Loud lab to avoid knife, get voice training

CLINTON -- The good news for Rocco the dog is that he no longer has to go under the knife to have his vocal cords plucked out.

But the loudmouthed 10-year-old yellow Labrador mix still has to clean up his act: Tomorrow, Rocco will begin classes at Bark Busters, with a trainer who will teach him to coexist more quietly with his neighbors.

Rocco had become a pariah on his own block when neighbors complained that his deep-throated, late-night barking was depriving them of sleep. They eventually went to the police. But Rocco kept barking.

So the neighbors took their grievances to the Board of Selectmen in Clinton, a town of 13,435 northeast of Worcester. Two weeks ago, the selectmen, acting on a suggestion by Rocco's owner, Anita L. Drueke, ordered the dog to undergo a laryngectomy.

It was a bad public relations move. Angry townspeople called the selectmen cruel for recommending a surgery that many veterinarians consider inhumane.

Drueke was lambasted on a town Internet chat site. She hired a lawyer, who asked the selectmen Wednesday to reconsider.

Compromise arrived in the form of Bark Busters owner David S. Cable, who refers to himself as a ''holistic dog trainer."

He uses canine body language and guttural dog sounds to teach renegades like Rocco to curb their urge to bark. Cable's offer to help prompted selectmen to spare the knife -- for now. They will check on Rocco's progress in about a month.

KAREN SHARPEAND KATHLEEN BURGE