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I had a really bad experience with anti-bark shock collars nearly ten years ago. My last dog was extremely stubborn and while the collar deterred his barking for the first few days, he did what the enclosed instructions stated he might do and became 'bark happy' during the second week to 'test' the boundaries of his training. Well, the instructions advise that you remain consistent and continue use of the collar during the 'test' phase, which I tried to do but I eventually gave in and trashed the collar when he started to develop sores on his neck. I then tried the citronella spray collar, but he was also one of those dogs who learned that if he laid down and turned his head to the side he could bark non-stop to 'empty' the cartridge completely, freeing him to then bark as he pleased. Gosh he was a pain in my butt!! Miss that lil guy :).
Now my new pup has been a lot easier to train overall and he knows he's not supposed to bark when you're in the room. If he does start barking, a firm 'No' or a loud hand clap is often enough to stop him however, if I'm upstairs or out of the house he immediately jumps onto the back of the sofa to bark out the window at all the other neighborhood dogs, who love to bark right back. As soon as you re-enter the room or he hears you coming, he'll immediately dive for his dog bed and sit there prim and proper as if he'd been sitting there all along. The first day I put this collar on him, I stepped outside to give it a quick test and instead of the non-stop barking I'm accustomed to hearing as soon as the door closes, I heard one bark then silence. I immediately went inside to make sure my lil' buddy wasn't too traumatized from the experience but he just sat there with a 'nothing unusual going on here' look on his face, followed me to the kitchen for a little treat, and has not barked again since. Because he's not as defiant as my last dog and he seemed to respond so very well from just one corrective response, I have high hopes that this collar will get the job done.
It seems to me as if they've made a lot of improvements from the shock collars I remember years ago. One of my concerns was that my dog is a very itchy lil fellow (no fleas, allergies or mites he just likes to 'scratch, scratch, scratch' a few times a day) and the older collars would send a shock from any type of vibration it interpreted to be a bark. My last dogs collar would sometimes go off if you tapped your nails on it or bumped it into something. This collar claims to use 'the most reliable bark detection available' in that it uses both vibration and sound sensors to discriminate each bark from other external noises. Static correction is only administered if both the vibration from the vocal chords and the sound from the bark match the same criteria. So far, so good I have not observed any instance of the collar going off from his play time or his personal 'scratching' time.
I also like that the collar has built in software that tracks the number of corrections needed to reduce and eliminate the number of nuisance barks. There are 10 levels of static correction and the software will increase or decrease the correction intensity as needed (it goes into greater detail of how this works in the manual).
And lastly, I appreciate the built-in safety feature ensures that the collar will automatically shut off for 3 minutes if your dog barks 15 times or more within a 1 minute and 20 second period. I've heard some dog's initial reaction to the corrective measure might be to 'yelp' and that could create an ongoing cycle of corrective feedback for the wrong behavior. You're trying to stop nuisance barking, not correct them for being too startled to make the connection that they need to stop barking. Perhaps this would also minimize the potential of sores from developing as they had with my last dog who would bark 8 hours straight without even so much as a flinch to the static response he was receiving.
One concern I do have is that the collar will retain the correction level for your dog, even after the collar has been turned off (which you're supposed to do whenever it's not in use to prolong battery life). If you have multiple dogs, make sure you're using the same collar on the same dogs each time. Page 7 of the instruction manual explains how you can also reset the Correction Level back to 1. I would recommend doing this even if you think the collar is brand new because you never know if it had somehow been returned/previously used.
On a final note Model PBC00-10782 is the same collar but is marketed as the "comfort fit" version. It has a rubber/plastic collar as opposed to the nylon collar but many of the reviews indicate that the firm shape of the collar makes it very difficult to size it properly around their dogs neck especially with smaller breeds. I don't know why it would be considered a more comfortable collar... it just looks like it would be uncomfortable! The nylon collar is the one I have and is the one I'm writing the review for Model PBC00-12726. My dog is a 7.5 lbs male shihtzu and it fits him perfectly, no problems.
Overall, I would definitely recommend this training collar but I wouldn't expect it to be a one size fits all solution. No one training method will work 100% of the time but this has definitely been working well for me and my dog.
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*******Update*******
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Well, the lil fella did eventually 'test' the boundaries of his collar and I'm glad to say that it still continues to deter him from barking. I would never laugh at the discomfort of my pet but I have to admit his little experiment cracked me up. He sat down right smack in the middle of the living room and made one very loud "Brrrufffff!". Wasn't barking at me or at anything in particular, just to himself. There wasn't a wimper or any outward appearance of discomfort and after a moment passed, he let out a second loud "Brrrufffff!". This time, no wimper, but you could see he was really bracing himself when he let out his third and final "Brrrruffff!" and his little legs flew right out from under him. He just picked himself right up like nothing had happened and walked into the kitchen to eat his dinner, lol.
I'm also excited to comment on how much more well behaved my lil guy is "overall" since I've introduced this collar to him. It's like night and day. He's still fun and playful but he no longer mouths hands or growls during play time, he's far more 'attentive' during training, he stays 'nearly' perfectly still during grooming (before he'd try and bite/play with the brush or refused to lay on his back so I could brush out his chest), he no longer "hugs" house guests and he spends more time just sitting with me on my lap like the lap dog I had hoped for :). I'm certain that this is a direct result of him no longer barking (maybe barking at the neighborhood dogs was show of aggression that in turn spilled over to his behavior?) and not something else as I haven't changed any of his other routines (feedings, walks, grooming, play time, etc). This has been an outstanding purchase for me and I couldn't be happier. I would however like to eventually wean him off this collar so that we're not dependant on it. Not sure how to go about that so if anyone has any suggestions, I would love to hear from you!
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*******Update 6/4/2012*******
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As if this review wasn't long enough, but I thought this would be extremely helpful information to share. About three months ago it seemed my bark collar was no longer 'working', at least not quite as well. My lil' fella started barking again when I wasn't in the room, though not as much as he would with the collar off. I noted the few times he would bark while I was in the room, the red indicator light on his collar was not going off even though the battery light was still flashing green. I first tried trimming his neck hair very short but it made no difference. Last week I finally broke down and bought a replacement battery thinking that maybe it was getting weak although the green light was still flashing and again, no improvement. I was a bit upset thinking I'd have to purchase a new collar altogether because it seemed that this one was now defective but I then noticed something I hadn't before... the device was no longer completely centered on my dogs neck like it had been when I first started using it. It hung off the center of my dogs neck to the left by about one inch. I tried making it more snug to get it to stay centered but it would still move 'off center' once he started to move about and making it more snug seemed unreasonable. I then tried loosening it up quite a bit more thinking it might 'hang' better around his neck but even then it would end up off center. I finally thought to readjust the placement of the buckle that you use to adjust the collar size (over time, I had resized the collar several times to accommodate his longer and then shorter coats between groomings and the buckle migrated closer and closer to the device itself if that makes any sense). Apparently, the buckle has just enough weight to affect where the device falls on your dogs neck at least on a small dog it does. It took a lot of fussing with but I eventually found a sweet spot, which for my dog, falls some place between the device itself and a bit closer to the latch that locks the collar together. Now the device hangs perfectly center on his neck once more and is working like it had when I first started using it. On a plus side, I now have two batteries... Hopefully I'll save someone else the frustration and expense of a new battery or worse, a new collar!
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We tried spraying bark collars and ultrasonic bark busters. They both worked at suppressing our little terrier's bark urges for a short time until he learned to ignore them. The spray collar needed to be refilled daily and the batteries only lasted a few weeks. Eventually it didn't stop him from barking. The ultrasonic device was completely ignored after a few weeks.We then tried a larger 6v shock collar that was just too painful for him. Then we tried this little 3v collar and it works great.
Pro: The dog doesn't bark much any more and he doesn't scream in pain when corrected.
Cons: The on/off switch is a little cumbersome to use and the batteries are not rechargeable but they have not needed to be replaced yet after using it for two months.
It is the best bark control device for a small dog that I have found.
