A family my husband and I are friendly with have a very large dog. And every time we go to their house, the dog hears us coming as we’re driving up the driveway and announces our arrival by barking its fool head off. But last Saturday night when we pulled up to the house, there was complete silence. My husband and exchanged glances as we were walking up to the door, hoping that the dogs hadn’t died since we had last been there. We soon found out that the dog was indeed alive and well, it had just been fitted with a no bark dog collar.

Our friends had received complaints from some of the neighbors about the noise the dog was making in the neighborhood, so rather than give the dog up, or keep it locked in the house, they decided to try out a no bark dog collar first. The idea behind the no bark dog collar is that it attaches at the dog’s vocal chords and gives the dog small shocks to get its attention and keep it from barking. Because it uses a combination of vibration detection and sound detection to indicate when to shock the barking dog, the collar is sophisticated enough to know when another dog is barking, and will not zap your dog by mistake.

I was surprised when I first saw the no bark dog collar in use. Because it was a relatively new device for the dog, he had not yet learned the key lesson of the no bark dog collar: Shut up and you will not be zapped. Every time the dog would start to bark, it would immediately stop and whimper a little. Probably from the shock administered through the collar that was teaching the dog to stop barking. Evidently it takes a little time for the dog to make the correlation, and depending on the intelligence of the specific breed, it could take a little while for it to finally register the relationship between barking and pain. Eventually though, most dogs usually figure it out.

If I had a dog of my own I’m not sure I would fit it with a no bark dog collar. I’m pretty sure dogs are meant to bark, just like people are meant to speak. It is how we communicate. I don’t judge anyone for choosing to use this device, least of all our friends who now have a much quieter house and happier neighbors. I would rather just not have a dog than have to spend time and money trying to get it to surrender its natural instincts.