Gadget stops dogs barking

[Jazzy]

A new gadget claims it can end the neighbourly nightmare of an incessantly barking dog.

American company Hammacher Schlemmer are selling the 'Bark Deterring Ultrasonic Collar' for $39.95.

The collar "uses ultrasonic sound to humanely restore peace and quiet for those vexed by a dog's nuisance barking."

When a dog barks while wearing the collar, a built-in microphone detects the sound, causing the unit to emit a harmless high-pitched tone, inaudible to humans, that startles the animal into silence.

The dog eventually associates its bark with the unpleasant sound, which conditions it to stay quiet.

Source

Oh look, you can buy an animal abuse item! Hello!!!!! Dogs are supposed to bark. If a dog is barking incessantly, there's a problem. Owners need to find out what's causing this to happen and humanely train the dog not to bark incessantly.

What are your thoughts?

 

[Nebulous]

Every time they bark they hear a high pitched noise? When I took in a dog the previous owner gave me a device like that. I didn't use it.

 

[DrLeftover]

I have known a few dogs that just barked. It was what they did.

They had food, water, and shelter. Were not in a tiny pen or on a chain. They didn't have worms or fleas. Nobody was throwing junk at them.

One of them just stood in its back yard and barked for an hour or so every afternoon.

Another was in an apartment and would bark for about ten minutes a couple of times a day. And if its people took it 'for a walk', when they got back, it would still bark.

Like you said, it's what dogs do.

But sometimes I think they do it just because they can.