Thousands of proud dog owners attest to how much they love their dogs, when they’re behaving nicely, and not causing a racket. Wally, a five year old Labrador is usually behaved, quiet, and knows when to keep to himself when, Evelyn, his owner is having a bad day. Except when he senses that other dogs are near the front gate. This is the moment the quiet, well-behaved Wally goes somewhere else, and a barking-mad Wally takes over. This is Wally’s bad side. Evelyn was to discover for herself how quickly this behaviour could be controlled using electronic collars.
Evelyn understands that barking is the usual way dogs express themselves. But his barking can’t be controlled, Evelyn realized, especially when it’s so early in the morning; she gets migraines because of this. There are nights when Evelyn is awakened from sleep, abruptly, by wild barking. Some owners resort to yelling, angrily, at their dog, or worse, to violence. For a while, spending time with Wally, showering him with attention, and giving him treats worked. But the dog, over time, simply kept barking anyway. She had to keep apologizing to her neighbours.
She came home from work one afternoon with some thing new to try out. The no-bark collar, a shock type, fit Wally’s neck nicely. What was needed was to keep watch on Wally until he got used to wearing the collar. Obedience collars fall generally into two categories – those that activate automatically, and those that can be activated remotely. The sensor sends out a low-voltage shock when it senses, in combination, a loud sound (Wally’s bark) and vibration coming from the dog’s throat. This is the kind of obedience collar Evelyn wanted to try out first, on Wally.
On the very evening the collar was bought and placed on Wally, neighbour’s dogs walked past the front gate, as per their walking schedule. Wally tried to bark loudly, but something was off. Wally showed a startled look on his face. Evelyn observed as his dog kept trying to bark, so see if he could work around the shocks and keep barking anyway. Evelyn, based on customer comments she read, wasn’t surprised to see Wally trying out other ways to bark, to get past the shocks. The succeeding weeks brought a welcome quiet at home.
Wally’s barking stopped, even though Evelyn could see that her dog still senses other dogs outside their house. But the barking mad behaviour was gone, thanks to electronic collars.
