Wow it sickens me that someone would take a way what a dog sees as its ability to communicate because they need it to "fit their lifestyle." This however is just my opinion, personally I believe (and I am no pro so I am likly wrong) that if you cannot train a dog to behave then it is a temperment issue.
As the owner of a dog that has had necessary surgeries and know how risky they can be, a purely elective surgery in my opinion exposes a dog to unnecessary risk. Additionally, the surgery does nothing to eliminate the underlying reasons for the dog’s constant barking. The dog is likely to continue to “bark” albeit silently or at a lower volume because root causes of the unappreciated behavior are not addressed. This cuts against the potential benefits of the surgery as the real nature of the dog’s life is not changed—they still suffer from the same issues as before. Post-surgery, however, they suffer in relative silence, which decreases the owner’s impetus to explore what problems led to the errant behavior in the first place.
And yes, my dog's tail is docked, but I find that tail docking (a) requires no anethesia, (b) is typically done bloodlessly, and (3) does not help an owner to ignore what is essentially a behavior problem. |