# No-Bark Collars?



## Charmed

My experience has been that the spray no bark collars work well with some dogs. If your dog is determined to bark and stubborn, like a terrier, it probably won't help. The people I knew that used the collars always used them outdoors. I wonder if the smell would "stick around" indoors. If your dog doesn't respond well to the spray collar, you might try the indoor ultrasonic no bark birdhouses. They seem to deter the more determined barkers, but can also be set off by any loud noise nearby. Some dogs are nervous with these devices, others are fine. They just hang in a room, as opposed to having a collar on your dog. Probably the worst complaint about the spray collar (assuming it worked for their dog) was that the spray cans have to be replaced frequently if your dog does a lot of single barks.


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## nifty

Thank you for the reply, Charmed. I also considered the sonic ones, but ruled them out because of all the regular noise here in the city and in my building. 

I think one of these collars might be a useful tool for Dulcie. Reading the reviews, it seems that many dogs "get it" quite quickly and the owners then often switch them off or only use them on occasion and the dog connects the collar to the no-barking times. This might work for me as I don't have concerns out on the street or at parks, for example. Dulce doesn't even bark at squirrels or anything really outdoors. She USED to bark like a dancing fool at the dog park when trying to engage other dogs in play - however, after a couple of months absence from the park and more controlled socializing in other places, plus fetch training, she seems to have completely switched gears on that. Now she only barks occasionally at the dog park (i.e. to warn off an overly aggressive dog with one short bark- a rare occurrence).

I have a feeling that combined with my training attempts, we may be able to use it for a short while until she gets the idea and then can use it or not after as needed.


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## patk

nifty, somewhere in another thread, several people described the "get up and look, then tell the dog it's okay" method to deal with barking. could work with dulcie, too.


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## CharismaticMillie

Didn't work for my dogs!


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## nifty

Thanks patk - yes, I read that a while ago and I have been dong that consistently all along. It doesn't seem to work all the time for Dulcie. It works for a few things (like noises in the hall which I did that in the early days and she now ignores most of them as I said upthread) and yet for the neighbor's door and these random I-don't-know-what triggers that set her off, there just doesn't seem to be any reassuring her. I go to the window or door, I look, I yawn, I say Its Ok - I scritch her neck. And then she swings around and continues to bark.

Well, I ordered the collar. It wasn't too expensive so I figure it is worth a try. Dulce is a quick learner, so maybe it will help her with this, combined with my calming signals etc and maybe after a while, she will just settle down with that. I don't want to inhibit her barking completely because sometimes it is quite helpful. But there needs to be less of it. LOL


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## Poodlebeguiled

> We followed all instructions, put the collars on our two dogs (a English Springer Spaniel, and a Jack Russell Terrier), as tightly as recommended, and without other collars to interfere, and then observed. First thing to happen: the Springer shook his head to get used to the collar. The vibration, or maybe the noise of his ears flopping, set off the collar and it sprayed him in the face. Second thing to happen: the Jack Russell licked her paws, and made a swallowing noise, which set off the collar, and sprayed her in the face. The Springer then did bark at someone on the road, and the collar sprayed him, which was good, but the citronella made him sneeze, and each sneeze elicited another spray from the collar, in an endless loop: sneeze, spray, sneeze, spray, sneeze, spray. I finally took the collars off both dogs, and planned to return them.
> 
> Before returning them, I called the manufacturer and explained the problems I was having with the collars, to see if there was something I was doing wrong. The woman I talked to verified I had the latest model of the collar (I do) and then said she didn't have any troubleshooting tips, and recommended I return the collar.
> 
> I just went to return the collar, and Amazon will not accept it, since it is a "hazardous or flammable material." I haven't yet resolved this, but plan on trying to call and talk to an actual person at Amazon.com to see if I can get a refund of any kind.


Amazon.com: Customer Reviews: PetSafe Gentle Spray Anti-Bark Collar




I've heard of these things occasionally picking up the barking of other dogs and then spraying the dog in the face when he wasn't doing anything. That could really cause some serious neurosis.

It doesn't teach the dog in what situations barking is appropriate. It just stops them from vocalizing or communicating.

To get to the root of the inappropriate barking is to remove his reason for barking in the first place. It might be from boredom, loneliness, anxiety, attention seeking, alerting etc.

I think anything unpleasant, scary, painful etc runs a big risk of causing detrimental psychological ramifications. This imo is not humane, albeit probably better than a shock collar. If it weren't a punishing thing...unpleasant, uncomfortable, painful it wouldn't stop the behavior. Something can't be neutral and change behavior. Citronella will linger in the mucus membranes of the nose, eyes, mouth and cause a burning sensation after the barking has stopped. I wouldn't do that to my dog. I wouldn't spray it in a baby's face to stop him from crying or whining or having a tantrum. I think anyone who uses anything like this on their dog ought to try it first on themselves...spray it in your face and see how it feels, how long it lasts. I just don't think punishment has any place in training. jmo. 

My preference for a no bark training method is Jean Donaldson's in Culture Clash. I used it for my Chihuahuas years ago and it worked well. And they were top notch barkers. I haven't been working with these dogs as much in that department.

Anyhow, not sure how much research you've done but just be careful.


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## Tiny Poodles

I don't have that problem with my current girls, but in the past I found both the spray and ultrasonic collars ineffective.
As an apartment dweller I found that the best things were to have plenty of rugs because that muffles sound, put up some kind of barrier to keep the dogs from going to the front door to listen for noises, and when I go out leave a radio on at a good volume so that they don't hear outside noises to respond to.
And best of all I learned to ask my breeder for a dog who is non-reactive, and that I got - Timi did not make a sound even when I had guys comes come in numerous times for repairs this weekend


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## CharismaticMillie

Poodlebeguiled said:


> Amazon.com: Customer Reviews: PetSafe Gentle Spray Anti-Bark Collar
> 
> 
> 
> 
> I've heard of these things occasionally picking up the barking of other dogs and then spraying the dog in the face when he wasn't doing anything.


That happened a lot when I used them. Even a loud non barking noise will set them off sometimes. The other thing I found is that while my dogs were initially somewhat surprised or offended by the citronella spray, they quickly decided they didn't care. It really didn't work at all and I'd have been happy to have sent mine to the OP for free. LOL. My dogs will not hesitate to bark all the while being sprayed in the face with citronella. Which incidentally leads to pretty bad eye irritation. 

I do have a few bark collars that deliver a shock. These work much better. I very, very rarely use a bark collar, but there are some occasions when it's necessary. My dogs bark because they are dogs, and they need to not bark because we have neighbors.


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## ericwd9

It is possible to get a "bark collar" that has both a shock and a vibrator (like a cell phone) Use the shock once or twice, then switch to vibrate. The shock curbs the bark and the vibrator is similar to the dog but less stimulating. I have taught grace the half/whisper bark. this is how she talks to me to tell me there are people walking past on the beach etc. When there is clear and present danger or in play, I encourage her to bark loudly.
Eric


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## Viking Queen

I used to work at a pet store where we sold the citronella collars. We had the vast majority of them returned to us due to the dogs either having eye or lung irritations from the spray. Most of the dogs did not stop their barking either, just became miserable due to the spray. Eventually we quit selling them due to the high rate of return and out of concern for doggie welfare.

Used properly, the collar which Eric described, does work quite well.

Best of luck. Viking Queen


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## nifty

Thank you all for the replies!

Hmm, with these perspectives, I am thinking this type of collar is not something I want to use with Dulcie. When it arrives, I will send it back unopened.

Would you believe it? After posting this and ordering the collar, my neighbor came and went several times and Dulcie did not even lift her head! Maybe she heard me thinking about a bark collar. LOL!

BTW, I just wanted to say again, that Dulcie is not in fact a particularly reactive dog at all. Most noises in the hallway (and there are a lot - vacuum cleaners, baby crying, painters etc) she ignored completely. We also have a lot of street noise - we are on the regular pathway of the local fire department and Ambulances - no reaction from Dulcie. The only thing that seemed to be disrupting her zenlike peace was the directly across the hall neighbor's door - and now we have had a couple of times without any reaction at all, so perhaps I jumped the gun a little bit here.


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## Chagall's mom

nifty said:


> ...Hmm, with these perspectives, I am thinking this type of collar is not something I want to use with Dulcie. When it arrives, I will send it back unopened.


:clap2: I think that's a good decision!


nifty said:


> Would you believe it? After posting this and ordering the collar, my neighbor came and went several times and Dulcie did not even lift her head! Maybe she heard me thinking about a bark collar. LOL!


:thumb: That's just plain nifty!



nifty said:


> ...that Dulcie is not in fact a particularly reactive dog at all. Most noises in the hallway (and there are a lot - vacuum cleaners, baby crying, painters etc) she ignored completely. We also have a lot of street noise - we are on the regular pathway of the local fire department and Ambulances - no reaction from Dulcie. The only thing that seemed to be disrupting her zenlike peace was the directly across the hall neighbor's door - and now we have had a couple of times without any reaction at all, so perhaps I jumped the gun a little bit here.


 Dulcie sounds like the ideal neighbor to me!


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## Poodlebeguiled

I think that's smart. No sense risking fear or distrust in your sweet doggie. Best to err on the side of caution. Good choice. I posted a really cool website in this training forum called Clicker Solutions...it's full of lots of good articles. There's a neat one on bark training. Lots of those trainers/behaviorists I recognize and have read their books and whatnot. Some I don't know. But it's a large collection of mostly good stuff.


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## maryano

It really depends on how you raised the dog. If it has grown accustomed to barking and you just bought a no-bark collar, then you're going to have quite a difficult time to change his/her routine.


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## all that jazz

No matter what I tried I couldn't get Zoe to stop barking. I had her in training, I did multiple strategies too long to get in to. Ultimately I put the citronella collar on her when she goes out in the yard. (No problem on the walk). It works. She knows not to bark with it on so she is not continuously getting sprayed. She is now conditioned that when it is on she doesn't bark. When it is off however, she starts barking again. I needed to use it my eldery neighbor complained it was affecting his heart condition. And I have to admit it was annoying to me too.


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## patk

kind of wondering if at this point the citronella collar without the citronella in it (or just a tiny bit so there's still some odor) would work. or even filling it with water and a bit of citronella so she can feel the weight and detect the odor.


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