My mother sent me a surprise Christmas gift. It is a device that emits high frequency sound to interrupt and (supposedly) stop your dog from barking. It’s called an “ultrasonic anti-bark device”.
My dogs bark a lot. They especially bark when they see kids riding bikes, scooters and electric minibikes, which unfortunately for me, is a very common occurrence in my neighborhood. I’ve tried various methods to discourage my dogs from barking. Nothing has worked well. I’ve even though about taking my dogs to a trainer to get some desensitization training.
What I won’t try is anything I think might hurt my dogs.
Still, I googled the device my mother bought to try to find reviews. Some people reported the device worked great. Others said it worked for a short while and then the dogs ignored it. There weren’t many reviews online.
So then I looked on dog training forums for posts on ultrasonic anti bark devices. What I read was disturbing. I read that the devices can damage dog’s hearing. I read that the noise can be painful for dogs. Some people wrote about their dog cowering or whimpering after they used an ultrasonic device.
There’s not a chance I would risk this on my dogs.
I wanted to return the gift to Walmart without telling my mother, but there is no way for me to do this without a receipt or gift receipt since I’m not the original buyer.
So the device now sits in a drawer in my kitchen. Unused.
My mom asked me a week later if I used it and I told her I didn’t and gave her my reasons why. She told me she uses it with her dog and it works great. She said now if her dog stats barking, all my mom has to do is pick uptake device and her dog immediately stops barking. My mom thinks this is great.
That sounds like fear to me.
Coincidentally, I just finished reading the book “Love Is All You Need: The Revolutionary Bond-Based Approach to Educating Your Dog” in which the author discusses building a trusting, loving relationship with your dog vs. using traditional punishment/reward techniques. She gave many examples of how to bond with your dog in order to address various problem issues.
My personal key takeaways from the book are:
- I need to pay complete attention to my dogs when we are out walking – no daydreaming, no talking onto phone, no podcasts.
- Dogs will eat anything they think is food. Dogs will chase anything that runs away (like kids on bikes). Dogs will confront people and dogs that come at them directly from the front (kids, bikes, other dogs). Don’t get angry when they do these things – they are simply being dogs.
- Dogs want to please us. And protect us. And warn us. Often their barking and reactive behavior is caused by one or more of these desires.
I’ve tried other dog training in the past. The one that “seemed” the most effective was Ceaser Milan’s method, but I never was able to use it the way Ceasar did.
Plus, to be honest, putting my dog down physically to make her submit to me never felt right.
I’m going to try the Bond-Based approach to see if it makes a difference. My gut tells me it will help. With all of my dogs, everything seemed to improve over time and years together. We learned to “read” and understand each other better. We built strong trusting bonds. And then eventually, most of the problems dissipated.
If Bond-Based training might accelerate this process to make our walks a little calmer when we see kids on bikes, I’m willing to give it a shot.
As for the anti-bark device, I’m not.