The first reaction that most dog owners have to having a debarking procedure suggested to them is one of shock. Certainly, they really, really wish that their dog would just quiet down. But they wouldn't ever want to amputate his vocal cords out and deprive him of the only real way of expressing himself that he has. The thing is though, that debarking dogs is not about completely depriving them of their bark. It's about quieting their bark down so that it's more bearable to any human company present.
A debarking procedure is minor veterinary surgery. The veterinary surgeon goes in and trims the dog's vocal chords up, so that there isn't as much of it left. A dog that's been through this can still bark; but it's a very, very quite bark.
Understandably, debarking dogs isn't something that goes down well with animal rights lovers. People feel that it's just wrong to subject an animal to surgery when the surgery doesn't do anything for its health.
They also worry about what such a thing might do to a dog's head. When he wakes up from his surgery and he can't really bark like before, will he be emotionally injured? What is wrong, they ask, with training a dog to not bark, the old-fashioned way. If a person can't find the time or the patience or the money to train his dog properly, he shouldn't be allowed to take the cruel way out and just cut those vocal cords.
Those who support debarking dogs have their own (plausible) arguments for why it's not wrong. Even if while it is true that lots of patients training can help any dog stopped barking, this just doesn't happen in real life, they argue. When people don't find that it's difficult to get the dog to stop barking, they send them off to the pound instead to get euthanized. If debarking dogs were an option, they would just get this done, the dog with with.
Not to mention, they say, any fears that anyone may have for the dogs' mental health, there is no basis in science. No one has ever done anything like proving that there's any emotional damage that occurs.
The do concede that if debarking dogs goes too far and if a dog completely loses his voice, that it might possibly do some kind of psychological damage to the animal.
Most people apparently have little actual idea how debarking dogs really happens. Like most things though, the truth really does for the somewhere along the middle.
A debarking procedure is minor veterinary surgery. The veterinary surgeon goes in and trims the dog's vocal chords up, so that there isn't as much of it left. A dog that's been through this can still bark; but it's a very, very quite bark.
Understandably, debarking dogs isn't something that goes down well with animal rights lovers. People feel that it's just wrong to subject an animal to surgery when the surgery doesn't do anything for its health.
They also worry about what such a thing might do to a dog's head. When he wakes up from his surgery and he can't really bark like before, will he be emotionally injured? What is wrong, they ask, with training a dog to not bark, the old-fashioned way. If a person can't find the time or the patience or the money to train his dog properly, he shouldn't be allowed to take the cruel way out and just cut those vocal cords.
Those who support debarking dogs have their own (plausible) arguments for why it's not wrong. Even if while it is true that lots of patients training can help any dog stopped barking, this just doesn't happen in real life, they argue. When people don't find that it's difficult to get the dog to stop barking, they send them off to the pound instead to get euthanized. If debarking dogs were an option, they would just get this done, the dog with with.
Not to mention, they say, any fears that anyone may have for the dogs' mental health, there is no basis in science. No one has ever done anything like proving that there's any emotional damage that occurs.
The do concede that if debarking dogs goes too far and if a dog completely loses his voice, that it might possibly do some kind of psychological damage to the animal.
Most people apparently have little actual idea how debarking dogs really happens. Like most things though, the truth really does for the somewhere along the middle.
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