We arrive at our Calgary house and pet-sit in early September 2016 and are introduced to a dog that has undergone devocalization.
“Her name is Shar. She’s a gentle, well-behaved 13-year-old Sheltie,” her owner says.
“She’s lovely,” I say and pat the top of her head.
She nuzzles up to Frank and he responds with a stroke down her back.
Shar follows her owner, Frank, and me into the front room. We sit for a while before the homeowner introduces us to all the procedures he needs us to follow with regard to maintaining the pristine condition of his house. He has prepared a procedure bullet list for us which makes it much easier to follow the house rules. For example, 'put the garbage out on Thursday evening for the early Friday morning pick up.'
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| Frank and Shar on her daily walk |
Another daily routine at this house and pet-sit arrangement includes Shar’s morning walk. She is leash trained. She is very cooperative and stops when we stop, rests regularly to relax her arthritic back leg, and uses her nose to identify what’s going on in her neighborhood.
Suddenly, she spots a large rabbit and lunges at it. Frank holds onto the leash and makes a comment.
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| White Tailed Jack Rabbit |
“Is she barking?” he says.
We listen and watch her head move forward. The noise coming from her throat sounds like a muffled Crow’s caw. We learn later from her owner that the breeder apparently got in trouble from her neighbours for all the noise her Shelties made. She took the bylaw warning seriously and decided to have all her dogs ‘devocalized’. Here’s the definition we found on the Internet:
Devocalization (also known as ventriculocordectomy or vocal cordectomy and when performed on dogs is commonly known as debarking or bark softening) is a surgical procedure applied to dogs and cats, where tissue is removed from the animal's vocal cords to permanently reduce the volume of their vocalizations.
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| Susan with Shar |
Shar barks at squirrels, other dogs, cats, rabbits, and whatever is outside her house belonging to the animal kingdom. We believe that she thinks that’s her true voice, and for her, since her young years, it is.
We consider our daily outings with Shar the Sheltie as mini-adventures. She is captivated by her surroundings. While we admire lawn ornaments, parks, signs, and stuff people put in the back alley, she trots along with her nose wide open, her limited vision, and her sensitive arthritic legs. She’s a wonderful dog and is very grateful to arrive home after her walk to rest on her padded bed.
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| A sample of neighbourhood lawn ornaments |
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| A sample of a back alley item |
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| A local park |
