De-Barking your dog..

Just wondering... How is a citronella collar less humane than de-barking a dog?

I think it would be much more humane than de-barking a dog. My dog Harley was a HUGE barker and would constantly bark every day, morning and night. We have done extensive training to train him out of his barking habits - it IS possible. He still has occasional days where he will be noisy, but he is so much better than he used to be. I just think that de-barking is not directly solving the problem. It's more of a way to cover it up. And you say dogs don't use barking/their voice as a way to communicate, but they do. They may use body language more, but their voice is also a vital way of getting their message across. I just don't think it's fair to rid a dog of his voice because you/others can't put up with the barking. Try and look into the reason for your dogs barking - the most common posibility is boredom.

All in all, de-barking is a last resort in my mind.

I think it had to do with her overall behavior on the site not just this one thread. It seemed like it was tolerable and funny at first but then it got progressively worse and worse. Not just name calling (although that happened a lot) but a general disregard towards members. j.m.o.

I agree completely and I will maintain my friendship with her. She sure had a lot of valuable knowledge to share for those who wanted to learn.

I am the owner and this is my personal website. Born and raised in the south, I'm not from russia, china, or any other country.

If you attack fellow members personally you can expect to be suspended. We do note if you were 'drawn' into it or not and by who. It isn't that hard to debate the issues and not insult the person. We are very open and usually allow everyone to have their say, good or bad, but will draw the line on personal attacks.
Usually we would suspend a member before banning one unless they are overly abusive. In this case suspension was the penalty. Also, please do not post another member's personal correspondence or information on this forum.

Thank you for your cooporation,
Chazhound

Look at it this way: a shock or citronella collar is a punishment for barking. If dogs dislike the shock or the blast of citronella enough to stop barking, that means it is extremely unpleasant. Most dogs, in an attempt to avoid that, will stop making noise entirely. What fun is that? Some dogs (Shelties, Poms, etc.) LOVE to bark and I think it's more humane to muffle their bark than to tell them they can't bark at ALL or they'll get shocked or blasted with something foul.

What I don't think you understand is that dogs who have been debarked do not lose their voice. They do still make a quiet noise. Now, if you have a dog that lives in a huge pack, by all means don't debark it because yes, it probably will need its voice to be loud on occasion. But for your average housedog? Honestly, they can still communicate with a quiet bark.

De-barking -is- a last resort. I would never do it unless I had tried everything else.. My argument is that I have seen it done, I have seen the 'end result' and I don't see how people can call a simple, mild procedure "cruel" when they don't know a whole lot about it.

That's JMO, though.

*update*

Well I have some good News about Jada the squirt bottle has sunk into her little head that barking is bad, now she will occationally forget this, but now she is basically under control about it.

If worst came to worst, yes she would have been de-barked no doubt, but it looks like she is pulling through for herself.

I guess we have our own opinions!
I'm for citronella collars, you're for de-barking (I know.. as a last resort).

I know that de-barked dogs don't lose their voice completely, but I truely hate that muffled bark, and de-barking a dog is a permanent procedure. Once it's done there's no going back. Also, dogs also use different pitches when trying to communicate, and I think this would be pretty hard to do with a bark that's not really there. And, like you said if it's a house dog and doesn't have any reason to bark so much, than the citronella collar can be used to teach the dog that it doesn't need to be barking all the time.

(Sorry if I'm not making too much sense, I'm feeling a bit sick today ).