Bark Collars?
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Bark Collars?
Does anyone have any experience with these? I was at Walmart last week and my phone rang. DH said "Go to a pet store and buy a bark collar, please." So I went to the pet section and called him back. I said "They have them here but they are $50 are you sure you want to do this?"
The money is not the issue for me. It just doesn't seem right. I bought one and brought it home and it sat on the counter for the past week. Today DH got it out of the package and put it on. I feel so sorry for my doggie. I hate it when she barks excessively. She's an outdoor doggy, she spends the entire day outside and loves it. But at times she does bark, when kids walk to and from school and in the evenings when people are out walking their dogs.
DH does not want to irritate the neighbours. I find when the dog is barking too much I let her in the house. Simple to me.
Anyway I bought the shock collar, it gives a little zap everytime she barks. He put it on her tonight and it works. When we were in obidence training the trainer advised never to use citronella collars (they spray a mist of citronella into the dog's nose). He said they were cruel and that if you were going to put one on your dog you should try it on yourself first. A dog's nose is hundreds of times more sensitive than a humans. So I opted for the zapper.
I'm just wondering if anyone here has any experience with these types of collars and if they work in the long term. I really don't want to train my dog not to bark. Dogs bark that's what they do. I think DH wants me to use it during the day while he's at work, but I won't. I'm hoping he'll just forget about it eventually.
I am not sure if I really feel one way or the other about it, but I say if your going to use it, you need to use it. I think it would be more hurtful for the dog to sometimes get the shock and sometimes not. I think if you use it all the time, the dog will learn faster. Just seems mean to me to have it on sometimes and then not. The dog will get used to barking and being fine and then all of a sudden get the shock for doing the same thing.....
My electric fence had a beep only option. So once she was trained, we had it on beep only. When you train a dog to those fences you literally walk the fence line with them, get them close to where the warning beep is and then pull back at the beep and say "no". We did this daily for a week and we were set. One time during that week, about day 4 she tested it, got a shock, and she never tested again (at least not that I saw). So I would think the bark collar would work similarly, they are allowed to bark once or twice, but then does it beep first, then another bark gets a shock. Dogs are smart, she will catch on fast.
All dogs are different though, we had a neighbor with the same fence, at least once a month I would see their dog "charge" their fence, they had it set high enough it would literally knock him to the ground (big german sheppard). I never really thought of this as cruel because when he was charging, he was usually chasing something like a small kid. I think it was a pretty scary dog and I would of rathered not have it in the neighborhood, but certainly was pleased they took it seriously.
I think they have their place in training a dog, but I agree with you. I think they border on cruelty. Dogs bark. And there are times that you WANT them to bark. What if your DK's were outside with the dog and someone came in the yard? What if she were in in the evening (I hope she sleeps inside at night), and there were a fire or an intruder? Dogs have been known to save people's lives by their barking. It's like punishing them for something that is their nature.
The reason I said that I hope she sleeps in at night is because most places don't have noise ordinances during the day, but they do at night. Here it is 11:00PM. Also, I just don't think that animals should be outside 24/7. They are social creatures and need our company. Dogs, especially, are pack animals and are used to living in a pack with other dogs. Since we have domesticated them, WE have become their pack. That's why a dog will struggle to attain the Alpha position, either with us or with other dogs in the household.
I have seen zap collars work very well for training purposes. One of my best friends is an animal control officer for our town. She has raised two golden retriever puppies in the past three years. One of them liked to jump up on people and "hug" them, or "mouth" thier arms. I didn't mind when I visited her, but she wanted to break her of it. She got a zap collar and it didn't take very long at all. Everytime she jumped on a visitor, she got a zap. After a week or two, all she had to do was SEE the remote control and she would stay down.
If we are all going to be gone all day, we have a kennel that we put our dogs in in the good weather, but only during the day, and they have insulated dog houses in them. Our Brittany Spaniel is a real big mouth and barks because he thinks he is missing something. Our neighbor (who has two dogs himself) has complained about their barking, under the guise of "inquiring" if they are "okay". We let them in as soon as we get home, around 5:00PM. However, my son-in-law, who is a police officer in our town, and an animal lover, says that he really doesn't have the basis of a complaint until after 11:00PM. They are never out there at that time.
Children are noisy at play, too, but who wouldn't want to hear the laughter of children? I would rather hear dogs and kids than lawn mowers, leaf blowers, chain saws, and other forms of noise polution. JMO.
The bark collar is not my idea and I don't really agree with it, but I'm letting DH take the lead for a few reasons. The barking irritates him and I want to at least keep an open mind. I'm not going to put the collar on her during the day when he is away. Let me just say that DH is not consistant with things, he will try something once or twice and then it usually ends up being too much trouble and that's the end of it or he will forgot about it until the next time she barks a lot. So I'll just be patient for a few days.
Hol, I have a Great Pyrenes/Golden Retiever cross and yes she likes to be around us and is a pack animal BUT she LOVES to be outside. Stuck in the house with me and two little children that want to pull her tail and chase her around the house is fine for 20 minutes but after that she's asking, no begging for the door. No she does not sleep outside at night. I let her in during the day when the kids are sleeping so she can sit at my feet while I'm at the computer and no one is tapping on her nose. We also let her in if the weather is bad, if she asks for the door and during the evenings when we are all settled. Even though she's a big stinky dog she sleeps at the foot of our bed. She has playtime with the munchies which she also loves, once they are in bed she snorts and snores on the living room floor. She is very much apart of our family. She is just used to being outstide all day long. She often lays on the deck and peeks in at us, but is content to be outide, happy as long as she can see us. So don't worry she's not freezing her butt off outside, in fact I ususally keep her inside more in the summer than in the winter because the heat is a lot harder on her than the cold. She is a herding/guard dog, bread for the outdoors.
I'm hoping the bark collar is just a passing thing and will be bye, bye in a few days.
Scott was talking about this collar recently, as something that happened at a place he used to work. He said they are not allowed in Lab Animal Medicine. The story he told is that one of the supervisors at a lab where he used to work wanted to use them (before they were banned), and while he was explaining how they worked, he had his fingers on the electrodes. Scott made a large bark, and the guy got a shock severe enough that he dropped the collar.
I don't like people who leave their dogs outside barking for hours at a time. But if you bring her in when she's barking, I don't see the problem. Dogs bark. Fact of life.
I do agree, it is almost certainly confusing the dog if she gets a shock when she barks sometimes, and not other times. That makes the shock confusing because she doesn't know why she is getting it. I think you should be consistent - either use it all the time or not at all. I think you need to talk to your dh about how you feel about this, and ask him how he'd feel if someone wanted to put such a collar on a kid who did a lot of yelling. He will, of course, say "that's different", but personally, I don't think it is. The principal is the same - hurting an animal (or a person) for doing something that is natural.
I do not think I would ever use a bark collar. When any of my dogs start barking too much outside, they are immediately brought in. I do not want any neighbors complaining about us. My dogs are inside dogs, and I have one who barks at EVERYTHING..people walking by, the mailman,etc..it gets annoying, even to me. I find if I shut the blinds when she is starting to bark, it helps. Dogs bark, plain and simple. Humans talk, dogs bark.
I think your dh is very considerate of the neighbors. I absolutely cannot stand to listen to dogs bark for 5 minutes. I don't mind if they bark once or twice, because someones walking down the street, but a lot of people will just let them bark and 5 minutes of non stop barking is enough to drive non-dog owners/lovers crazy.
Coming from someone who does not have a dog but has the "pleasure" of listening to the 2 dogs who live behind us bark literally day in and day out, I don't see anything wrong with the collars if you are not going to let the dog in! These 2 dogs will bark for hours non-stop. The people are not receptive to anyone saying anything, one neighbor had the door closed in their face. So, we just call our non-emergency number every week. If the dogs barked and after 5 minutes were let in, it wouldn't bother me. We have literally heard one of these dogs stand outside and bark for 6 hours at a stretch! With the family home! So, if people were responsible and let the dog in or attended to it's needs after 5-10 minutes maybe I wouldn't feel so strongly about barking dogs. I should buys collars for these 2 dogs and "Secret Santa" them :-)
Sarah, I think we have the same neighbor - except mine has at least 3 dogs. We had to start calling the pd every day about it.
My husband was holding the collar once and got shocked (walked over the fence line), it really wasn't bad. But it depends on the strength. Honestly for me I look at it like swatting your dog when it gets in trouble. The difference is the collar is consistent. It does not shock your dog every time it barks, it shocks your dog if it barks for more than a certain amount of time. It is okay for it to bark, just not go crazy for 5 minutes.
My dog is indoors most of the time, on beautiful days she picks to be outside when I am not home. However even when I am home and let her out, she goes nuts about the back neighbors, she just can't take that they have a pool and kids, it is annoying and I can't break her of it. She will go out run the fence line and go nuts for over five minutes, then go potty then come back in. We tried leashing her and she wouldn't potty. We have considered a bark collar for that behavior.
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