Excessive Barking

[purrley]

I just have a couple questions to all you puppy people out there. I'm a cat owner and I addressed in the cat category about de-clawing. Now I'd like to know if people really do de-bark their dogs. Is there really an operation for this and would that be considered very cruel to do? Also my mother lives next door to a couple who have a couple of poodles that bark at anything that moves. Well this is a senior citizen dwelling area and I guess there were a lot of complaints about these little guys. So she bought them these type of collars that actually shock the poor little things when they bark. What do people do about excessive barking dogs - can it be controlled by obedience schools. Surely there must be more humane ways of dealing with this kinda of problem.

[kobieeli]

Yes, there ARE more humane ways to stop barkers, but people probably don't take the time to train the dog or put any effort into behavior modification. (Often, but not always, excessive barkers are neglected dogs in the first place.) They're just looking for the easy, quick fix--hence shock collars and the dreaded debarking surgery. Poor dogs....If those folks would've only asked for advice from Dixieland Dancer or Carrie!

[ October 05, 2001: Message edited by: kobieeli ]

[TheAntiPam]

Yes, there really is an operation - but just like declawing, its usually done by humans that refuse to learn to deal with their pet.
A co-worker had his 2 Tibetan Spaniels debarked because of neighbor complaints. The minor detail was that he was never home, and did nothing to train or control his pets. He viewed his pets more as toys, something to take out and play with when HE felt like it.

Eventually, I had to stop talking about pets with this person, because his attitude and actions were so irresponsible. I could rant on and on, but the short version is: Debarking or declawing is often the easy way out for too many unthinking pet owners.

[Dixieland Dancer]

Purrley,
Excessive barking can be controlled but the owner needs to be willing to work diligently to change the undesired behaviour. We have had a few other threads on this in the past that may be helpful if you need more information.

The bottom line is.... if the owners don't do anything to stop the behaviour it will continue. They have to be up for the challenge.

[yorkster]

My dog is not a big barker, but ONE place it was a problem was in the car (she always thought we were going to the beach). I started taking her to dog obedience and that has helped some. The thing that helped the most though was a water squirt-bottle. A good squirt right in the face when they start barking unnecessarely- just make sure they don't know it came from you, and they will learn to associate barking with something unpleasant, that also does not hurt them in any way. With my dog, just water was not enough- did not even faze her. My dog trainer said to put a little vinegar in it, and it worked! The vinegar does not hurt them at all- they just don't like the smell & taste.

[carrie]

This makes me sick, really, really sick.

In my opinion anyone who takes their animal for debarking surgery, unless it is to save that animal from a medical condition, should be relieved of that animal. Or more correctly the animal should be relieved of them. I feel the same about surgery to remove a cat's claws, a dog's tail or part of a dog's ears.
Many horses used by matadors in the bull fighting industry are also de-voiced so that if they panic or are injured the crowd will not be "upset" by the noise of the horse under stress and terror. Is this O.K?

I constantly say on this board that a dog has a right to be treated like a dog. Taking away it's means of communication, be it tail, ears or voice is abusive in the extreme. There is, quite simply, no justification.

Electronic collars are only a step away, a large step, but only a step. They are very dangerous when left on unsupervised animals and even more so when supervised by people with little or no understanding of the animal.

I think I have made my feelings and beliefs clear so I will stop, although I am forcing myself to do so. For people to even be allowed to do this to their animals, let alone consider it, is criminal.

[ktreva52]

The de-bark surgery consists of clipping one of the vocal cords. There are several problems with this as I have heard that after a few years, it grows back and, of course, there is risk with any surgery. I agree that obedience work helps, but occasionally there are certain "hard-headed" canines that don't care that you don't want them to bark. I had a cattle dog mix that barked at leaves blowing around outside and no amount of "Enough!" seemed to slow her down. So, I kept a squirt bottle with plain water in it and would squirt her in the back of the head. That seemed to help a lot. I use the plain water for all kinds of obnoxious behavior in the dogs and the cats and when they see me reach for the bottle, they generally stop doing whatever.

I can't say I'm very thrilled with the shock collars, either, as some dogs are very sensitive to the jolt they get and become very fearful. Some dogs need a bit of coat shaved away for the thing to even work. I'm with the majority -- training and attention are the main keys to what is going on and lots of praise when the dog(s) is/are quiet will go further than lots of punishment when not. Sometimes negative reinforcement can be more powerful than positive reinforcement and only enhance the bad behavior. Maybe these people need to pay more attention to their dogs and work on this little problem. Perhaps some complaints to the managers of the community would be of some use or maybe someone ought to invite an obedience instructor in for a little inexpensive work. Let us know how it goes.