Can our dog still bark in an emergency?

Written by Colin Seal

03/03/2011 Dog Bark Collar, Barking Dog Collar

Barking dogs and Warning Barks
This week we received a question about barking dogs, do we stop dogs barking completely? Steve asks - regarding the Outdoor Bark Control and our Bark Collar products. This is a very good question and one that many people ask. For more Bark Collar Reviews, visit here.

Steve asks:

"Would these preventions stop a dog from barking altogether (I wouldn't mind that with our neighbour's dog at present but perhaps it would be a problem if the dog needed to bark in say an emergency?) Thanks, Steve."

Hi Steve,
Thanks for your query.
What these systems do, and other barking dog systems that we offer the dog from barking. Most of them come in with a mild ‘stimulation or irritant’ to help significantly reduce nuisance barking.. i.e.barking at what would be called everyday neighbourhood activity.

Excessive dog barking noise, at people walking down the street or birds in the trees can get to the point where it is classified as ‘nuisance barking’. The line is a bit blurry as each person hears barking with different ears..( just like fingernails down a blackboard.)

You are right, we don’t want to take away the barking altogether so they usually are at a level where they are just enough to make a dog think twice about barking if it is not really necessary. A great dog training method.

If there is an emergency situation then the instinct/adrenalin and seriousness of the situation will see the dog instinctively bark not pay attention to the stimulation/irritant. The instinct overrides the irritant.

The dog can then bark when needed which is acceptable. This also means your neighbours will be aware of a problem and not think the ‘dog is just crying wolf again’.

Our static bark collars or zap collars are also designed to have a delay feature so they will not go off at every bark and will allow around 8 – 10 barks before being ready to activate at the next level. One of the samples of this device is the SportDog Bark Collar with 6 levels of corrections and suitable for medium-sized dogs.

All of the Bark control systems have a cut-out feature if they do hit a certain number of activations in a short period of time.

I hope this answers your question. Thanks for taking the time to comment and feel free to call to chat.

Here for you and your dog,
Colin Seal