How did your dog react to a barking collar?

This subject was discussed previously., and you might find some of the insight you seek in this thread

syz has some suggestions there that may help solve your problem.

I personally would never use such a barbaric device.

A friend of mine once used a citronella barking collar, which she reported worked well, and seems somehow more humane to me. I think I might investigate other training modalities first, before I subjected a dog to this. @Marina is a good person to ask.

Train the fucken dog. People who use those type of corrective devices should try it on themselves first. How do you like it? Oh. You probably haven’t tested it out yet, have you. Ugh!

I concur with scamp. Shocking collars are cruel. In fact they are illegal in most European countries. Citronella collars are a much better way to go. Plus the citronella oil smells better than dog anyway.

Do you tell your dog “No!” when he barks like this? He needs to know that this will make you very upset with him, and that you being upset with him is not something that he wants. Make him respect your commands – don’t tell him “No!” unless you can back it up. Of course, never hit your dog – but be firm, intimidating, and consistent. He’ll get the picture.

Shock collars are cruel

I refuse to use one of those things on my dogs. Try using one on yourself first to see what it feels like.

Have you considered teaching him not to bark? A squirt bottle can be a harmless way to enforce your “No.”

@Darwin is right. I got this in my email a long time ago:

Pocket Taser Stun Gun, a great gift for the wife.. A guy who purchased
his lovely wife a pocket Taser for their anniversary submitted this:

Last weekend I saw something at Larry ‘s Pistol & Pawn Shop that
sparked my interest. The occasion was our 15th anniversary and I was
looking for a little something extra for my wife Julie . What I came
across was a 100,000-volt, pocket/purse-sized taser. The effects of
the taser were supposed to be short lived, with no long-term adverse
affect on your assailant, allowing her adequate time to retreat to
safety….??

WAY TOO COOL! Long story short, I bought the device and brought it
home. I loaded two AAA batteries in the darn thing and pushed the
button. Nothing! I was disappointed. I learned, however, that if I
pushed the button AND pressed it against a metal surface at the same
time; I’d get the blue arc of electricity darting back and forth
between the prongs. AWESOME!!!

Unfortunately, I have yet to explain to Julie what that burn spot is
on the face of her microwave.

Okay, so I was home alone with this new toy, thinking to myself that
it couldn’t be all that bad with only two triple-A batteries, right?

There I sat in my recliner, my cat Gracie looking on intently
(trusting little soul) while I was reading the directions and
thinking that I really needed to try this thing out on a flesh &
blood moving target.

I must admit I thought about zapping Gracie (for a fraction of a
second) and thought better of it. She is such a sweet cat. But, if I
was going to give this thing to my wife to protect herself against a
mugger, I did want some assurance that it would work as advertised.
Am I wrong?

So, there I sat in a pair of shorts and a tank top with my reading
glasses perched delicately on the bridge of my nose, directions in one hand, and taser in another.
The directions said that a one-second burst would shock and disorient
your assailant; a two-second burst was supposed to cause muscle
spasms and a major loss of bodily control; a three-second burst would
purportedly make your assailant flop on the ground like a fish out of
water. Any burst longer than three seconds would be wasting the
batteries. All the while I’m looking at this little device measuring
about 5’ long, less than ¾ inch in circumference; pretty cute
really and (loaded with two itsy, bitsy triple-A batteries) thinking
to myself, ‘no possible way!’

What happened next is almost beyond description, but I’ll do my
best…?

I’m sitting there alone, Gracie looking on with her head cocked to
one side as to say, ‘don’t do it dipshit,’ reasoning that a one
second burst from such a tiny little ole thing couldn’t hurt all that
bad. I decided to give myself a one second burst just for heck of it.
I touched the prongs to my naked thigh, pushed the button, and . ..
HOLY MOTHER OF GOD . . . WEAPONS OF MASS DESTRUCTION . . . WHAT THE HELL!!!

I’m pretty sure Jessie Ventura ran in through the side door, picked
me up in the recliner, then body slammed us both on the carpet, over
and over and over again. I vaguely recall waking up on my side in the
fetal position, with tears in my eyes, body soaking wet, both nipples
on fire, testicles nowhere to be found, with my left arm tucked under
my body in the oddest position, and tingling in my legs?

The cat was making meowing sounds I had never heard before, clinging
to a picture frame hanging above the fireplace, obviously in an
atempt to avoid getting slammed by my body flopping all over the
living room.

Note: If you ever feel compelled to ‘mug’ yourself with a taser, one
note of caution: there is no such thing as a one second burst when
you zap yourself!

You will not let go of that thing until it is dislodged from your
hand by a violent thrashing about on the floor. A three second burst
would be considered conservative?

SON-OF-A-BITCH, THAT HURT LIKE HELL!!!

A minute or so later (I can’t be sure, as time was a relative thing
at that point), I collected my wits (what little I had left), sat up
and surveyed the landscape. My bent reading glasses were on the
mantel of the fireplace. The recliner was upside down and about 8
feet or so from where it originally was. My triceps, right thigh and
both nipples were still twitching. My face felt like it had been shot
up with Novocain, and my bottom lip weighed 88 lbs. I had no control
over the drooling. Apparrently I shit myself, but was too numb to
know for sure and my sense of smell was gone. I saw a faint smoke
cloud above my head which I believe came from my hair. I’m still
looking for my nuts and I’m offering a significant reward for their
safe return!!

P. S. My wife loved the gift, and now regularly threatens me with it!

If you think Education is expensive, try being stupid

I don’t like them, to me they are a last resort device.

But if it comes down to the line and you have to make a choice between getting rid of the dog because of neighbor complaints or using the collar, then I am a realist and I say use the collar. I think it is better for the dog to get shocked a few times and keep his happy home. After the first few shocks the average dog learns and stops the barking. Which is worse, a few shocks or ending up in a shelter???

I would try to train, desensitize the dog but that takes time.

To me there is not much difference between the barking collar and the electronic fences. When the dog gets too close to the boundary he gets shocked. He learns not to go too close.

I don’t like the electronic fences either.

Ok hear me out. I am against animal cruelty but I admit I am absolutely reliant on my dog’s barking collar. I have a papillion and let me tell you, this dog never shuts up when I leave the house. Until recently I lived in an upstairs apartment and my dog was fine until I left the house. The minute the door closed he went nuts. At first I just let him bark, thinking eventually he’d get tired and stop. Not the case. My landlord called me one day and said the dog barked from the time I left until the time I got home. I read every training book there was. I did research on the internet. I followed through with all the advice. Nothing worked. So I invested in the barking collar. It gives him a warning beep the first time (no shock), then very graudally sends a shock if he continues barking every 30 seconds. Sounds cruel but it’s not. It works. It’s the ONLY thing that works. It took him maybe twice before he caught on. Now I never hear a peep out of him. Judge me if you want but it was my last resort before eviction. I only recommend this to people who have exhausted all other options.

@ItalianPrincess1217 – bless you, you tried other methods and they didn’t work. So you did what you had to do. The idea of the collar is that it is a training device. Any dog with a brain will soon stop barking and getting shocked. Pavlov proved that theory a long time ago.

I can’t imagine anyone judging you harshly.

@rooeytoo Thanks, I appreciate the fact that someone undertsands! My own mother still makes comments about to this day. But the point is that the dog learned. If he didn’t catch on right away and continuously barked (and got shocked) I would of course remove the collar and give up on that strategy.

We tried one for about an hour on our dog. The vet recommended it, and we didn’t have the internet to ask, in those days. It was the most horrible experience I (and the poor dog) ever had. The darn thing shocked him everytime he lowered his head, even when he tried to eat or take a drink of water. I removed it as soon as I saw what it did to him, and cried all afternoon.

@YARNLADY Sounds like the collar you got was defective. They shouldn’t operate that way.

@ItalianPrincess1217 That is possible, but since then I have also been advised that we were supposed to remove his tags, and apparently the noise of the tag was activating the shocker. We were very motivated to train him to stop, because of an order from the landlord, and it only took a few days of proper training to make him stop.

@YARNLADY Well in that case I’m glad it worked out for the best :)

We tried to use the spray type, he was barking one night with it on and I took it off and “tested” it by barking into it, guess what I got sprayed in the face with the citronella <sp>.

There are some training collers which use vibration, these have been very usefull just gives the dog a little buzz.

We just recently purchased two spray collars. Our rat terriers bark a lot when we aren’t home. We live in a busy area and the foot traffic around our house is non stop.

The spray collar worked wonders. I think two sprays was all it took to stop the barking. Now we put the collars on when we leave but we don’t even turn them on. I tested it too just to see how bad the citronella spray was, not too bad.

I wouldn’t use a shock collar ever but we reached a level of desperation. Training a dog not to bark when you aren’t home is pretty hard and we needed a quick solution because we got a fine after our neighbors complained. One of our dogs has been through obedience training and we have a hard time controlling the barking when we are home. We’ve been trying for years to stop it, it’s annoying to us too.

We also tested the spray collars with us at home for a couple days before we left the house with the girls wearing them unsupervised.

@ItalianPrincess1217 That sounds so much like my dog I have tried a trainer, and I had a dog previous to this one and all my techniques worked perfectly for that dog. My Schnauzer is the most stubborn, and crazy dog I’ve ever came across But I love him because of all of this :). Training has not worked for him this is my last resort.

@All I am extremely sensitive to animals and I have looked into other alternatives. I researched the spray collars and I read the reviews about them. There was several people that said that after two or three sprays the dog became used to it and continued the behavior. Knowing my dog he would be the type that would continue barking.

Also, I am asking this question to get information on the device or ideas for other options. So those who want to judge me for thinking of this is not being very helpful and that is our purpose of answering questions.

To all that have given me helpful ideas or alternate options THANK YOU!!

I read the same thing about them becoming used to the spray but our issue was bad enough I was willing to try it. I even bought the cheap collars on Amazon knowing that 50% of them were defective. One of my quit working and Amazon replaced it. It worked again for a week and it’s acting up again but like I said before, we don’t even turn them on right now because just the collar alone is a deterrent.

@Daethian So are you using the citronella or the odorless spray collar? I might think of getting the spray kind I really don’t want to use the shock I just didn’t know what else to do If you heard the bark that comes out of this dog your nerves would be completely shot as mine are.

They came with citronella but I think it’s the spraying more than the scent that they are opposed to.