Monday, August 17, 2009

It Only Stings for a Second....

A few weeks ago my friend was dealing with a dreadful neighborhood nuisance and found quite the contraption to control the problem. Bradley complained about the dog barking issue on her blog and threatened to buy the "Dog Silencer Pro" if the problem wasn't nipped in the bud ASAP. Well, my darling husband read that blog and had the bright idea that this is just what we needed to control a certain yappy Yorkie!

You see, we have very active neighbors across the street with 2 high school aged daughters. There is constantly someone going somewhere over there. EVERY TIME the red tail lights flash on, Rookie is flying off the couch, full on bark in neighborhood watch mode. While I feel so very safe and secure, I also feel annoyed when I have to rewind my DVR to hear the line of bull Jillian just spewed on the Bachelorette. You can see the quandary.

Well, Friday was D-day and homeboy didn't even see it comin'. We got home from work to the brown package on the front door steps. no doubt he barked at the UPS guy....oh the irony. The way it works is it is "bark activated" and it sets off a high frequency noise that only the dog can hear (although Dave and I can hear it ever so faintly...) and it supposed to stop them in their tracks. The website promised that your dog would be trained not to bark in 2-3 weeks.

So Dave got to work putting the batteries in the contraption and setting it up in the living room and when he turned up the volume it apparently went off because Rookie darted in the other room like he had been shot out of a rocket and hid under the kitchen table. I guess it works! That entire night when he would start to bark it would "zap" him and he quickly stopped barking. Pretty soon when the neighbors headlights would go on he would perk up and start to run and then he would quickly remember he was about the get zapped and he wouldn't bark! Dave and I high fived and were so stinkin' proud of how smart we are....and then....

My parents and grandparents came over for dinner and to hang out and when they came to the front door he started barking. You could tell he was hearing the noise because he was stopping a little bit but then he would just start again. It was in that moment that he realized it only stings for a second....

He's a stubborn little thing. I think he gets it from his dad.

5 comments:

Kara said...

That is too funny! We got one of those types of this once for Jack, only it was a shock collar to keep him out of our garden. We tried it and it didn't hurt, just irritated you for a second...well needless to say, jack discovered the short lived shock and would get into the garden, but not come out because he didn't want two shocks. silly puppies :)

Laura said...

glad you tried it out..as you know my lil' man jake is quite the guard dog as well! i am worried when we have babies around his barking will be more of an issue. if you find something that does work..let me know! ;)

erin - heart in ireland said...

thanks for your comment! it was a fun weekend :)

haha, sounds like my dog, when she barks allllll the time. luckily we live in the middle of nowhere!

love you blog and i'm looking forward to reading more!

kristin fulghum said...

man it sucks to have a smart dog. i often wish for a stupid one...life would be so much easier!

keely said...

so are you going to try and get your money back??? I think I want one of these!