As dog owners know, every pet has both good habits that endear them to their owners; and bad habits that give their owners headaches. Evelyn loves her five-year old Labrador – Wally – who is adorable and quiet, for the most part, and because Wally is often keenly aware of his owner’s moods, most of the time at least. Except when he senses that other dogs are near the front gate. That’s when Wally goes on a barking rampage, as though he was a completely other dog, ignoring how his owner is feeling at the time. This is Wally’s bad side. When Evelyn looked for obedience training devices for Wally, she found that electronic collars were the most popular.
Wally’s owner knows that barking is one of the ways through which dogs express themselves. It gives her migraines when she can’t pacify Wally, especially when it’s so early in the morning. There are nights when Evelyn is awakened from sleep, abruptly, by wild barking. Unlike some dog owners, she does not want to yell at her dog. She tried to bribe Wally with attention and treats, to bring back some quiet in the house. But the dog, over time, simply kept barking anyway. Evelyn kept apologizing to her neighbours.
So one afternoon, Evelyn passed by a pet store. The no-bark collar, a shock type, fit Wally’s neck nicely. She only need to observe Wally to let him get used to the new collar. Electronic dog collars can be activated in two ways – through a sensor on the collar or via remote control. When Wally barks, the sensors on his collar detect his bark along with the vibration from his throat, and release a harmless electric current. This is the kind of obedience collar Evelyn wanted to try out first, on Wally.
Later that evening, when Wally sensed some dogs outside their front gate – they were being walked by their owners – he leapt from the couch and ran to the window facing the gate, and barked as he normally did. Wally showed a startled look on his face. As with some dogs, Wally tried to keep barking anyway, only to be met by a shock every time. Evelyn, based on customer comments she read, wasn’t surprised to see Wally trying out other ways to bark, to get past the shocks. The next evening the results were the same, and Evelyn was thankful her migraines were gone.
Other dogs still walked past their gate, and Wally’s head turns abruptly to the direction of the gate when that happens. Because of Evelyn’s investment in electronic collars, she got both the Wally she loves and the serene evenings she deserves.
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