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I use a bark collar for incessant barking from my 5 pound,........Nothing has worked to teach her that if she is quiet, there will be no collar. .........
Unfortunately, OP, some dogs are just born to bark. Your pup will probably have to wear the collar for life.
Any dog can be trained to be "quiet" when they are told, but that doesn't work when you are not home to tell them to be quiet. It doesn't even work if you are taking a shower or a nap, even though you are home with the dog. Because there is no defense against a barking noise complaint from a neighbor, it is important to keep the dogs quiet when they are outside. In some areas, if there are enough complaints from the neighbors, your dog can be taken away.
Occasionally, a barking dog annoys a nut case to the point that they will throw poison over the fence, so you might be protecting your dog's life by making the dog be quiet.
One thing worries me though. Your dog is 5 pounds and too small to wear a shock collar. I hope that the collar you are using is one of the citronella spray ones. Six pounds is supposed to be the very limit for the use of a shock collar and to me, that dog is still too small. They don't have enough body mass to deal with a shock that isn't a threat to a bigger dog.
The bark collar isn't cruel. The dog himself gets to decide whether or not he gets punished. It is completely under his control and once a dog has been shocked once or twice, they don't get shocked again. Timing of the correction is immediate, so the dog quickly understands what is expected. It is much more humane to let the dog punish himself once or twice than it is to let him bark non-stop, occasionally running out and punishing him so that sometimes it is OK to bark and sometimes it isn't-- or maybe becasue he barks so much without being punished, maybe mommy is just in a mystifying bad mood at the moment. What's a dog going to learn from that.
I was in the "don't do that, train your dog!" camp until I got my min-pin-dachshund-chihuahua-weasel-tasmanian-devil mix. We were about to get evicted.
Shock collars are not that effective on him. He'll sometimes decide to deal with the pain and bark anyway. Citronella collars work 100% of the time. I put one on him, he barked once, got sprayed, that was it. It seems to relax him as well because since he "can't" guard the house from every person, dog, squirrel, and plastic bag that passes by, he just ignores it all.
He only wears it occasionally now. He still barks a lot, but less.
citronella collars are in fact cruel. Chemicals in the face? yikes.
And I will say it again--no one who has to listen to yapping gives 2 nickels how "cruel" collars supposedly are. They want their quiet, and understandly so. "Cruelty" to humans is MUCH more important than "cruelty" to dogs. The dog is the one being difficult, it's up to them, they can have it the easy way or the hard way. It's funny how I have 2 dogs and they will bark at someone they don't know, but they'll stop pronto if I show up, and they don't flap their gums at the neighbors or frequent visitors. It can be controlled, you just have to be willing to address the behavior vs tip-toeing around it thinking any response besides just saying their name in vain is "cruelty." Sometimes you have to crack a few eggs to cook the omelette.
That's where things go wrong--when in trying not to be "cruel" to a dog we expect people to tolerate being trampled all over. It's fine, good even, to strive for being as nice to a pet as one can be vs treating them like a punching bag, which no one is advocating. Still, when it's put up or shut up time, when people are being stressed over noise pollution, you've got to stop being such a wimp. Dog collars are hardly beatings or executions via a firing squad.
Bark collars are cruel torture. Let the dogs bark, don't leave them out that long by themselves. I have 2 small dogs and I let them hang out in the enclosed porch sometimes. They will bark whenever they see a person, or cat, or other dog. It's natural, they are being protective. They will bark inside the house at times when they hear a cat outside or some other noise. I let them during the day to get it out of their system. I do not let them bark in the morning or when it gets dark outside. I tell them "hey, no" and they stop. I walk my dogs daily and every dog inside their house will bark as my dogs pass by, it's normal they are protection their home. My dogs are good when out walking. Sometimes another dog will get them crazy and they will go into a barking and jumping frenzy but I just get them away from whatever is causing that.
Give me a break. "Cruel"? It's a little static shock that dogs don't like.
They are dogs, if the tool works on them, use it. They have short attention spans. They learn quickly when they are outside with the collar on they can't bark. They don't sit and agonize over it.
So,I'm debating getting a bark collar for one of my dogs. He is very fence-aggressive to the point where my back neighbor yelled at me last night claiming that her kids were too afraid to play in their own backyard because my dog rushes the fenceline to bark and growl at them. He is a 50 pound dog and I can understand how fearsome he looks when he rushes the fence.
I told her that since we know this is an issue, we try not to let our dogs out when we know our neighbors are in their yards, but that's not always possible since our shed blocks the view on part of their yard and we can't always tell if the kids are out there or not. But we do always look out the windows and sliding door to check before we let the dogs outside. If we have to let them out when someone is in their own yard, I will go out there with them since my dogs have 100% immediate recall when I say their names. I can keep the one dog from rushing the fence very easily when I'm back there.
The dog is very docile in the house and when company comes over. My book club ladies love him. *lol* He is calm and non-threatening when I take him for walks through the neighborhood. It is ONLY in the backyard that he becomes so territorial.
Our HOA forbids solid tall fences - we are only allowed farm rail fences with chicken wire to keep pets contained. I have debated about getting a lead line to put in the yard that keeps him away from the fenceline, but that won't stop his barking and growling when he sees people in their yards - it will just keep him away from the fenceline.
Last night I took my dog to PetSmart to see about buying a muzzle for him to wear when he is let out back, and one was way too small and the other was just large enough that he was able to work it off with his paws in about a minute. I'll be heading back in a couple days to try out the middle sized muzzle once it's back in stock.
But I wonder if a bark collar would be a better solution than a scary-looking muzzle. Do bark collars work on dogs that are super territorial about their yard to the point of rushing a fenceline to bark and growl at the neighbors?
Bark collars are torture. I watched a friend put one on dog, and the dog immediately became depressed. In the long run she gave up because the dog also became more aggressive whenever the collar was taken off. Spend some time with your dogs and teach them to not bark. Get a good book on dog training.
Mattie Jo - I spend plenty of time with my dogs (they are 100% indoor dogs and only go outside to do their business). And when I'm in the yard with them, they do not bark. As others have said, bark collars are not torture when used properly.
My dogs *are* well trained - as I said in my original post, the one that is territorial at the fenceline has 100% instant recall when I am with him in the backyard and call him back to me. He does not bark when I am in the backyard, and if he does get into "protection" mode, I merely say his name and he immediately stops and returns to my side to sit.
But I cannot be expected to go outside with him every time he has to go outside.
My thought was that he would only wear the collar the few times when he is let outside on his own without supervision, but when I go out with him he would not wear it since I'd be able to do the instant recall command. He would obviously not wear it in the house either, since the only time he barks inside is when the doorbell rings (which is rare).
Would you want to wear a bark collar that gives you a shock? Think about it. You have no idea what the dog feels whenever he is shocked. I am not saying that you are a bad person, just that you are not informed. When the collar is taken off the dogs know this and will resume barking. If a shock collar stops a dog from barking then it has to be painful enough to be able to do this.
"The least humane and most controversial use of the shock collar is as a training device. The trainer can administer a shock to a dog at a distance through a remote control. There is a greater chance for abuse (delivery of shocks as punishment) or misuse (poor timing of shocks). Your dog also may associate the painful shock with people or other experiences, leading to fearful or aggressive behavior.
Electronic fencing uses shock collars to delivers a shock when the dog approaches the boundaries of the "fenced" area. Typically, the shock is preceded by a tone to warn the dog she is about to get shocked.
Caution! Shock collars can irritate and inflame your dog's neck. Take theses steps to avoid problems:
Don't leave the electronic collar on for an extended length of time.
Clean your dog's neck and the contact points that touch your dog’s neck regularly."
If I wore a bark collar and realized that if I barked it would give me a mild unpleasant shock (not painful - just unpleasant), then, yes, I would learn quickly not to bark while wearing it.
I'm okay with my dog barking in the house. And I've already said - twice - that my dog does not bark when I am in the yard with him, and when he rushes the fence he has instant recall when I say his name.
The issue is ONLY when I let him out and don't go with him. So if I put the collar on him - the collar he will learn quickly will provide a mild shock if he barks - and let him outside, he will know not to bark. My dog is wickedly smart - it would only take a few shocks for him to know not to bark when he's wearing it. At that point I probably wouldn't even have to activate it when I put it on him. Just the act of putting it on would probably inhibit his overly territorial barking behavior in the backyard.
I haven't decided yet whether or not to get bark collar versus a muzzle - but to me the muzzle looks a lot more intimidating and inadvertently reinforces the notion that he will attack.
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