The squirrel on my bird feeder has figured out that he is safe from my dogs -

[hedgehog]

why can't the dogs figure out that they can bark all they want, that squirrel ain't leaving until he's had his fill?

[csziggy]

1. Barking keeps the squirrel on the feeder so the dogs are doing their jobs!

My dog used to tree racoons in the middle of the night. He'd bark for a while, then lie down at the bottom of the tree. When the raccoon thought it was safe because it didn't hear the dog, it would climb back down. The dog would hear the racoon's claws and start barking again.

So all night, every 30-40 minutes, the dog would bark. I figured it out one night when I was outside checking on mares. The dog was sleeping and didn't hear me, but I heard the raccoon climbing down, then the dog barking.

I solved it by calling the dog, praising him for chasing the raccoon up the tree, giving the dog a treat, then chaining him up for a while. This gave the raccoon a chance to get away. If I went back out to check mares, I'd unchain the dog. Sometimes, thinking the raccoon was still in the tree, he'd go curl up at the bottom. The dog, my neighbors, and I would all get good nights' sleep since the absent raccoon never came back down the tree!