Gail Fisher, All Dogs Gym & Inn - The perfect place for pets and their people

If you had $10 burning a hole in your pocket, you may have fallen for the BarkOff™ infomercial. After all, $10 is little risk if it delivers as promised. But wait ... there’s more. A second one is “absolutely free ... just pay separate shipping and handling.” So it’s actually nearly $24.00! That’s $10, plus $6.99 for shipping and handling for each, for a total of $23.98.

But if a small plastic box “actually teaches your dog the difference between nuisance barking and barking that protects your family and home” it would be worth $24.00. Picture yourself sitting back in your Laz-E-Boy and with “no buttons to push” you can train your dog. Sadly, this is not the magic wand humans have been searching for for millennia.

There are a number of things about both this product and the infomercial that I find objectionable, misleading and downright hazardous to your dog and your dog’s relationship with you. Just to mention a few:

The product claims to “naturally and painlessly interrupt the barking pattern.” What is “natural” to a dog about an ultrasonic noise emanating from a battery powered box? And how can the manufacturer know if it’s “painless”? I’ve been at loud concerts where, even with ear protection, I’ve had to cover my ears in pain, while everyone around me seems fine. Sound sensitivity is individual in dogs, too. What is ignorable to one may be painful to another, and there’s no way to tell until your dog lets you know. In other words, you have to cause pain to learn that it isn’t “painless.”

Next is the claim that it “calms your dog.” Looking at some YouTube videos of this product in action (made by dog owners with no money-making agenda), some dogs fearfully avoid the BarkOff, and others were motionless, and shut down. This may look “calm,” but it is not. The dog’s body language screams anxiety and stress. A calm dog is relaxed, not catatonic.

This product gets mixed reviews from consumers. Some owners report that it works like a charm, while others report issues ranging from no reduction in barking, to total personality change—fearfulness, trembling, avoidance and even panic. Despite marketing that promises that it is not aversive to your dog, you don’t know what is and isn’t going to be considered aversive from your dog’s point of view. The fallout could be that developing a fear of a room, your home, or even of you. No gimmick is worth that risk.

Another objection is the claim that it even works on your neighbor’s dog. What gives anyone the right to do something potentially frightening to my dog?!? (And if it works so well, by extension, why couldn’t an intruder use one to break into a home in the middle of the night? Oh, I forgot—the dog knows the difference between “nuisance” and “protective” barking ... yeah, right.)

Dogs bark for a variety of reasons including territorial protection, attention seeking, frustration, boredom, play, excitement, and breed propensity among others. It’s up to us, as our dogs’ partners in life, to recognize and respond to their communication—not to simply ignore what our dog is “saying” and turn on an ultrasonic device. If your dog’s barking is a problem, the solution lies not in a $10 battery operated piece of plastic. The solution is training. Consult with a positive trainer in your area for ideas to train your dog for good behavior, rather than using a mechanical device to punish barking you don’t like.

FREE WORKSHOP ON AGGRESSION: Thursday, September 16. Join me at All Dogs Gym to learn more about this important topic. Pre-registration is required as space is limited. Click here for more information or to register.