Are anti-barking devices safe?
Most of these devices are made with the intention of capturing your dog’s attention and not harming them.
Older versions of anti-barking devices were harsher; however, modern options have been designed to ensure that your dog’s health and wellbeing is maintained.
These modern devices are designed to ensure they act as a nuisance to the dog and not for pain production. Additionally, some of these devices have been designed to study your dog’s barking behavior to ensure that the corrective measures enacted do not deter your dog from barking altogether.
For instance, they will not be activated when your dog is barking at another dog, or when there is an intruder or stranger; this would be outside the normal barking behavior and is not a cause for concern for the device.
However, the device tries to monitor the times when the dog barks the most, for instance, when the owner leaves for work or at night when they are left alone in their crate.
Once the dog learns that barking excessively unnecessarily is not required it is crucial to take off the anti-barking device and only bring it out when light reinforcement is required from time to time.
What types of anti-barking devices are available?
Currently, several anti-barking devices are available and apply unique methods to silence or deter barking.
Even though they use different mechanisms, they each work under the same principle, through negative reinforcement; dogs are trained to learn that barking too much is a bad thing.
There are three main types of anti-barking devices: sprays, collars, and sound emitters.
Sprays are a more proactive approach for dealing with incessant barking. Pet owners can spray their dog’s face when they continuously bark hence training the dog, through negative reinforcement.
The spray can contain a mixture of water and citronella oil. Citronella oil is considered a good deterrent as it stops a barking dog in its tracks, and is not harmful to him or the environment.
As a dog is barking, the scent of the Citronella oil minimizes their vocalization and stops them in their tracks. As a result, Citronella Spray can be useful to correct any sort of behavioral issues, including excessive barking.
These are dog collars equipped with small devices that produce an electrical shock or emit a sound when the dog starts barking.
The devices on these collars are made significantly small so that they do not deter the movement of the dogs.
Most of the devices using electrical shocks as a deterrent often have two metal prongs designed to get through the dog’s fur and make contact with the skin.
However, older models of these devices have, in the past, been misused and ended up doing more harm than good.
The shocks produced by these older model devices are significantly higher and hence end up being very unpleasant for dogs.
Currently, there are newer models of shock collars that are safer and ensure that your dog is not harmed in the training process.
These devices are equipped to make use of the unique dog hearing system by emitting sound in higher frequencies. The sound is inaudible to human beings but audible and very unpleasant to dogs.
They detect a dog barking and blast this higher frequency sound catching the dog by surprise. These high-frequency sounds are operated at safe levels to ensure your dog is not harmed in any way.
Currently, there are two types of sound emitters commercially available. The first is a collar sound emitter. It is similar to a shock collar replacing the electric shock mechanism with a remote sound emitter mechanism.
The second is a device that can be placed in, around, and outside your house. These devices work by detecting a dog barking and responding accordingly and can work through walls.
#2 First Alert Bark Genie Handheld Bark Control Device
Have you tried every trick in the book to keep your dog quiet? Perhaps it’s time to use something a bit more aggressive but still humane. This handheld dog silencer helps with bark control.
This dog silencer is super easy to use. Whenever your dog barks, all you have to do is press a single button, and it’ll work its magic. It’ll work not only on your dog but on neighboring hounds as well and can even help you to keep strays out of your yard if that’s a problem you’re dealing with.
The only downside to this model is that it has a limited range of only 15 miles which is very small considering what the competition has to offer.
Otherwise, it’s powered by four AAA batteries, and like the other devices on this list, it operates with ultrasonic sound technology.
From the moment you switch on this First Alert dog silencer, you’ll have peace of mind knowing that it’ll deter dogs from 15 feet away. For most dog owners, this is enough to silence their own dogs and will guarantee that you’ll enjoy your walks in silence.
FAQ
Do dog silencers work through walls?
Will BarxBuddy work through walls?
Do ultrasonic dog barking deterrents really work?
Do ultrasonic sounds go through walls?