The Barkio App seemed like the best way to collect data on my dog's shenanigans when I was gone. This App turns the camera and microphone on your iPad into an extensive monitoring system you can access on your phone. Just the night before, my downstairs neighbor alerted me to the fact that my dog Lucy barks when I'm not home.
As someone who considers herself a "behaviorist" and deals with behavior almost 24/7 and has a dog who has earned her Canine Good Citizenship certificate, I thought, "Surely not MY Lucy." I was certain I could fix this problem, if it was actually a problem.
I set the stage for success. I put her in my bedroom upstairs, I closed all the curtains, I restricted access to the front door with a baby gate, and made sure her environment was as cavelike as possible.
As I left for lunch, the App alerted me to noise coming from the bedroom. I quickly switched to the camera feature of the App to both hear and see what was happening.
The picture showed my white cat, Tibby, looking at the camera and meowing into the microphone as Lucy slept peacefully on the bed.
Hopefully, the neighbor couldn't hear her.
