My dog used to keep me up all night. Initially, I had though that it would be a
good idea to get a dog which was active enough to make a good watchdog, making
sure that any intruders were alerted to the fact that this was not the place
that they should be breaking into. But my yippy little beagle, unfortunately,
did the job just a little tiny bit too well. He barks not only at mail men,
visitors, kids walking by down the street, and cars which drive by, but at
squirrels, butterflies, and apparently at the wind going through the grass.
Anything that makes the slightest bit of movement at all will attract his
attention and cause him to bark and bark. I tried locking him out for the night,
but that only made the matter worse. Now he would not only disturb me, but also
all of the neighbors as well with his constant and insistent noises.
I had been against anti bark collars for awhile, but eventually I decided
that enough was enough. The thing about anti bark collars that bothered me
most was that they were so inhumane. If you do not like dog habits, be they
panting, drooling, barking, or sniffing at your bottom, I reasoned, you
should not get a dog. Getting an anti bark collar which would shock him
every single time he barked just seemed like a cruel fix for your own
oversight in getting an animal which you were not prepared to adequately
take care of in the first place. But still, the temptation of anti bark
collars was getting pretty compelling after, one single night, he awoke me
no less than six times, and almost got the cops called.
I did some research on anti bark collars and found out that they do not all
just use electricity. There are anti bark collars that, instead of using an
electric shock, emit a high pitched noise which bothers a dog's sensitive
hearing, and stops it from barking by the unpleasant sensation.
Unfortunately, these forms of anti bark collars also seemed pretty cruel,
and I felt like I just had to find another solution to the problem. I
discovered citronella anti barking collars, which seemed just perfect.
Rather than shocking a dog or hurting its ears, these anti bark collars just
emit a burst of citronella, which is overwhelmingly powerful and strange for
a dog. It confuses him, and makes him temporarily stop his barking.
