I get a steady stream of emails from people whose dogs have become anxious, reactive, or simply different since an ultrasonic bark deterrent entered the house. I wrote about these devices years ago. I’ve since spent a lot more time with the research, the manufacturers, and the product manuals\u2014including as a consultant on a legal case\u2014and I want to say something plainly that I only implied before: <\/p>\n
We should stop using these devices on our own dogs.<\/p>\n
Understanding Ultrasonic Bark Deterrents<\/p>\n
Ultrasonic bark deterrents\u2014fences, collars, and freestanding units\u2014emit a sharp pulse of sound, usually around 24\u201325 kHz at 110\u2013120 decibels, pitched above human hearing but well within a dog’s range. A microphone detects barking and triggers the pulse. The theory is simple: Make barking unpleasant enough, often enough, and the dog stops.<\/p>\n
No one can tell you these devices are safe. I called the companies that make them. Every representative told me their product was safe, but not one could produce a study. One rep at a bark-deterrent company thought safety testing might have been done back in 2003, possibly by “ASPA”\u2014she meant the ASPCA, which has in fact publicly opposed these devices. Another told me the products must be safe because they’re “sold everywhere, on Amazon and Chewy.” That’s not evidence. That’s an absence of evidence being mistaken for its opposite\u2014and it matters here because pet products face essentially no regulatory requirement to demonstrate safety or efficacy before they’re sold to you.<\/p>\n
In the absence of data, the precautionary principle applies: Assume potential for harm until shown otherwise. There are two harms worth separating.<\/p>\n
They Operate at an Unsafe Decibel Range<\/p>\n
Sound above roughly 80 decibels can damage a dog’s ear; these devices run at 110\u2013120. <\/p>\n
High-frequency sound does attenuate quickly with distance, so a dog well away from the unit is probably safer than one close to it\u2014but “probably” is doing real work in that sentence, because no one has actually studied what a 25 kHz pulse at that intensity does to a dog’s hearing or nervous system<\/a> over repeated exposure. Manufacturers’ own manuals warn against use on puppies under a year and on dogs with existing hearing loss, which tells you the companies themselves suspect these devices aren’t harmless\u2014they just haven’t funded the studies that would confirm it either way.<\/p>\n Sustained Hyperarousal Causes Psychological Harm<\/p>\n Among the potential harms, I think it’s the more serious one. A dog exposed repeatedly to an unpredictable aversive sound experiences chronic activation of the stress<\/a> response\u2014cortisol, adrenaline, a nervous system primed for threat. Sustained hyperarousal is linked to anxiety<\/a>, phobia<\/a> development, inhibited learning, and increased reactivity and aggression<\/a>. <\/p>\n Because the microphones are unsophisticated, they routinely misfire on wind, traffic, other dogs, even human voices\u2014so a dog gets “corrected” for things she didn’t do, with no way to learn what behavior the punishment<\/a> was even for. That’s not a training tool. It’s a landscape of fear: a world that has started delivering unpredictable pain for reasons the dog can never work out. One company rep described the sound to me as being like fingernails on a chalkboard for a dog\u2014offered as a casual reassurance, as though that were a small thing to inflict on a creature multiple times a day without warning.<\/p>\n Ultrasonic Bark Deterrents Are a Form of Punishment<\/p>\n Even setting the welfare question aside, these devices mostly don’t work. Positive punishment gives an animal no information about what to do instead\u2014only that something bad happens after barking, sometimes, unpredictably. Every major veterinary behavior organization that has taken a position on this agrees: The American Veterinary Society of Animal Behavior<\/a> warns that punishment-based approaches carry a documented risk of increased fear and aggression, and the Australian Veterinary Association is more blunt still, stating that punishment has no place in dog training. <\/p>\n Instead, Find the Reason for Your Dog’s Barking<\/p>\n