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A whiff of perfume is all that is needed to keep a noisy mutt quiet.
A French device is now on sale in Britain that sits on a dog’s collar and
emits a squirt of a chemical said to silence barking dogs.

Inside the ‘Aboistop’ is a pressurised canister containing a mixture
of a propellant and citronella, a synthetic ester which gives off a lemony
odour. With each woof, a microphone activates a mechanism which opens a
port in the side of the box, and a squirt of citronella is released under
the dog’s nose.

‘There then ensues a most interesting behaviour,’ says Roger Mugford,
director of the Company of Animals, which is selling the device in Britain.
‘The dog starts sniffing about madly, trying to locate the source of the
smell it has suddenly been enveloped with. The effect is absolutely stunning.’

Before the advent of the car alarm, barking was the single most common
source of complaints investigated by environmental health officers in England
and Wales. Barking is classed as a ‘statutory nuisance’ under the 1990 Environmental
Protection Act and owners of persistent offenders are liable to fines of
up to £2000.

The effect of citronella was discovered during research into how odours
alter animal behaviour conducted at the College de France in Paris. Dynavet,
a firm based in Clermont-Ferrand, developed the collar.

‘There are many reasons why dogs bark,’ says Mugford, ‘one being distress
at separation. We specifically discourage people to use it in that role.’

Mugford says that he has never seen a dog distressed by the device.
‘In fact, some dogs like it, and may bark once to get their fix of citronella.’
A spokesperson for the RSPCA says, ‘we are certainly satisfied that it is
a humane way of combating the problem of barking dogs.’ The collar is an
alternative to collars which deliver electric shocks (used in Japan and
the US) or practices such as the surgical removal of vocal chords.