Just so you know it’s not all going to the dogs, one day after we reported on a Spanish town that has granted full rights to its “non-human residents,” comes news that a town in Italy has restricted the right to bark.http://www.thelocal.at/20150722/scientists-develop-virtual-tourism-drone
Controne, in the southern province of Catania, has banned barking during the hours of “riposo,” the Italian equivalent of a siesta. There are fines of between 20 and 500 Euros for disturbing the nap. There are also fines for dogs that bark in the night.
Other Italian towns have taken action on the pet front as well; Piacenza now requires rinsing after dogs urinate, and bans leaving pets alone in public spaces. There’s more in TheLocal.it
I’ve had a couple of barkless Basenjis before -but they made other noises besides barking, so I guess that breed still doesn’t qualify in Controne
If this ban will be enforced, it is effectively a ban on having dogs in that town, because by their nature, dogs will bark. Some do it more than others, but they all will bark sometime. You can try to control and discipline them, but that will have limited success.
People love their dogs. I know that’s true of me and it’s true of many others. Doesn’t sound like the kind of place I’d want to live in.
You might be able to train dogs to bark less, but the only way you can get them not to bark is to surgically transect the nerves that go to their vocal cords, or to surgically mutilate the cords so they don’t work any more. Sounds very compassionate, doesn’t it?
Calling Dr. Pavlov! We need you back to work on some other aspects of dog behavior. Seriously, it should be possible to train dogs not to bark; the question is what other behaviors would be affected?