bark collar? (biting, aggressive, paws, cross)

[girlbuffalo1]

I personally do not know anyone who has or will ever use one of these on their dog and I'm a member of my local kennel club.

Perhaps the OP can give us more info as to when your dog is barking and why and what you have tried to stop it.

I agree that obedience training and lots of exercise can help excessive barking in many breeds (not all) but many.

Most of the people who complain about their dog barking all of the time is when they are outside--I'm curious if you have a privacy fence or not and why they are outside for so long (especially if they are a nusiance)--

For many dogs the act of barking is self rewarding--you need to find ways (without hurting the dog) to distract or stop the barking.

If my dog was outside for 2 hours and barked at everything I would stop letting them outside for that long or only let them out if I was out--it just seems to make sense.

[DfrntDrums]

Miniscule??? Tried one on? It's enough to make some dogs scream.

[jimboburnsy]

Originally Posted by DfrntDrums

Miniscule??? Tried one on? It's enough to make some dogs scream.

I try it out frequently to ensure that the charge is adequate. Like people, some dogs are more stoic than others which explains why they don't all scream but, really, if the dog is screaming you haven't found the working level appropriate to that dog and you are doing it wrong. I've never had a use for a bark collar but electronic training media has really developed into an extremely useful and quite reasonable bit of gear.

To address the original point, I could leave the collar on its highest setting and run it continuously against my skin for hours on end without producing enough heat to cause even a superficial burn. There simply isn't enough current to do that.

[DfrntDrums]

So if your kid misbehaves, would you put a shock collar on him too? I just don't understand why anybody would want to hurt, scare, or intimidate an animal when there are so much more humane ways to train that are even more effective.

[grannynancy]

Another one who does not see that a bark collar is a traumatic event and does not think kids = dogs. I know it will get shut down because bark collar threads always do.

I am a member of a search and rescue team and I also know a people with working dogs in other venues. Many of these dogs wear bark collars while they are crated in their vehicles. None of these dogs seem traumatized.

[jimboburnsy]

Originally Posted by DfrntDrums

So if your kid misbehaves, would you put a shock collar on him too? I just don't understand why anybody would want to hurt, scare, or intimidate an animal when there are so much more humane ways to train that are even more effective.

Do you think that a parent is out of line for correcting a misbehaving child?

I wouldn't put a shock collar on a child because kids are not dogs, nor would I put a dog in time-out or take away his computer privileges. Comparing children and dogs is not apples and apples.

In a similar vein, I wouldn't put a shock collar on a dog that I didn't have a good reason for doing so. In other words, if I need my dog to heel on the leash, not jump-up on guests, sit on command and generally behave like a good citizen - I'm not going to waste my money or my time introducing any electronic media.

I seriously question whether or not my dog is hurt, scared or intimidated by the collar (I can't get into his head to know what he feels, I can only interpret outward manifestations of emotion like excitement, anticipation and satiation - all of which are pretty clearly expressed at the mere sight of the e-collar which he has come to associate with going to an interesting place and doing interesting things) and I also seriously question whether a training program without negative reinforcement is more effective OR humane, but I suspect we will have to agree to disagree about that.

Performance training without electronic media is colloquially referred to as "Amish Training" and a lot of people have a knee jerk reaction to believe that this is much more humane due to the negative human associations with the word "shock" or the mere notion of subjecting a dog to electrical current as a means of negative reinforcement. Let me assure you that Amish training is much uglier than e-training and is no less harsh on the dogs.

[dogpaw]

Originally Posted by jimboburnsy

It's physically impossible for the miniscule amount of current delivered by an electronic collar to produce burns on the skin. Sorry.

I'm a liar? Maybe the collars have improved, this was quite a few years ago.

[kronenborg]

i used a shock-type bark collar on my 4 1/2 year old rescue weimaraner who used to bark himself into a frenzy every night, nearly all night.

i did feel bad before i actually used it, but the simple fact is that it takes so few shocks for the dog to learn not to bark, that any distress experienced (and i have to say, i witnessed no visible distress), was done with almost immediately. he barked twice, or perhaps three times the first time the collar was on, and never again while wearing the collar. it took maybe 2 weeks of wearing the collar at night before we got rid of it entirely, and he is now calm when we put him down, and sleeps all night without ever barking.

from what i have read and heard in speaking to others, this is a fairly typical course of events. furthermore, the particular collar i bought starts off with a very low intensity shock, and increases if the dog doesnt stop barking, so the two or three shocks my weim experienced would have been on the low side.

im not trying to say i feel good about it, and i dont expect most people who have used shock collars do, but in my opinion any distress caused is minimal, is likely to only occur on a couple of occasions, and corrects nuisance barking remarkably quickly. yes, there are other methods which im sure will achieve the same effect, but i know that my dog seemed to be a much happier fellow after calming down and getting a good night's sleep every night with no barking.

bottom line, i personally dont think there is an absolute right or wrong. but make no mistake, shock collars do work, and very, very quickly.

[grannynancy]

It seems like everyone who has actually used them has not reported adverse impacts to their dogs. I have never seen [as one poster said] redirected agression due to the bark collar either. That CAN be an issue when using high stim techniques with an ecollar while a dog is in drive ..... most modern methods of ecollar training use a combination of low stim, almost at the threshold of detection by the dog, and proper timing.

I know for my male who "guards" his vehicle - it actually allowed him to relax and calm.

Does anyone who has such strong negative reactions to these collars have any experience with decent quality [dogtra, tritronics, even petsafe] collars manufactured in the past few years?

How about actual experience even using them?

I don't see anyone on the board who HAS used them [or electronic collars] saying how bad they were for their dogs.

I would rather help someone find a quality bark collar than shut this down and then they go to walmart and buy some junk thing that or may not have appropriate stimulation levels. I still believe, to a dog with their sensitive sense of smell, Citronella is far more abusive than a mild zing. Yes, been there, tried that just as I have tried a pinch collar on my leg....

[jimboburnsy]

Originally Posted by dogpaw

I'm a liar? Maybe the collars have improved, this was quite a few years ago.

I'm not saying "LIAR", I'm saying that whatever you saw could not have been electrode burns. If you're talking about "1970's" when you say "quite a few years ago", maybe... I wouldn't really know.