bark collars - Page 2

thanks, folks.  i was leaning toward tri tronics and am glad to hear that they work.

pjp

I know you didn't ask about this but I wanted to throw it out there. There is a small unit that looks like the old transistor radios (did that date me or what?) and when the dog barks it lets out an ear piercing shriek.  I was going to get a bark collar for when my one year old is in the kennel which is when he does the nuisance barking. It has worked really well. 

I can fake him out by putting in the same place when it's on or off. I started out with it on all the time and then sometimes off sometimes on. Now he rarely barks at all in the kennel. The drawbacks are that they are geographically specific as I doubt they'd work for more than a couple hundred feet away and they have to be kept dry.

I have a friend who has had luck with the citronella collars for the most part. And I've talked to people who use the Tri Tronics collars and they say Tri Tronics are the most durable.

Couldn't afford the Tri-tronics (the bark odometer would be neat)  but I have had good luck with the Innotek no bark collar.  (or as I like to call it the collar of blessed silence)

Why are these dogs barking so much are they bored or not enough excercise or something or some one bothering them or what?.these things do not work on every dog.

Some dogs are just noisier than others.  One of mine hardly ever barks and when he does you know something is wrong.  I've got another that yodeles just for living.  She barks with joy when she goes for a walk and when she comes back, when you let her in, and when you let her out.

 I also have one who barks at my neigbours cat who insists on sitting just out of reach for hours on end - something that is quite natural for a dog but can be extremely irritating.  I am lucky as I have a very high powered water pistol which gets her, however that doesnt work if Im out.

So please dont assume all dogs bark through bordem. 

There is always a reason why a dog would bark some might be mentally not all there but always areason.

 I have used both Dogstra and Tri Tronics bark collars.  My bitch only had to have the collar on, not even turned on, and she kept quiet...unless there was really something to bark about--NOT squirrels taunting her, teenagers next door trhowing stuff over the fence, etc.  

I use the TriTronics because I like the idea of an odometer.  I had rotten neighbors who complained about the barking dogs.  So, I wanted the odometer to document how much barking was actually going on, as other neighbors told me that they did not hear an excessive amount of barking. 

Fortunately for me, the rotten neighbors made one of their bogus calls to complain about barking dogs  when the dogs were not there!!  They were boarded for a week because I was out of town.  Animal control was in my driveway because of the complaints and the idiots made another call right then.  Well...  the animal control guy knew he heard nothing.  He went into the backyard, and saw that there were no dogs.  He called these idiots and asked about the barking.  They told him that the dogs were still barking and had been non-stop for hours.    The result:  the rotten neighbors were issued a letter advising them that making false charges were criminal acts and that Animal Control viewed the issue as a "people problem" and they needed to cease and desist!!    I have not heard a word since.  But, I kept a log of the times the odometer was activated for several months, just in case.   I don't care who you are, a gsd barking 2-8 times a day does not constitute a problem.

update^^^

i finally decided on tri tronics rechargeable.  i bought 2 of them, thinking i would try them on my 2 worst barkers and if i needed more i would get them.  i will be buying more of them.  they work.  they are a god-send.  not only do they keep the dogs quiet, but they also help to cut down on the aggression caused by passing in front of each other's crates and kennels.

no, the dogs won't be wearing them all the time.  no, i won't allow them to burrow into the skin.  no, i won't abuse the dogs with overuse.  i was beginning to worry that my neighbors my do something awful to my dogs if we didn't establish some quiet around here.  yelling doesn't work - besides that we can't be here 24/7 to yell at them. 

also, it seems that just reducing the number of barking dogs keeps all of them quieter.  they tend to keep each other barking.  so far, i'm pretty impressed.  i'm not wild about using electronics on dogs, but i don't want to come home to find they have been poisoned either.

pjp

I use the Dogtra YS-300 on all of them. They advertise for the medium to small breeds but have worked great on our drivy bitches, Once they figured the collar out, no setting above about 2 or 3. Not overly tight and haven't had neck sores for months. The YS-500 were too heavy and I think that is part of why the necks were getting sores.