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.