barkoff

If you know me in real life, you know I have been having a hard time with my dogs and their love of barking.

Let me say this, I LOVE my dogs! And, I'm an owner for life. I'm not one to adopt a pet and if something happens I don't like, for example: barking, ship the poor pooches off lickety split. However, I must admit, this whole business of barking has had me climbing the walls. I like it when my dog barks at someone threatening. I enjoy my two Scotties barking at the door-to-door solicitor. (A little too much probably) But their habit of making noise at every little thing that moves or patrolling the boundaries of the backyard with incessant barking is too much.

I've tried every collar, every positive reward, every negative discipline and every command possible. Nothing has worked. Mavis, on the left, is the worst offender. She's little and scrappy and the loudest. She currently wears a bark collar when she is outside and for the most part it works. However, she is smart enough to know that when she doesn't have the collar on, she can bark up a storm without consequence.

Franklin, on the right, is a slow, scaredy-cat and pretty much will do whatever Mavis does. His bark is deep and low so not as annoying as his sister's high pitched shrill, but loud none the less.

Besides the barking when out in the backyard, the pups like to watch the happenings go past the front of the house through our front door that happens to be glass. Our street is a hot spot for walkers, joggers and bikers since it's flat and quiet. So you can imagine the noise inside our house. Yesterday I was strolling around Target and happened to pass this little gadget.

I didn't have high hopes for this ten dollar device that claimed such peace and quiet. I always questioned the integrity of products that bear the "as seen on tv" sticker. Usually "as seen on tv" means you are a big sucker for giving us your money for this piece of crap. But for ten bucks, I thought I would give it a try. I set BarkOff by the front door and turned it on. Then I quickly forgot about it. Until, Franklin started barking at a crow in the front yard this morning. To my amazement, BarkOff worked. He instantly stopped the noise and backed away from the front door. I couldn't be more happy!!