does anyone know of a way to train a dog not to bark.My lab has a problem with barking in the middle of the night.last night the police came and gave me a warning at 1:00 am.so any help would be appreciated. thanks
p.s. tried a bark coller ,works when it is on him ,but can't always leave it on it makes his neck raw.

Looking at it from a different angle, is there a problem that you can fix so your dog isn't barking? Since someone called the police I'm assuming that your dog is outside. Is he comfortable/warm enough? Or maybe he is still a pup and isn't used to being by himself. Sometimes a clicking clock can solve that problem.

Maybe you can give a little more info on this about the circumstances.

I tried the bark collar on my dog, it worked for the first few days, then he just got used to it. I think I would have to hook it up to a car battery to get any reaction out of him now

yes he is an outside dog he is a 9 month old black lab,has been outside since birth,somhe is used to the elements.I don't mind when he barks to let us know someone is around it just seems in the middle of the night he barks for no apparnt reason.

when i first got my lab (18 mos ago) one of the first commands i taught him was "no" then "no bite" very usefull with a young puppy, & "no bark" never had a problem with him yapping his head off. your dog may just be acting up to get attention being 9 mos old in his first cold winter. does he have adequate bedding to keep him warm it was pretty cold in Illinois and i'm sure it was very cold in wisconsin last night.

also bark collars suck, they just torture the dog; i knew a guy who used one and the dog barked so much he has 2 burns where the points made contact on his throat and it didnt help at all actually made it worse;

you, the person he recognizes as his master, have to remind him this is unacceptable behavior in a positive way, until he stops the behavior. ie lotsa time and training.

We have two german shepherds and they were doing alot of barking. we give them butcher bones and chewy toys, seems to help as they just get bored at times. Good luck

One more question then, has he always been a "problem" barker at night, or is this a new thing?

If he has always barked at night then it probably a I'm lonely thing. The suggestions that I would have for that is to a) get him a little friend b) let him into the house where he won't be so lonely c) give him a good workout every evening so he sleeps through the night. If it is more of a recent thing then I would guess that he is uncomfortable. Maybe he is getting too cold. One other guess at this if it is new, do you have a new neighbor that has a schedule that he isn't used to?

On a side note, the neighbor a few houses away has a dog that barks for a few hours every night, I've contimplated killing that neighbor more than a few times and letting the dog live with me. It's a problem that has to be fixed

We used two methods.... First we try a sonic unit called BArk Free. It is a unic you can mount outsidenear your kennel or if he has the barkyard out your door. If that doesn't work we then used a bark collar along with the other unit. USE A BARK COLLOAR RESPONSIBLY !!!! You can injure a dog if you leave it on him and forgot about it so to speak. IF the dog is unresponsive to both then you need to definately find out why he is barking. Try kenneling him inside with the the bark free unit first that is how we train most of our dogs and we usually don't have to use a collar.