Julie L

We had our dog done in QLD and it was incredibly hard to find someone to do it, and they charged plenty for it. We were quoted $1100 to $1300 but were told by many NSW breeders (see much earlier in this forum) that I was ripped off and they could get it done in NSW for around $300. I got the impression that may be a breeders price because they may get it done 'in bulk' but still it's obviously a lot cheaper in NSW. In all honesty I was so at my wits end that I would have been happy to pay double what we were quoted. She is exactly the same dog, just about 1/10th the volume.

Nawww how cute - bliss woofing. That's one of the things my girl was doing before we got her debarked. In her case we put it down to stress though... She had some issues with trying to protect the whole property, and it was a bit beyond her, so she just barked at the sky as long and loud as she could - we think to scare intruders before they were anywhere near the property so she wouldn't have to defend it.

;) You obviously have never had a dog that barks non stop Mantis :D Or lived next door to one I know there would be training to stop them if you are there, but what about when you are not there .???? To be honest I used to think that it seemed cruel, but since learning more about it and seeing dogs that would drive me insane I would prefer to have them debarked than PTS, Which some I am sure have been, brcause people couldnt stoip barking. When you walk around at shows and see dogs barking non stop and no noise, now I think OH my god what must that of been like to live with. LOL Besides it is like anything some dogs are worse than others. at anything . My girl isnt a barker but god forbid I leave anything around she shouldnt get to, its chewed up and YES she is a candidate for having her teeth all removed JUST joking of course NOT A bit of history on my boy. He suffers seperation anxiety, the reason I had to replace many doonas, couches, clothes etc. When I moved into a rental property, after two weeks I got a letter from the council, saying Kenny barked from the minute I left for work, until the minute I got home & being a big dog, he must have driven the neighbours nuts. So I went to my neighbours & said they should have told me earlier, so we could address the problem. Kenny hates water, so I bought a "super soaker" & put it on the bin in front of the side gate & told my neighbours whenever he barked, give him a spray, two days later, problem solved. There is always a way to stop a dog barking for nothing, a much better option than ripping their bark out. For a start, they do not RIP THE BARK out, obvious that you are actually quite uninformed as to how the procedure is carried out. Something worked for your dog that is just ducky, but for many dogs, the owners actually run out of options, it is too late once a neighbour has baited your dog or let it loose on the street, and this actually happens. Some people have neighbours who will not assist in any way, they simply want the dog gone. It is not cruel, and for many dogs it is life saving. Hear Hear !!! After 5 years of complaining neighbours, barking collars, behaviour specialists, anti-anxiety medication, endless training and water bombs, none of which helped in our case, sometimes debarking is the only option. Mine also suffers from separation anxiety, but she has another dog for company and I just can't be at home to baby sit her all the time. She just barks much more quietly and I no longer have to worry about what our poor neighbours are going through when we're not home. I absolutely agree that many people will look for the easy way rather that put in any effort, and that is wrong. The 'cauterising' (far removed from ripping-out) operation was a life-saver and I can't rave enough about how happy I am with the result. After all other options are exhausted, I don't feel remotely guilty about debarking. AND there is not "always a way to stop the dog barking for nothing." Although 24 hour supervision would probably do it but not gonna happen.

;) You obviously have never had a dog that barks non stop Mantis :D Or lived next door to one I know there would be training to stop them if you are there, but what about when you are not there .???? To be honest I used to think that it seemed cruel, but since learning more about it and seeing dogs that would drive me insane I would prefer to have them debarked than PTS, Which some I am sure have been, brcause people couldnt stoip barking. When you walk around at shows and see dogs barking non stop and no noise, now I think OH my god what must that of been like to live with. LOL Besides it is like anything some dogs are worse than others. at anything . My girl isnt a barker but god forbid I leave anything around she shouldnt get to, its chewed up and YES she is a candidate for having her teeth all removed JUST joking of course NOT A bit of history on my boy. He suffers seperation anxiety, the reason I had to replace many doonas, couches, clothes etc. When I moved into a rental property, after two weeks I got a letter from the council, saying Kenny barked from the minute I left for work, until the minute I got home & being a big dog, he must have driven the neighbours nuts. So I went to my neighbours & said they should have told me earlier, so we could address the problem. Kenny hates water, so I bought a "super soaker" & put it on the bin in front of the side gate & told my neighbours whenever he barked, give him a spray, two days later, problem solved. There is always a way to stop a dog barking for nothing, a much better option than ripping their bark out. For a start, they do not RIP THE BARK out, obvious that you are actually quite uninformed as to how the procedure is carried out. Something worked for your dog that is just ducky, but for many dogs, the owners actually run out of options, it is too late once a neighbour has baited your dog or let it loose on the street, and this actually happens. Some people have neighbours who will not assist in any way, they simply want the dog gone. It is not cruel, and for many dogs it is life saving. Hear Hear !!! After 5 years of complaining neighbours, barking collars, behaviour specialists, anti-anxiety medication, endless training and water bombs, none of which helped in our case, sometimes debarking is the only option. Mine also suffers from separation anxiety, but she has another dog for company and I just can't be at home to baby sit her all the time. She just barks much more quietly and I no longer have to worry about what our poor neighbours are going through when we're not home. I absolutely agree that many people will look for the easy way rather that put in any effort, and that is wrong. The 'cauterising' (far removed from ripping-out) operation was a life-saver and I can't rave enough about how happy I am with the result. After all other options are exhausted, I don't feel remotely guilty about debarking.

We have just noticed a 'side-effect' of this operation. Our dominant dog who now has a nice quiet bark was obviously the barker-in-charge-of-admissions, and now that she's not fulfilling her role, our other dog who hardly barks at all, has decided that she needs to bark quite generously and loudly whenever people visit. Its not a problem because she doesn't just bark all the time, at nothing and for no reason like the other one does, but just interesting that she has noticed and taken over the role of guard-barker...

Well, our debarking 'quiet' time is well and truly over and I'm extremely happy to report that I did a surprise visit this morning to catch the dogs in the act when they weren't expecting me home and... both dogs were barking at the back fence - at first I thought only 1 dog was barking, then I realised the 'barky-but-now-non-barky' dog was also barking. I could barely hear her at the back fence !! No, we don't have a massive yard, only 800m2 !! Woohoo ! I am SOOOO relieved. Our neighbour tells me this has been a nice week. It makes it all worthwhile. And for all the nay-sayers, her personality and general well-being has not changed a bit.

Sounds good to me.

I'm sure some people do, but there are just as many others who feel have run out of options, like me. I've been made to feel like the scum of the earth by just about every vet surgery I enquired with (around 8 of them), but I refuse to feel guilty anymore and I'm relieved that we've finally (hopefully) reduced the problem. Yes, it was a convenient way to solve the problem, but after 5 years of complaints, electric collars, confining, anti-anxiety medication, bark-busters, many and various training/dominance methods etc I felt that I had tried all my options.

Sounds like you were unlucky... That's the biggest load of garbage I've heard regarding debarking and dog self esteem/confidence Yeah, I don't really agree with that either, BUT in my case there may be a slight chance it will affect our dogs confidence because of the reason she is barking to start with. The problem was explained to us by a dog behaviouralist and I agree with their theory so here goes... She is the dominant dog and in charge when we are not home. When we're home she is completely relaxed and NEVER barks at anything. She has had 2 knee operations and has had neck and back problems on and off so is a physically unfit dog to be the one in control when the owners are out and she knows it but tries anyway. She will start barking at something (or nothing) and bark continuously for 3-4 hours, after that according to several of our neighbours. Just sitting in the yard, no activity in the street at all, barking up at the sky for HOURS and HOURS - yes, we are 'those' neighbours. It has been deduced that she does this to scare off any intruders before they even get anywhere near the yard, because she knows she is not able to defend her property. This is why I think it may be more worrying for her to not have as loud a voice to ward off 'attackers'. Feel free to pooh-pooh it, but it's a good theory. We have tried her on anti-anxiety medication and it didn't make one iota of difference to her behaviour either. Also fyi, it is very easy for a dog to outsmart an E collar. Put the collar on - scratch, scratch, scratch continuously until it is sticking up the side or back of her head and useless. She has long hair and I have tried clipping her hair into it to no avail. She still keeps scratching at it until it pulls away from her hair and spins around behind her head. Every time I look at her she's scratching at her neck and no, she doesn't have fleas and doesn't scratch her neck unless the collar is on. She's too smart for her own good.

She's great, You wouldn't even know she's had an operation.

Unfortunately I'm not a dog breeder and not a member of anything so don't get any discounts. Considering that it seems nobody else in QLD will do it, and most vets still think it's illegal in QLD, I was just grateful to find someone. But yes, it was more than I expected to pay.

Exactly, Julie. If my dogs are debarked I'll be taking the advice from the vet I'm paying for the surgery, not some stranger on the internet who decides he's wrong because he takes a more conservative approach to the healing process. Out of interest, what did your vet charge. PM me if you prefer. Ta. The surgery I used was actually a clinic of specialists and I needed a referral to see them. 1 of them didn't particularly want to do the operation and was quite frank about his quote reflecting that. He quoted about $2000 for a full vocal chord removal, which obviously I didn't go for because A. Holy nora that's expensive and B. overkill. His colleague did the cauterising down the throat and quoted $1100 to $1300 but it was $1380 because she ended up staying overnight. She's a staffy sized dog, but I don't know if her size affected the price. When I was ringing around Tweed Heads (over the border when I though it couldn't be done in QLD) I got quotes between $800 and $1300 but none of them seemed to want to do it either.

I know, Hesa. I'm not a vet - I'm as confused as anyone when told different things about having my dog done. Irrelevant anyway - the OP's dog was done weeks ago and he's very happy with the result. ;) Whether you go to a vet, doctor, mechanic, you will always get slightly varying opinions. In the end, my vet gave me advice and if it's more conservative than other vets, even better. If I'm going to put my dog through this I want to make sure we do everything we can to make it successful. I don't want her having to go through it again because we were slack. Three weeks is a small sacrifice to have happy dogs and happy owners. If it's one week too long, I don't really care, as long as we've done all we can.

Not really. My husband and I have had to pull some really big strings to negotiate working from home for 3 weeks to 'dog-sit'. Pathetic excuse really, when other people think about it... We have been able to alternate it between the 2 of us thankfully, but unless one of us retires - and at 37 that ain't gonna happen, we have to work. I guess we could have taken annual leave, but I don't have enough to be at home every day of the year.

Keeping the dog quiet for the healing process is what helps the procedure be a success, because, i was told, when they bark & use there vocals a lot ofter the op it creates scar tissue which then (semi) seals the hole (made from OP) & they will sound pretty loud again in no time. I have had a couple done, who were very noisy, after complaints also. "understand fully" I believe down the throat is much better personally. I've had one of my dogs debarked only two weeks ago (still on dog-sitting duties for another week to keep her quiet) and the operation was down the throat and vocal chords cauterised. I was told a different thing about the scarring though - if she is allowed to bark it will 'exercise' and stretch the scar tissue, allowing it to heal better - therefore allowing her to bark louder. The thing I was really impressed about with this operation is that when she came home she was happy and didn't seem to be in much pain, was eating and drinking normally and able to wear a collar/lead (although I didn't try this). All this despite the fact that she had to stay overnight due to bleeding because her vocal chords were abnormally large (that'd be typical of our luck). I agree this should only ever be a last resort - and it was - but the relief !! The whole household (and probably the whole neighbourhood) is less stressed. She has a nice soft bark now, not hoarse or raspy like we expected. PS debarking was made legal in QLD a couple of years ago, but a lot of vets still aren't aware of it, and are still reluctant to do it regardless. It was very difficult to find a vet, as our local vet hadn't ever done the operation, but he found us one near Aspley who agreed to do it after we explained the circumstances.