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Maybe save the Xanax for the dog instead?
Our dear departed Lab almost never barked. It was problematic, because when she went outside and was ready to come back in, she would just stand at the patio door, staring, until someone noticed and let her in. (Sometimes it was one of the cats, who had a unique meow just for that purpose, as if to say, “that dumb dog needs to come in”.) A bark would have been helpful. The only things that ever got her really barking up a storm were a black sedan that once parked across the street and a paper ghost that I hung from a tree branch one Halloween. No idea why they were unacceptable, but she felt very strongly about them! Hard to imagine what goes in in those doggie brains.</p>