My sister’s dog is visiting us for a few weeks. She is housesitting for a friend and the friend has a cat that isn’t ready to welcome a strong dog into the home. Cody, the dog, is familiar with our home and has stayed here before. He is a friendly Australian Shepherd and he is really good with the children, which is a quality that is necessary for any visitors to our home.

We take Cody with us when we go on our daily walks and we often receive compliments for the dog as we walk. People tell us what a beautiful dog he is. I agree. He is easy to walk and well behaved. He does, however, have a few quirks that challenge us. He barks at almost anything that occurs outside the house. If a truck drives by on the street, he barks. If a neighbor’s dog barks, he barks. If I am watching a video on the computer and there is the sound of a backup alarm on a piece of equipment in the video he barks. When he first arrived at our house he barked when the clock struck the hour. Fortunately for us, he quickly adjusted to the clock and it no longer elicits a response from him.

The thing that really sets him off is a garbage truck. When a garbage truck is in the neighborhood, whether on our street or on a street a block away, he goes into a frenzy, barking and running back and forth from the front door to the back door. If I let him out into the yard, he barks and runs back and forth along the fence, jumping to see over the top of our 6’ privacy fence. I’ve tried things that have worked with other dogs. I keep a pop can with pennies handy and shake it to interrupt the barking. It has a little effect, but doesn’t work for the garbage trucks. And our neighborhood has garbage trucks, recycling trucks, yard waste trucks, and more each Monday. Cody also barks at all UPS, FedEx, and US Postal Service Vehicles. Those barking frenzies make a challenge when he sees one of those vehicles when we are walking.

We haven’t kept pet dogs as adults, and so I am no expert. I’ve read that barking is a way of a dog expressing anxiety. I try to remain calm and to speak with authority to the dog when he is barking. I get down and look him in the eye and try to reassure him. But the things I’ve tried so far don’t seem to help.

I tell neighbors and others that he is a ranch dog and that the problem is that I don’t own a ranch. Barking at approaching trucks is normal behavior for ranch dogs. I’ve visited enough farms and ranches to be able to tell when a dog is dangerous and likely to bite and when the barking is just a normal greeting. Cody isn’t dangerous when he is barking. He is just loud, like a ranch dog.

Today, however, is garbage and recycling day at our house and for the other houses in our neighborhood. My sister has decided that the thing to do is for her to come by our house and take the dog to a nearby dog park for part of the day. That will give us peace, and will be appreciated.

I think it is possible that there are as many articles and videos about what to do to stop a dog from barking on the Internet as there are cat videos. At least there are more than I’ve been able to read and I read a lot. I know the advice to “maintain a calm, confident, I’m in charge attitude.” I’ve read that you never reward a dog or give it a treat when it is barking. I know from reading, and from experience, that dogs respond much better to positive rewards than negative rewards. Praising the dog for not barking and for maintaining calm works better than yelling at the dog when it is barking.

I’m not sure, but it seems like the dog is checking out all of the articles just to stay ahead of me. Each new thing I discover and try has almost no effect.

For the record, I haven’t tried any of the dog silencer collars. First of all, I’m not a fan of giving an animal a shock. It seems cruel. I know that there are some that don’t give the shock. I think they work by emitting a sound. But the dog isn’t my dog. He is my sister’s dog. I’m not inclined to invest in a device that may not work and I don’t want to try a new training technique that ends up confusing the dog. On the other hand, I haven’t completely ruled out trying such a device in the future. After all, I’m fairly confident that I could afford such a device and I’m quite confident that I cannot afford a ranch. The collar is the less expensive of the two options.

Not being a dog owner, I’ve never been to obedience school or worked with a professional dog trainer. My opinion, however, is that those programs are almost as much about training the person working with the dog as they are about training the dog. Pet owners need to learn to be consistent in their training routines for animals. I think that Cody has lived where it is acceptable to bark at trucks and other vehicles for enough of his life that learning a new set of behaviors is a real challenge. You know the old adage about old dogs and new tricks.

At the moment, however, it is calm at our house. The dog is curled up on his bed and looks quite charming. He reminds me of all of the pleasures of owning a dog. He greets me at the door, is attentive to me. He is really good with the children. He is an excellent companion.

Now, if he can just get me trained to allow him to bark at garbage trucks . . .