Dog Community

De-barked?

Posted : 8/18/2006 7:17:53 AM

Seeing Debs post reminded me of this. The other day I was driving and came to a stop sign. I saw a dog walking with it's owner and I heard a funny sound. I thought 'that dog sounds like he can't bark, like his bark has been removed"

I had no idea that was even true. I was kinda just being a smart you know what about it.

So why on earth would people do that? Must be painful thing for a dog.

Lena (Penny Forever)

Posted : 8/18/2006 7:21:43 AM

I donno why people do it, it's just cruel.
Mind you, I know a few people who I would like to get it done to. Should be a people thing not a dog thing.

Susan Chandler

Posted : 8/18/2006 8:02:23 AM

AGREED! We are run by our own needs, not theirs. So cruel to the ones we should be "taking care of".

sillysally

Posted : 8/18/2006 9:29:02 AM

While I wouldn't do it, I can see doing it in certain circumstances. What if it was debarking or the shelter? I'd rather have the debarking.

rwbeagles

Posted : 8/18/2006 9:45:37 AM

agreed Sillysally. I have read quite detailed info about the procedure and recovery and owned a debarked dog that had hers done years before we got her. No ill effects and no psychological ones either. She still could growl, whine, moan, chuff, and nay number of other vocalizations.

It's an elective procedure like cropping, docking, dewclaw removal, spaying, and neutering...you are removing something natural to the dog, that could potentially be used by it for some purpose. In most of the above there is potential for things to go wrong at the time up to and including death from anesthesia or bleeding or infection. Proponents of all will have good reasons for doing it and bad reasons.

agilebasenji

Posted : 8/18/2006 9:52:37 AM

I would say it is a last resort thing. Some dogs just like to bark and will bark at everything especially when their owners aren't home. I've known dogs to bark right through citronella collars and shock collars. Having lived next to a dog that barked constantly and at all hours, I can say it does NOT make for pleasant neighbors.

sillysally

Posted : 8/18/2006 10:03:27 AM

No, it doesn't. Some friends of mine have a neighbor whose dog literally barks ALL night--I mean ALL night (I've stayed the night there on several occasions). Of course then other neighborhood dogs start up, etc. I'm really surprised nobody has called the cops on her.

Julitza

Posted : 8/18/2006 10:07:17 AM

Lizzie barks ALL day when I am at work, especially if she hears my mother in the upstairs apartment. I can call anytime of day and hear her barking.

But I would NEVER get her debarked. It is MY fault because she is lonely and probably bored.

Luckily our only next door neighbor is our landlord and she has big hearing loss [

]
By the time her husband gets home from work Lizzie is inside and snoring, so she doesnt bother anyone.

Hopefully when we move into our new house she will stop since she will have a big backyard and my mothers Golden as a playmate

rwbeagles

Posted : 8/18/2006 10:07:17 AM

OMG that is a pet peeve of mine...endless night barking! I don't see how, if it bothers me...how they, in the same yard...can deal/sleep/function?

Our city is lame...I guess they got tired of the complaning so they now have a policy where they do not issue citations only offer input on sending certified letters and arbitration for barking conflicts! Basically "you deal with it"...that could lead to some bad outcomes involving desperate people at the end of their ropes IMO...

fuzzy_dogs_mom

Posted : 8/18/2006 10:16:10 AM

When we first moved into student housing at UCD they had a large group of beagles that they were doing some sort of research on and all of them had been debarked. I used to feel so sorry for those poor dogs. After the research, a lot of them found homes but I heard later that many of them wound up with strange cancers and other conditions that shortened their lives.

Joyce

sillysally

Posted : 8/18/2006 10:24:29 AM

ORIGINAL: rwbeagles

OMG that is a pet peeve of mine...endless night barking! I don't see how, if it bothers me...how they, in the same yard...can deal/sleep/function?

Our city is lame...I guess they got tired of the complaning so they now have a policy where they do not issue citations only offer input on sending certified letters and arbitration for barking conflicts! Basically "you deal with it"...that could lead to some bad outcomes involving desperate people at the end of their ropes IMO...

I know--these were not large yards either, quite small as a matter of fact. I don't know how they stood it when it was essentailly RIGHT under their window....

One of my neighbors has a pug named Jim who is one heck of a barker (one of those "any excuse to bark" type dogs) and seems to have super-sonic hearing. A couple of years ago she had a family of raccoons move in under the floorboards of her aparment. She was calling my landlord multiple times throughout the day until they were live trapped because Jim would bark at the floor all night. [sm=lol.gif]

Xerxes

Posted : 8/18/2006 10:52:42 AM

ORIGINAL: agilebasenji

I would say it is a last resort thing. Some dogs just like to bark and will bark at everything especially when their owners aren't home. I've known dogs to bark right through citronella collars and shock collars. Having lived next to a dog that barked constantly and at all hours, I can say it does NOT make for pleasant neighbors.

The majority of show pharaoh hounds are debarked. I can understand why seeing how Xerxes, at times, really loves his voice. And I mean LOVES his voice. The best part of that is that the pharaoh hound bark has a certain timbre that shoots into your ear and vibrates the very core of your soul.

miranadobe

Posted : 8/18/2006 11:05:14 AM

What if it was debarking or the shelter? I'd rather have the debarking.

Same argument for de-clawing a cat. I don't like either.
We had a Dobe in resuce who was found as a stray who had been recently de-barked. He had been microchipped, but never registered - the microchip was purchased in Europe and the dog was all-natural (ears and tail) Evidently, someone imported him, then de-barked him. He would "bark" quite a bit and would get himself pretty upset. Even bloated at one point because of it. Had his vocal chords been intact, they could have used a bark collar and managed his vocalizations.

I understand people have reasons. Just bums me out they don't have foresight, too.

sillysally

Posted : 8/18/2006 11:12:42 AM

ORIGINAL: miranadobe

What if it was debarking or the shelter? I'd rather have the debarking.

Same argument for de-clawing a cat. I don't like either.

Well, you may not, but it is reality. There are many dogs and cats dying in shelters, and if there could be less because of debarking or declawing, then would you rather see the animals put to sleep? Bark collars do not work for some dogs. If a owner has tried everything else, what should they do?

miranadobe

Posted : 8/18/2006 8:31:53 PM

No, I know it's a reality. *sigh* Just bums me out. I believe some people jump to de-clawwing because they can't really "train" a cat to change. I can understand it, even though I don't agree with it.

Thankfully, I think far fewer people would de-bark a dog. I appreciate that there are tons of alternatives to try for dogs and that usually de-barking is the end of the line of choices before re-homing or worse.