Does a Park Have the Right to Discipline Your Dog?

The City of Chandler, Arizona wants to use high frequency sound devices to take the bark out of the Bark Park.

In response to complaints from neighbors, the city bought four Dog Silencer Pros from Good Life LLC. The Dog Silencers pick up barking within a 75 foot radius, then they emit a sound that travels up to 300 feet. The noise is too high frequency for human ears, but it's enough to get your dog's attention.

That means if any dog barks, every other canine in the vicinity — dogs who aren't barking, dogs just walking by, dogs in their own yards — gets punished without having done anything wrong, and without the owner's consent.

Even if you choose to use aversives when training your dog, there's a right way and a wrong way to do it. Indiscriminate punishment is the wrong way.

Sure, an irritating sound isn't exactly abuse, but the whole point is that it's unpleasant enough to make the dog stop whatever he's doing. Why subject every dog in the area to it? This sounds like the perfect recipe for a whole neighborhood of neurotic dogs.

A Good Life spokesman says that dogs associate the noise with barking and not other behaviors. Of course he does. But in reality, your dog isn't thinking "that sound means no barking, the yell means get out of the trash, the swat means no jumping ..." A punishment and behavior are only connected because one followed the other. It's the timing, not the type of aversive, that matters.

The timing of anti-bark devices in a park will make dogs associate bad things with all sorts of innocent scenarios. If your dog is quietly playing at the Bark Park and is hit with the noise, he's going to associate that discomfort with the dog park, or with the dog he's playing with. It misses the whole point of the park.

Dog parks aren't for everyone — they can be overwhelming for some dogs (and owners) — but for the dogs that do well there, they're an important source of exercise and socialization. It's a place for dogs to be dogs. But that can't happen if dogs are stressed out from seemingly random high pitched noises.

Barking can also be a key part of dog communication, and if they're discouraged from barking when interacting with each other, it can cause serious problems. Some dogs won't know how to interact. Others will come up with new, less appropriate ways to get their point across.

The devices have never been used in a public park, as far as Good Life knows. And hopefully they never will be. Chandler's four Dog Silencer Pros remain in their boxes while the city investigates the  protests by the Arizona Humane Society and local dog owners and trainers.

Photo credit: Misshappiness