A situation I read about here on yt changed my mind about never debarking. I still believe it should be a procedure of last resort, not a surgery preformed to allow a breeder to cage more dogs.
An elderly lady had to go into a nursing home and owned a poodle, the poodle was 14 years old. They had been together since the poodle was a puppy, the only life the poodle had ever known. No other family member could keep her poodle, besides it would have devastated the woman to give up her companion. The facility would allow the poodle but only if the poodle didn't bark. The poodle's barking at this age was an deeply ingrained habit and despite all training methods couldn't be stopped. The poodle was debarked and lived peacefully at the nursing home with it's owner.
In this case the greater crime would have been to deprive the owner and poodle from being together during the last years of their lives.
__________________  ~Ruby, Reno, Razz, & Jack~ |