05/08/05, 07:49 PM
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Driftin' Away
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Join Date: Mar 2005
Location: Where the path takes me
Posts: 745
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Debarking
A lot of people consistently debark dogs. I've lived with a couple that are debarked and myself won't do it.
1 - Any dog can be taught to be quiet. Why are they barking, and at what? limit the exposure. Unless someone is on my property, my dogs are quiet except if I let their water buckets get too low.
2 - Debarking can cause scar tissue, which can cause dogs to overheat. The dogs can't get enough air to cool down. This also strictly limits what you can do with them for performance activities.
3 - I HATE the sound of a debarked dog. I hate barking too, which is why my dogs are trained not to, except to be watch dogs for general safety (I don't trust myself with a gun, I'd shoot myself in the foot).
4 - It causes dog fights, they can't growl or communicate normally and the other dogs think they're weird.
That all said I know lots of people who debark, and they don't think any of the above is true. So to each their own.
As for barking dogs and neighbors. My neighbor called the police because my dogs barked at him at 2:00 in the afternoon when he came 70 feet onto my property. He then later threatened to shoot them, or me, broke our fences to let them out, (if the police saw them running loose they shoot on sight). He switched to passive aggressive methods when I told him that they were worth 1,000 - 10,000 a piece and I could prove that, and his threats in court.. I ended up keeping them inside any time he was home while his dogs roamed the neighborhood. Not one other neighbor said they ever heard my dogs, and all but 1 were willing to write statements to that effect.
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