{"id":362,"date":"2004-05-19T10:22:41","date_gmt":"2004-05-19T14:22:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.law.harvard.edu\/snarl\/2004\/05\/19\/olfactory-failure\/"},"modified":"2004-05-19T10:22:41","modified_gmt":"2004-05-19T14:22:41","slug":"olfactory-failure","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/snarl\/2004\/05\/19\/olfactory-failure\/","title":{"rendered":"Olfactory Failure"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Dusty has developed an annoying habit of barking. She’ll be peacefully resting on the couch next to me and then start barking. Incessantly. Or she’ll be playing with a toy (or my sneakers) and then stop, look at me, and bark. Since she’s only 5 pounds, these barks are VERY high-pitched. And since she doesn’t stop, I’ve been tempted to drop her from our 8th floor window.<\/P>
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Then, Matt spoke with a neighbor of ours who owns a Shih Tzu (FYI – it seems like every tenant in our building has a Shih Tzu). This neighbor said her dog went through a barking phase and they addressed it with a citronella dog collar.<\/P>
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Well, you don’t have to twist my arm. I ordered one and it arrived yesterday. The way it works is that a box is attached to a collar. When the dog barks, a microphone picks up the vibration and a spray of citronella comes out. The citronella is harmless to the dog – but, like mosquitos, they apparently don’t like the smell.<\/P>
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After spending an eternity trying to assemble the thing, I tested it by blowing into the microphone. It sprayed into the air and I realized I love the smell. I wouldn’t mind using it as a room freshener. Hell, I’d wear the damn thing.<\/P>
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Anyway, you’re not supposed to leave it on the dog when you’re not around so I took the collar off and headed off to dinner with a friend. When I returned, I eagerly awaited Dusty’s barking ritual so we could test it. She finally barked, I put the collar on her, and she stopped barking even without the citronella having to spray. <\/P>
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I did it again this morning and the same thing happened. I started to worry that I needlessly spent $100 on a dog collar when I could have just spent $2.99 for a standard collar. <\/P>
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And then it happened. After running around trying to remove the collar* she came over to me, looked up, and barked. I’m not sure who jumped further – Dusty or me. The spray came out and it was like she started floating. It all happened so quickly it was like the scene in The Matrix when that stop-sequence kick-action took place. Everything felt like it had happened in slow motion and I just remember the shock on her face…and all four paws hovering above the floor.<\/P>
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It did stop her barking, though. And, it made the living room smell fresh.<\/P>
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But now it makes me wonder if my nose is out of whack. I mean, I also like the smell of skunk. Wasn’t that smell specifically created to offend predators?<\/P>
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*the collar is supposed to fit all dogs. But Dusty is so small that I think it weighs her head down. The box is about 2″x1.5″x1″ and is bigger than her neck.<\/P>
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 <\/P><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Dusty has developed an annoying habit of barking. She’ll be peacefully resting on the couch next to me and then start barking. Incessantly. Or she’ll be playing with a toy (or my sneakers) and then stop, look at me, and bark. Since she’s only 5 pounds, these barks are VERY high-pitched. And since she doesn’t stop, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":74,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-362","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/snarl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/362","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/snarl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/snarl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/snarl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/74"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/snarl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=362"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/snarl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/362\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/snarl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=362"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/snarl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=362"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/snarl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=362"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}