Bark’n Mad
Options
Unlimited Monitoring Duration
Record your reprimand and praise commands
Use a whistle to attract your dogs attention
The tri-tone whistle may be more effective at
getting your dogs attention
Analyse the reprimand & praise recordings in
order to boost their volume
Set the order bark control options are played
Enable multi-colour audio analysis and display
Tune the mood legend to match your dog’s
barking
Choose when reprimand and praise recordings are
played
Track the device location while monitoring
Capture and email the monitor/replay screen
image
Export recordings to iCloud Drive and email
download links
Protected export and email of copies stored in
iCloud
Remote monitoring over iCloud Drive
Use the App’s email server for emailed alerts
Get alerts emailed to yourself for barking activity
Optional contact email address for support
Get a free ten day trial of remote monitoring and
emailed alerts
Full Version Support with Exceptions
Unlimited Monitoring Duration
This option removes the hidden areas of the
summary graph allowing you to see all of the
current session when purchased from the
monitoring/review screen. It applies to the session
in progress (if any), all previously recorded
sessions and all future sessions.
Record your reprimand and praise
commands
Once the reprimand and praise recordings have
been made trash buttons (delete) and train
buttons (play) are made available.
Playback of a recorded reprimand is triggered by
detected barking activity, praise is triggered by a
period of quiet after a reprimand has been issued.
After you have recorded your reprimand (and
optionally praise) you may set the order in which
they and the optional whistles are played in the
section ‘Set the order the bark control options are
played’.
Note: Airplay speakers may be used. Bluetooth
speakers are not supported for a variety of
reasons.
Use a whistle to attract your
dogs attention
You may create a whistle with any frequency up to
25000Hz, once created use the train button on the
right to try it with your dog.
Sometimes it may be difficult to attract your dogs
attention when it is busy barking at something. A
whistle may help briefly quieten it enough for the
reprimand to be heard. Play around with the
frequency, duration and volume then use the train
button to see if this will work with your dog. If it
looks like it will work then use the train button on
‘Set the order the bark control options are played’ to
train your dog to the full sequence, that is whistle
and reprimand.
The tri-tone whistle may be more
effective at getting your dogs
attention
If the whistle only partially works then give the tri-
tone whistle a go. The settings options are the
same as for the whistle except this time you have
three of them.
Play around with each of the frequencies,
durations and volumes then use the train button
to see if this will work with your dog. If it looks like
it will work then use the train button on ‘Set the
order the bark control options are played’ to train
your dog to the full sequence, that is tri-tone
whistle and reprimand.
Analyse the reprimand & praise
recordings in order to boost their
volume
To get relatively loud recordings for reprimand and
praise you need to speak loudly near the
microphone. Alternatively you can use this option
to play and analyse the recording. It will then
boost the recording volume on replay to the
maximum.
Set the order bark control options
are played
•
From the left hand side the first check boxes
specify whether to play (if enabled) the
whistle ( ) or tri-tone whistle ( ) at the
start of the reprimand sequence.
•
The next option is whether the reprimand is
played (available only if recorded).
•
The third option column specifies whether to
play the whistle or tri-tone whistle at the end
of the reprimand sequence.
•
The Play Praise checkbox determines whether
praise is played (available only if recorded) if
the reprimand is successful.
•
When using the train button only the selected
reprimand sequence is played, not the praise
recording.
Enable multi-colour audio
analysis and display
With this option on
the frequencies in
any noise are
analysed and colour
coded into the graph.
Similar barks from
the same dog will
show the same
colour patterns. The position on the colour
rainbow legend for 'playing' etc will vary for
different dogs and may be customised. The yellow
bars at the bottom of each graph show where the
app thinks it has detected barking.
To see a graphical explanation of this colour
coding go to the control screen in the app and
touch the info button in the bottom right hand
corner.
Without this option enabled the standard
encoding is grey - no noise, yellow - noisy and red-
barking. The yellow barking underline marker is
still present. For more information see the FAQ
page entry How do I read my dogs mood from the
colour analysis?
Tune the mood legend to match
your dog’s barking
Every dog’s bark has different frequencies. Bigger
breeds tend to be lower pitched while the smaller
breeds are higher. With this option you can modify
the legend to better match your dog. You can type
in numbers in each field or alternatively touch the
padlock icon and use sliders. With sliders enabled
touch any label (eg playing) and slide your finger
to the left or right. The number will change
together with the colour as you move your finger.
Choose when reprimand and
praise recordings are played
•
‘Seconds to wait …’ - Normally there will be
some noise after you start the monitoring
session. You don’t want the app to recognise
barking until after you have left so set this to
a reasonable value for how long it takes you
to go.
•
‘Minimum seconds between reprimands’ - if your
dog has not quietened on the first reprimand
you don’t want to keep issuing them one after
the other. You need a gap before you try
again.
•
‘The number of barks before the reprimand is
issued’ - dogs barks vary. There are single
sharp barks and there are fused barks where
multiple barks occur one after the other
without breaks. You can see fused barks on
the instantaneous graph where there are
multiple peaks in a single barking sequence.
Some of these multiple peaks in a fused bark
are counted towards this number so do not
make this number too low or you will be
triggering frequent reprimands.
•
‘These barks must occur within these seconds’ -
this provides an interval in which the number
of barks above must occur. If you were there
how long would you let your dog bark before
you corrected it? Use a similar sort of time
and then adjust the number of barks to get
the reprimands fired when you want.
•
‘Seconds of quiet to wait …’ - The app doesn’t
want to play the reprimand over the dogs
barking as it probably won’t be heard so it
waits for a small gap in the barking. Keep this
less than 1 second.
•
‘Play praise recording if barking stops for ’n’
seconds’ - if the barking stops for this long
then play the praise. See the next option as
well.
•
‘Praise is only played …’ - there is no point
playing the praise unless the barking stops
quickly after the reprimand.
Note: Airplay speakers maybe used when
monitoring to boost reprimand and praise
volume. Full version owners may use bluetooth
devices with hands free capability to monitor their
dogs.
Track the device location while
monitoring
This option is only available to owners of the full
version. If you have not purchased this upgrade it
will appear as
If the full version is owned it is initially off by
default:
When turned on it changes to:
More information is available in the usage guide.
Capture and email the
monitor/replay screen image
Often when dealing with noisy dog complaints a
snapshot of the monitor screen will be adequate
to send to the council customer service operator
especially when the dog has been quiet all day.
This can save sending a large recording which
contains nothing of interest.
Export recordings to iCloud Drive
and email download links
This option allows the export of 16000Hz copies of
monitoring session recordings to iCloud Drive
and/or Documents if session recordings are being
stored in a protected area. iCloud Drive is
accessible to yourself on both the iOS device and
your computer. Recordings stored in Documents
can be accessed using iTunes file sharing. Both
these areas are read and write enabled to yourself
so the app treats them as unprotected.
Once a recording has been copied to iCloud it has
to be uploaded to the iCloud server before a link
to it can be emailed using iOS Mail. Both the copy
and the email are implemented on the review
form where you select recordings. For further
information touch here.
Protected export and email of
copies stored in iCloud
Versions of the app downloaded from mid January
2016 store session recordings in a protected area
inaccessible to yourself, prior versions stored
them in Documents accessible to iTunes file
sharing. When this option is enabled all future
monitor recordings are stored in protected app
storage where they cannot be modified.
The export of 16000Hz copies to iCloud is done to
a protected inaccessible area. Once again it has to
be uploaded to the iCloud server before a link to it
can be emailed. In this case because we have a
session recording which has always been stored in
a protected area the email of the download links
also has to be protected if we are to guarantee
that it is a protected and unaltered 16000Hz copy
of the original monitor recording. The email is sent
using the app’s own email server which is enabled
for this purpose. You are able to enter the
recipients, CC copies and initial user text. The app
adds the links and text guaranteeing that the links
are to unaltered copies of the original recordings.
For further information touch here.
Protected emails also send information about
device location if the location tracking option is
enabled by owners of the full version. See the
usage guide for more information.
Remote monitoring over iCloud
Drive
When this option is enabled the app stores
snapshot copies of the monitoring screen in
iCloud at the periodic intervals and whenever
barking is detected (same logic as the reprimand).
A barking alert resets the timer for the next
periodic update.
The remote device sees a button at the middle
bottom of the initial control screen. This button is
green if a monitoring session is in progress
otherwise it is brown if a completed monitoring
session is stored in iCloud. This device will display
the snapshots as they become available. Scrolling
the snapshots is available. There is also a button
on the top right of the control bar which shows a
muted bell, touch this to enable barking audio
alerts. For further information touch here.
Use the App’s email server for
emailed alerts
The option is there to use the app’s own email
server or to use your own. Use of the app’s own
email server requires no complex configuration.
Use of your own email server is freely available
when you enable emailed alerts. The pricing and
fact it is not included as part of the unlimited
version are designed to encourage you to use your
own server.
If you choose to use the app’s email server then to
stop abuse each target email address requires the
entry of an emailed confirmation code to activate
it. When using your own server emailed
confirmation codes are not required.
Get alerts emailed to yourself for
barking activity
When this option is enabled the app emails
snapshot copies of the monitoring screen at the
periodic intervals and whenever barking is
detected (same logic as the reprimand). A barking
alert resets the timer for the next periodic email.
Up to 10 email addresses can be entered. When
using the app’s own email server a confirmation
code is required and a button is provided to email
the confirmation code to the entered address.
Once confirmed the confirmation button is
replaced by a tick. For further information touch
here.
Optional contact email address
for support
If the app crashes (disappears and you return to
the home screen, this also happens after some
fatal error messages) a crash report is
automatically generated. This report respects your
privacy and contains no user identifiable material.
If you enter this email address then you give me
some way of providing personal service and
contacting you regarding any problems that have
occurred.
Get a free ten day trial of remote
monitoring and emailed alerts
Just what it says. For ten days you can have a no
obligation trial of remote monitoring and email
alerts. To make it easy to setup the app’s own
email server is included in the trial. if it is what you
want then you can either buy the options you
want or get the full version.
Full Version Support with
Exceptions
Enables all current and future in-app purchase
options with the exception of use of the app’s own
email server for email alerts.
Restore Your Purchases.
Use this option if you have made in-app purchases
and either reinstall the app on your device or
install it on a second or subsequent device. The
subsequent devices need to use the same iTunes
login. Unfortunately it is not possible to share in-
app purchases with family sharing.
© 2023 John Hall
iOS Apps
For the iPad and iPhone by John Hall