Quote Originally Posted by borzoimom
When I lived in town in a townhouse row, the dog on the end would bark all day as well.. Suddenly it stopped- .. One day I was out walking Hottie when I saw the dog in the window- realized the dog was barking but I could not hear it. I found out later the dog was "debarked".. ( NOW PEOPLE DO NOT HAVE A STROKE YET..).. Later I was talking to the owner, and at first I was outraged for such a procedure, until I heard the owners words. They were faced with getting rid of their dog- even moving before they dog still had problems when alone- after all failed attempts, but loving their dog, and wishing to keep the dog in their family, their vet debarked the dog.
I had a dog that was debarked before- that way when I bought the dog- and it makes a raspy/almost whisper type bark- enough for some noise, but its silent. I am only tossing this out for one reason- training takes time- and I am not sure how much time you have. Also remember- this is a surgery and its permanent. Vets will do it if it means without it, the dog would loose their family. Its only done to save the " relationship" between the owner and dog. Most vets WILL NOT do this for someone that has 'a kennel' of dogs and want quiet- this is done to save the relationship to allow you to keep your dog and continue to work on the problem with seperation anxiety training- toys to keep busy and radios on for noise etc..
I expect to get slammed for this idea- and only state it because the title " before the cops come"... etc.. You obviously love your dog very much- and I am trying to throw out another idea ..
Other options such as dog day care etc are the first ideas that came to my mind- I am tossing out the last option.
My daughter adopted a papillion- my daughter was getting complaints and although we were working on it, she got a final notice on her apartment. We looked into this. Luckily her schedule changed so basically the dog is never left, meanwhile training continued, and now he is a lovely little companion with no complaints- but it came awfully close. He was actually going to come to my house during the week...
It is a surgical procedure. You will have to be home - or someone for 3 days with the dog to prevent barking while they heal. And needs to be done by a vet that has done this before so there is no scar tissue. And remember- barking is a form of communication so you need to consider this as well...
( now I am ducking behind under my table for the down fall to this post- but I refuse to delete it- its an option seldom done- seldom discussed- but assures that the dog owner relationship can continue as I have noooo idea how much you really mean the cops are coming...)
This idea was going to be our absolute last resort (if we got a final notice kind of thing).

We honestly have no idea how serious the neighbours are about calling the cops (we don't know them)... We have only lived in this townhouse complex for 2 weeks & we've had the dogs 1 week.

We refuse to put the dogs through the shelter BS again. People have adopted these 2 in the past & returned them (so we were told). BUT we also can't loose our home, as we cannot afford to pick up & move again & saddly we have to come first, but will fight hard to correct the dogs & keep them in our family.

We're just all really stressed out because of this, but we're trying.