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Friday, February 29, 2008

Am I part dog?

Jeremy made a very exciting purchase off of EBay about a week ago. He bought BarkStop. It is a device you plug into an outlet and when the dog barks it is supposed to make an irritating noise in the dog’s ear. Obviously this annoying sound should make the dog stop barking. That is indeed the purpose. Human ears are not able to detect the noise . . . supposedly.

The reason for the purchase . . . well, we love Abbie. LOVE HER DEARLY! But . . . yes there is a but. Sometimes, she can live life a little “on edge”. She is a barker, a protector, a watchdog. It is the nature of her breed. But, we don’t enjoy the barking at 2:00am because she heard a leaf blow in the back yard or every time a visitor stops by our house or a neighbor across the street slams their car door closed. And with a baby coming, we need to nip the barking in the bud. We assume that soon our sleep will be disturbed enough, without assistance from little, sweet Abbie.

Well, the BarkStop arrived on our doorstep today. What an exciting event! Plugging it in and testing it out. To test out the product, we of course we had to bang on windows and ring the doorbell when Abbie was least expecting it. And she barked in response to our behavior. At first she seemed to not notice the annoying high-pitched sound. After more “tests”, we could see that she noticed it, but frankly, she seemed unbothered by it. I, on the other hand, was a little bothered by it. I could definitely hear the annoying high-pitched sound and it was a little disturbing to me. It was disturbing that I could hear sounds that only dogs should be able to hear.

Jeremy used the ice dispenser from the fridge later this evening. And of course, BarkStop started it’s squealing. Apparently it can’t yet decipher between a dog bark and falling ice cubes. Abbie was lying on the floors and she just cocked her head to the side, as if she kind of enjoyed the ringing. What a waste of money . . . and a bit of an added complex for me.


5 comments:

The Coopers said...

Ok that was so funny!! I am still laughing out loud along with Daniel. He says you are not part dog just have wonderful hearing like your sister. I was really excited and hoping it would work so we could get it for our barking, annoying dogs. Let us know what you find that works and hopefully you did not pay too much. You are so funny!

Anonymous said...

I'm sorry but I did find that very humurous. LOL. Let us know if your dog ever stos barking.

The Skains Family said...

Hahaha. Oh Abby. How do I miss that dog of yours. That story cracked me up. Are you part dog?!?!?! Melodie, you are hilarious.

The Curtis Family said...

So...is changing your blog skin a hobby now? Cute!

the thorntons said...

I was SO hoping that you were going to tell me how wonderful Bark Stop is because we REALLY need it for our 2 dogs. I guess Jack is probably still traumatized from his days at the mansion, as I'm sure Abbie is too! They bark at the littlest things...it's ridiculous! Hmmm...let me know if you find anything that actually works and I'll do the same for you!