One of my favorite bloggers, Posie Gets Cozy, is a proud mommy of a Welsh Corgi puppy, and she sometimes shares pictures and stories about her. It sounds like this is one good pup, and she has done a great job following through with doggy training. But, she recently admitted to growing lax in the area of barking. When I read this, I leaned forward in my chair, praying for a bit of advice. And then I saw it.
Shake a can of pennies at it (or something to that effect).
At first I was somewhat let-down. Shaking something at the dog? Maizey, the dog who outsmarted the 
citronella anti-bark collar, is supposed to be affected by some loose change? Come on.
Oh, I should also mention that the balcony (where Maizey spends 90% of her time sitting, watching, & barking) runs the length of our apartment. This is a perk, except 2/3 of the way down, there’s a metal brace holding the balcony ledge to the side of our building. This brace makes it nearly impossible for us to get all the way down to Maizey, grab her by the neck, drag her inside, and put her in time out, lest we get on our hands and knees and crawl to her. She knows this and watches us as we stand on the other side of the brace, hissing, “Maizey, no! Shut UP!” The distance factor, then, was another reason I doubted the shake-a-can-of-pennies-at-it idea.
But, it was worth a try. TJ rinsed a root beer can, gathered the pennies, dropped them inside, and used some kind of tool to pull the tab back level with the mouth of the can. (You didn’t think TJ would just duct-tape it, did you?)
We knew it wouldn’t be long before we got to test it out, and we were right. Her barking sent us both off the couch and scrambling toward the can and the balcony. TJ got there first and started shaking. She flinched like she’d been electrocuted, stopped barking, came inside, and cuddled up to me.
It worked! Shaking a can of pennies at her actually worked! No squirt bottles. No citronella collars. No hissing, spanking, or crawling.
I’m waiting for the thank-yous from our neighbors to start rolling in . . .
Now it all make cents!