BarkingDogs.net

The Threshold of Barking Tolerance - How Much is Too Much?

I have long said that if animal control wants to know if a dog is a chronic barker, they should begin by having an officer stand in the street, in the dog's line of sight, and have the ACO shout or bang a couple metal trash can lids together, because that may be all it takes to prove that the dog is a chronic barker.

Someone once asked me if it is fair to label a dog as a problem barker based on whether he barks when a stranger makes loud noises out in the street. But in today's densely populated landscape, to accept a lesser standard is to accept an environment of constant noise.

There are just too many people engaged in too wide an array of activities to have every dog bark every time he hears someone make an unexpected sound or sees someone do something unusual. There are the people from the electric company, the gas company, the cable company, the water department, the trash collectors, the yard people, the recycle folks, the street department, the phone company, the sewer maintenance crews, the meter readers, repairmen of every description, fire crackers, car horns, car alarms, cars that beep and boop every time you lock or unlock the door, door-to-door salesman and rowdy people passing on the sidewalk. Not to mention the neighborhood kids who have an endless array of gadgets a dog is likely to find barkworthy.

For everyone's sake, you don't want your dog to tell you every time somebody does something unusual out in the street. We will all be better off if he saves his voice to warn you at those times when there is someone doing something unusual on your property. That not only makes for a quieter environment, it makes you more secure in your home.

The bottom line is that your dog needs to learn to mind his own business, and it's your job to teach him the difference between his business and those things that should not concern him.

Go to New Animal Control.Org for more information about animal control reform.

This page is part of Section Nine:
the Cure section of barkingdogs.net