photo courtesy paulstamatiou.com

Photo courtesy paulstamatiou.com

By: Blake

I own a surprisingly loud toy fox terrier. This dog was the runt of the litter and would be irresistible to most people. This was the case for my family and we purchased the dog from a breeder. Unfortunately we did not foresee the problems this new addition to the family could cause. I started an online business that requires me to make many phone calls daily and I quickly found that it is hard to remain professional on the phone while I have a 5 lb loud speaker yapping in my ear.

My dog isn’t always barking, just when a the door bell rings, the phone rings, people walk by outside, a door opens, the washer/drier door opens, when friends come over, while friends are over, a bird flies by, it gets dark, anyone makes sudden movements and when it has been quiet for too long. Well that doesn’t leave much time for not barking so we decided to train her to stop barking. I figured that it wouldn’t be too hard because we have already taught her the basics such as sit and stay. Also we have trained her with a clicker and she can balance a treat on her nose and catch it on command. Not barking should be easy… right?

Well we have tried everything from putting her in time out to startling her by shaking coins in a tin can when she barks, but with no luck. Everything we have tried has been unsuccessful and running the business is becoming more and more stressful. One day I heard about a blue tooth called Jawbone that was made for military use in helicopters. The Jawbone rests directly on your jaw bone (hence the name) so that it can pick up the vibrations you make while you speak. It is designed to drown out the background noise so that the person on the other line can only hear you speaking. I found it at Best Buy for $130.00 and figured that if it could keep my conversations between me and the person I am talking to then it would be worth the money.

I brought the Jawbone home and put it on charge so that I could test it. When I got it set up and working I called my friend and turned the radio up loud to see if he would complain. Sure enough the Jawbone lived up to it’s word, but the real test would be if he could hear my dog barking. I went to ring the door bell to trigger a mad fit of barking, but some other random occurrence forced a shrill bark from her. I quickly asked my friend “Did you hear it.” “What” he said with a confused tone. “My dog, did you hear my dog” I asked enthusiastically. “I always hear that yappi dog” he blurted.

5 lb dog 1, military grade technology 0. Needless to say I went back to Best Buy and returned my Jawbone. After I made my return I thought that either this Jawbone isn’t as good as the advertisements claim it is or helicopters aren’t as loud as I thought they were.

  

This is the updated cheaper version of the Jawbone.


(Loud mouth eating bone)