such a short throat, approximately once every
second until his people return.
They’ve been gone for three hours. And it’s 11:30 on a weeknight.
Perhaps you are the baggy-eyed neighbor of an incessantly barking dog. Or maybe you are a new owner, who through your own goodness of heart has been saddled with someone else’s rejected, untrained pet.
If you’re reading this, chances are you’re looking for answers to the problem of the barking dog. You will find solutions, which have been listed in order of increasing complexity (or severity) in this book. Rather than telling you to buy some trendy prop, this book covers the psychology of working with a barking dog. You’ll learn how and why barking differs from breed to breed, and the best breed of dog for your lifestyle. You’ll learn something about dog culture and how it differs from human culture. You’ll cover the rationale behind being the “top dog”, and learn ways to communicate effectively with your dog. You’ll learn the reasons dogs bark in the first place, and methods for stopping your dog’s barking that range from simple distraction to drastic intervention. The decision tree in the lasts chapter can help you rule out and pinpoint possible causes of unhealthy barking, and contains a review of remedies for each cause. (If your landlord just nailed an eviction notice to the door, you may decide to read the last chapter first). At the end of this book, you will find a list of websites that sell dog-related products.
Your relationship with your dog is an important part of your life, and maybe the most important part of his (or hers). This book was created to help people increase the quality of their relationship with their dogs, and to ensure their dogs’ welcome in the greater human community. In case you are a part of the community who’s having a problem welcoming the constant voice of your neighbor’s dog, we also include a section on your options.
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