March 10, 2012 (Original publish date) • By Dennis Beaver
Ricky is a Fed-Ex driver, working in California’s Central Valley, “delivering packages to homes and apartments,” he told “You and the Law.” “We all take safety quite seriously. But there is no way to fully comprehend the other part of the job until it happens.”
For Ricky, “it” was the day he rounded a corner in an apartment complex and was “met by growling pit bulls, who, it seemed, saw the word Alpo on my forehead, They were salivating, licking their chops. If I wasn’t so scared, it would have seemed funny.”
Prepared to spray Mace, he had another idea:
“I did not want to harm these dogs. Talk about timing: About a week earlier, my girlfriend at that time — now my wife — gave me a little device which resembled a TV remote control. The instructions said to aim it at a dog within a range of about 20 feet, push the button and the dog should stop whatever it is doing and walk away.
“Instead of Mace, I tried this instead. The dogs just stopped in their tracks, looked at me with this puzzled expression, their ears went downwards and off they ran. This thing got me out of almost certain trouble, and without harming the dogs,” the happy Fed-Ex driver told us.
His reaction and experience was precisely what Keith Tupper, president of K-II Enterprises, had planned on more than 20 years ago.
Sound energy sends the dogs away
“I love dogs, and hated to see what happens when Mace or electrical shocks are used to stop a dog from aggressive behavior. And I wondered if there was a way to use sound energy alone, as a humane way of preventing a dog attack.
“Brainstorming with a group of brilliant electronics technicians about 20 years ago — many who were also dog owners — we set out to build a device using only high-frequency sound which would deter the approach of dogs.
“It had to be effective, affordable and not harm animals. With borrowed money, leveraging everything we had, we felt strongly there was a real need for this type of product, mainly by people who are often outside and exposed to the real threat of dog attacks,” Tupper explained.
“Our customers are delivery drivers, water, gas and electric meter readers, telephone and cable company installers, service technicians, police, drug units, animal control officers and regular folks out for a walk who might encounter an aggressive dog or pack of dogs,” he added.
Tupper’s product is called the Dazer II. “Based on reported experiences, it has prevented countless dog attacks, severe injuries, medical expenses, not to mention thousands of lost work hours,” Tupper tells You and the Law. How the Dazer II works is fascinating science.
All it takes is one split second
The little device is based on Mother Nature’s Startle Effect, also referred to as Alpha Wave Interruption, “which we have all experienced,” Tupper notes.
“When we are in a room when the smoke detector suddenly goes off, no matter what we are doing, at that instant, we are startled. When looking back at that event, we remember it as a highly disruptive, yet focused, situation, as all we thought about was how to get to safety. It’s the fight-or-flee reflex in action.
“When our device is activated at a distance from 2 to 20 feet, dogs hear a very loud, unknown, highly unpleasant and startling ultrasonic noise in the range of 25,000 Hz. Their aggressive state is interrupted — disrupted — for a split second, and that’s long enough for the fight-or-flee instinct to take over.
“While dogs can hear it at greater distance, it is most effective at close range. Decibel levels are 115 at 2 feet, and at 15 feet around 90dB, and that is a lot of noise.
“The mechanics of what happens are that the dog hears this unknown sound which it does not like at all, and immediately is alerted that there is something strange right there which is extremely uncomfortable and is coming from the direction of a person. So, in most cases, it elects to run away and is unharmed.”
Tupper stresses that the Dazer II is not a weapon. “All we can do is to use Mother Nature’s Startle Effect, and then the dog will usually back away, but some dogs are less affected by this ultra-sonic frequency as a result of environmental experience — for example, older animals with impaired hearing, or guard dogs which are often trained with the Dazer II to ignore certain sounds.”
You can find out more about the Dazer II on the Web at kiienterprises.com, or by Googling YouTube Dazer II to see it in action.
Dennis Beaver practices law in Bakersfield and enjoys hearing from his readers. Contact Dennis Beaver.