Hushbark Support

Email vince@cldstart.com and you will get a reply from a person.

Common questions

Will this stop my dog barking?

No app can promise that, and Hushbark does not. A high-frequency deterrent interrupts a bark in progress; whether that turns into a lasting change depends on the dog, the trigger and what you do alongside it. Some dogs react strongly, some ignore the sound entirely, and any dog can get used to it. That last point is why Hushbark rotates between different sounds instead of playing one.

Treat it as a training aid and a very good bark diary, not a cure.

Does it work through a wall?

No. The deterrent needs a clear path from your phone’s speaker to the dog. It works best line of sight and within roughly 15 metres. Walls, closed windows and double glazing absorb high frequencies almost completely.

If you are tracking a neighbour’s dog, detection and the journal still work perfectly through a wall. It is only the deterrent that does not.

I cannot hear anything when it responds

That is expected. The main tone is 17.3 kHz, which most adults cannot hear at all. Watch the ring instead: it turns amber when a bark is detected and violet while the deterrent is playing.

To confirm your speaker can actually reproduce those frequencies, run Whistles → Speaker check. It plays a sweep, measures what comes back, and tells you honestly whether the speaker is up to it. Many small Bluetooth speakers are not.

Bluetooth speaker sounds wrong or silent

If your phone has connected to a Bluetooth device in hands-free (headset) mode, everything above about 8 kHz is stripped out and the deterrent disappears. Hushbark asks iOS for the high-quality profile, but some car kits and headsets override this.

Use Whistles → Speaker check → Change output to pick a different output, or use the phone’s own speaker.

It misses barks / it fires at the TV

Open Settings → Sensitivity. Higher sensitivity catches quieter and more distant barks but reacts to more things; lower sensitivity is stricter. There are three presets, and a slider if you want to be precise.

Settings → Sensitivity → Advanced → Show live score meter displays the raw detection score in real time, which makes tuning much easier: play a bark, watch the number, and set the threshold just below what your dog produces.

It stopped listening when I switched apps

That is deliberate. Hushbark listens only while it is open and in the foreground, so it never holds your microphone in the background. Keep the app open during a session. The screen dims itself after a while to save battery, and taps wake it.

How do I get the PDF report?

Journal → the icon in the top right → Export bark report (PDF). It produces a dated document with a summary and a full log, suitable for sending to a landlord, an HOA or a council. It contains no audio.

Restoring a purchase

Settings → About → Restore purchases, or the Restore link at the top of the paywall. Purchases restore to the Apple ID that made them.

Cancelling

Subscriptions are managed by Apple: iOS Settings → your name → Subscriptions. Cancelling there stops the renewal. Hushbark keeps working as a free bark detector afterwards, and your journal is untouched.

Privacy

Everything is processed on your phone. See the privacy policy.