[JKC27]

Our male MinPin/Chihuahua mix (approx 2 yrs old - about 16lbs) has a barking problem. At home he is normally pretty well behaved, has a love/hate relationship with our 2 cats (which is a funny situation in itself).

Here is the issues:

A) 95% of the time anyone walks by our house he goes nuts! Barks non-stop, hair stands up on his back, throws and shakes toys, or whatever he can get his teeth on. This is 100% of the time when the person has a dog. He just goes crazy if he is outside for a potty break and someone is walking their dog by our house. We will try to run at the other dog, but has only once tried to nip. Also related to this - If he sees a squirrel (he knows what that means), or a cat outside he will paw at the windows to the point where he has damaged 2 or 3 screens for our windows. Sure these can be repaired, but why should I have to constantly dish out $ to do this....

B) If someone comes to the door (pizza delivery, mailman, etc.) he again barks uncontrollably. Guard dog instinct???? He did come through as a good guard dog last summer when some neighbourhood punks decided they would hop our fence and go pool hopping (2 nights in a row in fact) in the middle of the night. Good dog!

C) Biggest issue!!!! If we have friends, or family over (aside from a couple people who he is very used to now), he does the same thing - Non stop barking. It's an issue to the point of not wanting to have friends or family visit or stop by because he won't stop.

We have tried to squirt him with a mister/squirt bottle. Doesn't always work, in fact sometimes we have practically soaked him. Tried - citronella collar - didn't work well at all. Tried - sonic collar - he actually kept barking, totally oblivious to the beeping of the collar. We could here the beeps from the collar, but he kept going.

Other than getting Cesar to my house, or hiring a behaviorist (is that a word?), which we cannot afford, I think last resort is a shock collar. Do these work like they say on the packaging? What is a good one to get for him?

Any other suggestions?

I am pretty sure that the Min Pin - Chihuahua combination is a perfect mixture for lots of barking to begin with.