Debarking a dog?
 

There seems to be a trend here lately.

Occasionally I browse ads for Yorkies just because I'm curious what dogs are being rehomed. I've seen 6 ads now saying that the dogs have been debarked. Who does this? This seems like incredibly cruel treatment to me. If I went to my vet and asked him to debark my Yorkies (and the new rescue, Daisy, is a yappy little thing with the most annoying whimper that resembles nails on a chalkboard), he'd probably have ME euthanized! I can't imagine depriving a dog of their ability to vocalize. It's a dog thing. If you can't stand barking and aren't willing to train that behavior to a tolerable amount, then you shouldn't have anything beyond a stuffed dog. Why doesn't this practice fall under the legal classification as abuse?

I just needed to vent!

This is the perfect place to do it! I agree with you, and if you've ever heard the sound of a debarked dog barking, it's horrible, they still make a noise. Many puppymill breeders do it by just jamming a steel rod down the dog's throat. I have heard of certain cases where vets will do it if there's a good reason. For example, someone is threatened with eviction if they didn't rehome the dog due to barking issues. In cases like that, I guess you have to look at the whole picture and which would be least traumatic for the dog. Anyway, I wonder why you are seeing so many ads for debarked dogs, could this be a code for a puppy mill breeding dog?


Here's the way a debarked dog may sound.


The funny thing is today both the dogs were barking at someone they saw in the park behind my house, and I thought how beautiful the sound was, they are both feeling great when they bark like that, and that makes me happy.

Sounds pretty brutal to me. But if you're looking to rescue a Yorkie, I'm sure one of those would love to be in your arms.

I want to cry after just watching a portion of that video. :eek:

I know it's sounds so painful. I just want to add that puppy millers don't do this to the puppies they are planning on selling, just to the breeding dogs and that's why it's important to visit you breeders home in person. We pet buyers can do a lot to protect the breeding dogs, if we take the time to do it.

I just rescued one named Daisy a week and a half ago. She's my psycho dog!

I didn't tell the whole story behind her (I'm usually going in 5 directions and didn't have time to sit down at the computer).

Daisy will be 3 in October and is 3.5 - 4 lbs. She was scheduled for euthanasia because she's psychotic and aggressive and that alone puts her on the "not adoptable" list. She was beaten and beaten severely. Her aggressive issues stem from fear, nothing else. So I took her in, dealt with my husband's death stare regarding my decision (I didn't ask - I just did it), and here we are. So I think for the time being, I'm going to have to abstain from another rescue while I get her through her issues. I, personally, think she can be fixed.

We started with getting through the food aggression. She liked to guard her bowl and would literally attack anyone who walked by her while she was eating. So, I put 10 of them down all through the kitchen and told her to guard them all. She ran herself out of energy running from one side of the room to the other trying to guard all of them. It took 3 days before she gave up and realized it's not going to work. At that point I started hand feeding her and making her be nice to get kibble. When she misbehaved, I'd pretend that I ate it instead. It took her an hour to eat her breakfast. Now, I can pet her while she's eating. She's still eating with her food bowl on my lap, but she's not snapping and growling anymore.

There's quite a bit of other stuff to work through. I'm trying to build her confidence. She gets lots of time outs but we've made great progress. I only got bit once in the past 3 days. Every time she bites me, I laugh at her and put her in the ex pen.

I worked as the southern regional director for westie rescue for 5 years and worked closely with some very good dog trainers, so I have experience with this. It's too soon to tell how things will turn out but I refuse to let her be put down because of something some human did to her. She's not a bad dog. She's just misunderstood and needed someone who speaks dog.

My very first Rescue I adopted was from Puppymill Rescue was my sweet 8 yr old Audrey ( she passed away in 2003) she was debarked at the mill. She had the most pitiful bark and it just made me cry every time she tried to bark.

Bless you:heart to

I've always associated it with a pup mill practice.
Horrid and cruel, it however was a HUGE trend in the larger cities.

Many people allowed to have dogs in their apartments or town houses were doing this because of barking citations, after three you are fined so much and then you might loose your dog.

many cities have changed this now, people are seeking alternative treatments such as electronic off the dog detour ants and -go figure some basic training-unfortunately no-bark shock or static collars are also popular for this issue now.


Sadly many dogs are repeatably de-barked as the barking can return over time the procedure fails.

I have never heard of the term "debarked" before. I did not even know this was possible. If it can be done in doges then it must be possible to replicate it in humans. I suggest the people responsible for this barbaric treatment deserve the biblical punishment an eye for an eye or I this case a voice for a bark. I am horrified to read this and ashamed to be part of the same species at these monsters ��

Most people don't want to take the time to train a dog properly. They may try and if the first method doesn't work then they start punishing the animal. I get tired of hearing people complain about how their dogs misbehave and then ask for a method of punishment instead of leaning how to communicate with the animal. Debarking is just a lazy and heartless way to deal with an issue like barking.

I'd agree but I don't want pup millers and BYB to be parents...locked in cages yes.;):thumbdown:mad:

Oh my, that sounds terrible, I couldn't finish seeing the video. I just don't understand why this can be done.

I had this done to my first yorkie about 26 years ago, before the internet and Yorkie Talk. The vet at the time made light of it, he said there was nothing to it, that he just makes a small biopsy size hole on the vocal cord. He said it was common that lots of people that retired to places like FL had to do it when in condos. However the recovery was a lot worse for the dog then the vet led me to believe it would be, he seemed to be in a lot of pain for about week. This put my husband and I under a lot of distress and regret for having put him through this. He was quite a barker and was disturbing our neighbors a lot so there was some relief in that but still we were sorry we took that step, but like I said the vet really made light of it, it was only later that I found out lots of vets would not perform that surgery. Over time his bark came back a little, I believe it is because the hole starts to close back up. He did also sound raspy and people always thought I was choking him. I am 56 and got my first yorkie in my late 20's, looking back now I am surprised I did not make more dumb mistakes since I did not have the luxury of Goggling everything before hand.

I know a dog that makes that sound... So sad..